A New Frontier?
The Inquirer reports that desktop chip sales are expected to remain near-static while the sale of notebook chips are expected to boom.
From the far more informal and limited feedback I get from the Joe (well maybe more the Josephines in my case) Sixpacks in my life, this seems to be quite correct. I’m hearing “I want a notebook” even when there’s no terribly good reason for them to want one.
The Inquirer article points out that it is estimated that notebook systems will outsell desktop systems by 2009.
Hmmm, I feel a chill in the air. Is this how the dinosaurs felt?
One can easily point to changes coming: Intel bringing notebook chips to the desktop for instance.
Thinking within a notebook paradigm changes one’s view on a lot of things. Heat, for instance.
It’s very easy to be cavalier about excessive heat when the furnace is in some box on the floor. It gets a lot more upfront and personal when the furnace is in your lap.
Well, at least the media will finally be right: overclocking will become dangerous. 🙂
Copper undergarments, anyone?
I rule in advance: if you hook up a Peltier or phase-lock locking not only in your computer, but your shorts, you’re hardcore, and probably hard (as in frozen), too.
I wonder what the liquid nitrogen folks are going to do?
Enough Frivolity
All joking aside, notebook overclocking would seem to be a New World for us.
Given current speeds and prices, there would be much more economic reason to overclock notebook chips than there is for desktop CPUs, and you need not get to the point of mascochistic laptop dancing to derive real benefit from it.
First, Is There Anybody Out There Already?
OK, this is new to me. Is anybody out there ahead of the curve?
Granted, practically all notebooks are built by OEMs and aren’t designed to be overclocked, but then most desktops are built by OEMs to not be overclockable, and somehow we’re nonetheless here.
Then again, we now have a variety of ways to overclock through software. Have any of these been tried with notebooks. Has anyone who writes such wonderful programs taken a look at the possibilities?
Speaking from blissful ignorance, it would seem to me that if a notebook could handle multiple FSBs, there’s at least a chance to do something.
Well, is anybody doing this, or knows of information sources about this? If you do, could you please send me a note to the email address listed below only so I could compile them for a future article?
Why Not DIY?
Obviously, most overclockers make sure their machines are overclockable by putting a desktop machine together themselves with overclocking-friendly equipment.
I recall hearing occasional mumbles about the same happening in the notebook field, but again, I’m essentially clueless. Does anybody know better than me about this?
Even if this isn’t a realistic possibility yet, there’s no reason to think that that will remain the case forever, or even very long. Notebooks are a good deal more standardized and less proprietary than in the past. They’re more amenable to upgrades. Most importantly, they’re cheaper, so the risk of failure isn’t as harrowing as it might have been in the past.
Given all that, it would be more surprising if a DIY market didn’t open up in the next few years than if it did. There’s already efforts to build “gaming notebooks,” so we’re heading in that direction already.
But again, before we start wishing for things that aren’t there, let’s see what is there first.
If you can add to a very shallow pool of knowledge, or are just very interested in the idea, send me a note to the email address below.
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