Newbie help with overclocking Clevo W150ERQ i7-3940XM

[buckeyestargazer]

First off I apologize in advance for the completely newbie questions about all this. I have no clue what I'm doing...

I flashed Prema's bios with the intention of overclocking the CPU and GPU a little. I'm not looking for world records here just a little boost. However, after hours of searching and trying to learn about this I have come up short.

The first question I have is the most basic: can I overclock this computer/CPU? I've played around a bit with Intel Extreme Tuning Utility, but no matter what changes I make I don't see any difference in the benchmark scores, and when I upload the score to hwbot there is a message saying "This profile was made on a system which does not allow overclocking. Try to enable overclocking related options in your BIOS, or use a different motherboard. Applying downloaded profiles may not work."

So I'm guessing that there is either a hardware bottleneck that does not allow me to overclock the CPU, or some setting that I am missing.

Here is a screenshot from Intel ETU with my system information:

[Khenglish]

Can you post a screenshot of the "manual tuning" page?

[buckeyestargazer]

I don't have a manual tuning page, just a "basic tuning" and "advanced tuning". Here's a screenshot of the advanced tuning page.

[haiwepa]

First of all, yes your CPU is overclockable, it was maint for.

Then, what power is your PSU? the first barrier you will hit is probably that point.

Run some benchmarks and tell us your temperatures (CPU, GPU,...) or better some screenshots.

Finally, if you really want to try an overclock, do you see arrows around the values in the multipliers section, when you mouseover? if yes, you should be abble to increase these values.

[buckeyestargazer]

As this is a laptop, the external power supply is 19v, 6.3 amps, 120w. I know that cooling will be limited, but again I'm just looking for a little boost not extreme overclocking. Below is a screenshot of the simple benchmark with Intel ETU. Max CPU temp = 76C, max GPU was around 56C I think. There are adjustment arrows around the multipliers, but I can only adjust the multipliers lower not higher with those arrows. Perhaps I should also mention that the only other sliders I can adjust are "Turbo boost short power max", Turbo boost power max", and "Turbo boost power time window". The option for "Additional turbo voltage" is grayed out and unavailable.

[Sartek]

Is there any options in the bios for changing the multiplier?

There might be a setting in intel xtu that lets you allow overclocking but i'm unsure.

Also I think this might let you overclock as well The ThrottleStop Guide | NotebookReview

[buckeyestargazer]

I'm using Prema bios (https://biosmods.wordpress.com/) and I'm sure there probably are some settings in there for the multiplier, but they are not worded as such and I'm unfamiliar with the terminology. Thanks for the link to the throttlestop guide.

[Guest]

I'm using Prema bios (https://biosmods.wordpress.com/) and I'm sure there probably are some settings in there for the multiplier, but they are not worded as such and I'm unfamiliar with the terminology. Thanks for the link to the throttlestop guide.

Its called "X-core ratio" and in the "CPU Configuration" menu.

[buckeyestargazer]

Its called "X-core ratio" and in the "CPU Configuration" menu.

Thank you Prema, I do greatly appreciate it. You must get tired of newbies like me...

One follow up question, when I change the X-core ratio, does that apply the new settings, or does it simply enable the settings to be changed in IntelETU?

Also, is there a list or a place where all the bios nomenclature is defined so that I can see exactly what all the settings do?

[Guest]

Thank you Prema, I do greatly appreciate it. You must get tired of newbies like me...

One follow up question, when I change the X-core ratio, does that apply the new settings, or does it simply enable the settings to be changed in IntelETU?

Also, is there a list or a place where all the bios nomenclature is defined so that I can see exactly what all the settings do?

It will directly take effect, XTU is just an alternative interface.

Your best bet to get details about functions is google. I simply have to make the choice to create BIOS or Tutorials as I don't have enough time at my disposal to do both...

[buckeyestargazer]

It will directly take effect, XTU is just an alternative interface.

Understood, but at default bios settings XTU gives me no option to increase the multiplier and stays at the default 1-core 39x. When I change the bios to increase the core multiplier, then XTU shows the increased multiplier (I set it at 40x) but again it is the max and I cannot set it higher in XTU.

Your best bet to get details about functions is google. I simply have to make the choice to create BIOS or Tutorials as I don't have enough time at my disposal to do both...

Of course, completely understood. I assure you I've spent hours doing google searches on this and have come up short. No worries.

[buckeyestargazer]

Well this all might be for nothing. If I increase the multiplier in bios on even one core by just +1 I get temps in the mid 90s and thermal throttling, so unless I'm missing something I won't be able to overclock the CPU due to thermal concerns.

The multiplier cores at stock are

1 core = 39x

2 core = 38x

3 core = 37x

4 core = 37x

and as I said if I increase any one of those by just 1 it gets too hot for my comfort.

[Sartek]

You could try using better thermal paste, lapping the heatsink if its scratched up and not flat, if you have aluminium fins check if you can get a full copper heatsink, you could try undervolting it, or putting it on a laptop cooler.

[buckeyestargazer]

Thanks for the suggestions. Most of those are things I'm not willing to bother with as I don't feel it's worth the effort. However, undervolting is a possibility. How does undervolting affect the processor speed multipliers?

[buckeyestargazer]

I have searched for hours and can NOT find how to do this. I would like to undervolt my CPU. I have a Clevo W150ERQ with i7-3940XM running Prema bios. The Intel XTU doesn't give me the option to adjust voltage or to adjust multipliers for that matter. Going into bios I can increase the multiplier, but I don't see any option to undervolt. It's probably there I just don't know the terminology, but there's nothing related to CPU voltage that I can see.

Any help would be much appreciated.

[buckeyestargazer]

I have been informed that undervolting is not possible for this cpu, so I'm stuck with the stock speeds.

[Sartek]

Strange I could of sworn you could undervolt extreme cpus, The i7-4700mq apparently can.

Does your cpu heatsink have aluminium fins or copper? also the foil tape mod seems to reduce temps a few degrees also did you try benchmarking it with 100% fan? Prema mod lets me turn my fans to 100% on my p151em.

I have the i7-3630qm and It can run at max turbo 3.2ghz in throttlestop and keeps 80 degrees. It's plenty fast and actually gets bottlenecked by my 680m. Any reason why you want to overclock it past 3.8ghz on all cores? That 650m would be one of the first things I would replace if I was having performance issues.

If you have never replaced the thermal paste since you got it you might see an improvement of a few degrees, GC Extreme is cheap, fairly easy to apply and has good results, fairly sure its non conductive too.

I will look up your laptop model and let you know if I can think of anything for your model in particular.

Edit: Fn + 1 turns fan to 100% on your model with prema bios, same as mine.

I don't think you can change the gpu and after looking at the service manual I am not even sure where the gpu is located or how its cooled.

You can take a look at the service manual here http://repo.palkeo.com/clevo-mirror/W1xxER/W150ER_ESM.zip

Edit2: I'm fairly sure the nvidia gpu is built into the motherboard and uses the same heatsink as the cpu, if your able to undervolt the gpu you might get better temperatures, also look into getting a notebook cooling pad if you haven't already.

I'm curious what you use the laptop for that you want to overclock the cpu for?

Also here is a thread about that laptop, might be some useful stuff in it somewhere http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/official-clevo-w150erq-sager-np6165-owners-lounge.655834/

[buckeyestargazer]

Thanks for the info and for taking the time to look some of these things up. I was aware of much of this. But a few things:

1. I'm not a gamer, but I do a lot of video and photo editing/rendering that takes a lot of processing power. That's the main reason I was looking in to overclocking. Overclocking the GPU is fairly easy and have not had problems with the settings I have chosen. Neither overclocking or underclocking the GPU seems to have much of any effect on the CPU temps when trying to overclock the CPU.

2. The heatsink has aluminum fins.

3. I do run benchmark tests with the fan at high speed using fn+1

4. I just installed the i7-3940XM and applied Gelid extreme paste on both the CPU and GPU.

5. Yes, the GPU cannot be changed because it is built into the motherboard.

6. I'm not familiar with the foil tape mod, and at this point I'm thinking that trying to overclock the CPU is near to impossible without taking rather extreme measures that aren't worth it for me. I'm trying to be content with the stock speeds which are a large improvement over the original i7-3630QM CPU.

[Sartek]

I'm fairly sure the point of the foil mod is to use foil tape between the heatsink and the fan to better direct the airflow over the heatsink. also I noticed someone bought a separate back cover and modded an extra fan into it.

If you really need to get better temps and performance but don't want to spend more than $600-1000 or so usd look into an ivy bridge model clevo/sager with seperate gpu and cpu heatsink that supports prema bios.

the p150em I use is very upgradable and I have heard good things about the p170em, You might be able to get it cheap second hand or find a shell and add your own cpu + memory + storage and buy an mxm graphics card that works in clevo models and add that in. a suitable mxm card would be about $250 usd if you get a good deal and I'm not sure about the shell as in australia I was able to get a p150em second hand for $650 AUD.

Sorry I can't be of much more help.