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Overclocking a 1.5GHz powerbook...

invaLPsion

invaLPsion

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 2, 2004
1,385
0
The Northlands
Is there any way to overclock a powerbook using a program?

Is there any way at all?

Could you safely overclock the processor? (to 1.6 maybe?) I know someone OC'd an eMac from 1 to 1.4.
 
Do I dare ask? I see all this talk about "overclocking" with the PC world and or Mac CPUs. Would someone please tell me what the H*** it's supposed to acomplish. Is it the "Need for Speed" with someones ego or something?
 
Sparky's said:
Is it the "Need for Speed" with someones ego or something?
Click to expand...
Actually it is sounding like the penis pill spam didn't work to well, so they're having to compensate some other way.

Why else would somebody do surgery on a $2800 laptop device?
 
No software that you can run on OSX is going to over clock your laptop. If you really want it faster (and it won't go too must faster), you'll have to pull it apart and either find the multiplier for the processor or the FSB controls in hardware. Ususally you can short out or un short pins (or traces) to change these values.

Honnestly, if your even THINKING of doing this, I would suggest buying a cheap desktop and learning everything you can about overclocking on it. Overclocking x86 laptops is hard, with all the heat. Overclocking small form factor x86 is harder with all the heat.

Overclocking a small form factor PPC processor with very little knowledge of teh chip is damn near impossible. I think you have better chances of jumping off a tall building and surviving.

This is a project best left to the pro's and if you've noticed....there's not a whole lot of them doing it.

BEN
 
Most people in the PC world overclock with tower. Likewise in the Mac world, the overclocks in the G4 world are also with the tower models...how many have you heard overclocking their PBook though?

Laptops, as it is, are extremely sensitive in their thermal management. Because they take so little space, any significant changes in heat output (from overclocking) are probably going to destroy your laptop. It doesn't matter what architecture it is, laptops are not going to overclock.

If you DO want to overclock, I suggest you go with either Intel's Pentium 4 2.4Ghz (C processor, 800fsb)...or on the AMD side, now the AMD Mobile Barton (2500-M or 2400-M).

These replace the 1700+ and 2100+ traditional Thoroughbred B's. Anyway, if you need help doing AMD OCing, I can help :) Additional forum support for overclocking can be found at nforcershq.com

-edit-
Nice lil blurb on the Mobile Bartons (you can use them in desktops!)
http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Features/XP-M/index.html
 
I think we should applaud this persons ingenuity!

Surely anyone that would be so bold as to willingly sacrifice his hard earned cash that was spent on a Powerbook, is a brave soul and demands our respect.

Imagine all the engineers and designers that work at Apple struggling to make these laptops work within specific engineering specifications.
For god knows how long getting everything as best as can be created and still there are heating issues etc.

But this brave lad has the balls to just jump in and overclock his Powerbook.

Ready to risk everything for a huge 100 extra mules.
Genius, or is it that there is too much time on your hands and not enough work. Get to work and forget this nonsense!

Mac's are for working with not overclocking.
Overclocking is for the delusionary world of Windoze.

"Hey watch me make the brick fly faster and crash through that window"
 
invaLPsion said:
Is there any way to overclock a powerbook using a program?

Is there any way at all?

Could you safely overclock the processor? (to 1.6 maybe?) I know someone OC'd an eMac from 1 to 1.4.
Click to expand...
The eMac probably had a processor that supported the higher clock frequencies in it.

The Powerbook's 1.5GHz processor is running at its top rated speed. And knowing Motorola, it probably doesn't work much past that.

Also, as others have mentioned, heat disipation is a much more impotant issue for a laptop style computer.

Tell you what - if you have money to trow away playing with laptops like that, send me some money.
 
overclocking often causes data corruption and also shortens the life of a cpu. anyone who does it (especially on a new machine) is an idiot in my opinion. don't do it!
 
saabmp3 said:
No software that you can run on OSX is going to over clock your laptop.
Click to expand...

Well not 100% true, you can overclock the cache speed via programs, which is a form of overclocking. Right now my beige's cache is running at 333 mhz even though the processor only supports up to 250. Only apps that have problems handling that: photoshop 7 and ichat. Whenever I run those they crash the whole system for some reason, oh well. I use powerlogix cache director thingy to do it.

personally I think overclocking is a waste of time look at benchmarks of 1.33 ghz g4 vs 1.5 ghz and is is barely any different. So I doubt an extra few mhz would make a noticable difference. Plus you risk damaging an expensive computer.

BTW: has anyone seen benchmarks of a 1.5 ghz pbook and dual 1.42 ghz pmac, i have seen the g5 compared to it but no dual g4, it would be very interesting to see.
 
Love the posts...

LOL. Yea, I'm one damned crazy fool. heh heh! :D :eek:

Actually when the 900MHz G3 iBooks came out I was hearing something about how one person developed software to overclock the computer. The person successfully OC'd their processor to 1.1GHz from 900MHz and it ran safely.

Don't worry, boys. I won't risk the health of my new baby. ;)
 
NusuniAdmin said:
You better not!!! *ties invaLPsion up to a chair and puts handcuffs on his/her hands*
Click to expand...

while this happens, i sneak in through the back door and take the computer. and see that it is good. and there is much rejoicing. :D
 
blue&whiteman said:
overclocking often causes data corruption and also shortens the life of a cpu. anyone who does it (especially on a new machine) is an idiot in my opinion. don't do it!
Click to expand...

Wow. Sounds like somebody hasn't overclocked correctly before. I've run my computer for 2 years on these settings now. 2 years. The reason there isn't data corruption is because I took several days to test it and stress it to make sure there would be no data corruption down the road. It does not shorten the life of a cpu unless you put a ridiculous amt. of voltage through it. My cpu defaults at 1.6v; going to 1.675 is not that bad. Going to 1.85 will make a lot a heat, but is still within the limits. Going to 1.9, however, is when you begin to need Prometia, LN2, or water-cooling. Or obnoxiously loud air cooling if you can't afford the first 3 :)

Data corruption occurs only if you overclock haphazardly, e.g., if you don't know what you are doing. This is why the good people at nforcershq.com have developed exclusive FAQs for novices to read and to understand before overclocking.

For example, for my mobo alone, look at the information available:
http://nforcershq.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15496&sid=d4c7ea113678a9ac4f5f7abab2a71c45 (overall tutorials)
http://nforcershq.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=23939&faq&sid=d4c7ea113678a9ac4f5f7abab2a71c45 (specific overclocking tutorial)

And someone else said:
Grokgod said:
Mac's are for working with not overclocking.
Overclocking is for the delusionary world of Windoze.
Click to expand...
I'm sorry if your overclocking experiences were dissatisfactory. But it is not a delusionary technique. My processor began as a 2100+, operating at 1730mhz.

If I can run it at 2,133mhz just as easily, why shouldn't i? It is not dangerous if you actually know what you are doing. It is dangerous, if and only if, you are doing it for the first time and THINK you know what you are doing (newbies). That is the most dangerous part. Which is all the more reason to learn up on it at a forum like [www.nforcershq.com]
 
Will it even help you that much? My understanding is that the 1.5 ghz aren't even performing that much better than the 1.25's on xbench and barefeats. It's the system bus that's strangling everything else.
 
Hey Mav451

Looks like your talking about overclocking a AMD box, I think that we are speaking about the Mac's world of laptops where our laptops have been designed to fit within certain limits and that these laptops are highly prized item.

Not some beige box that can be replaced on the cheap and is used to play games and use AIM.

My side is that I feel that Mac's are used in the Designers community and that WORK is its main purpose and to get a paltry increase in speed is not worth the voided warrenty and problems.

Intel or AMD boxes have different specs from APPLE laptops, better ram speeds or FSB and upping the CPU may be useful with AMD although it is debatable as to how useful anything that runs Windoze is! and a Beige unit is not a laptop.

So i stand by my previous statement that WORK is far more important to accomplish than the false delusions of tinkering so prominant in the Winblows world.

Its like the the grunt that tweaks his hemi endlessly in the front yard disturbing his neighbours with false machoism, only to be stuck in traffic with the rest of us burning 4 times the fuel.

Boring.
 
Grok I already stated in one of my first posts that overclocking is for desktop towers, not laptops. I don't even think we're arguing on the same thing.

Mav451 said:
Most people in the PC world overclock with tower. Likewise in the Mac world, the overclocks in the G4 world are also with the tower models...how many have you heard overclocking their PBook though?
Click to expand...

If you want to see the performance difference between me running my 2100+ @ stock (1730mhz) and (2200mhz), here's an example:
http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content.asp?id=axp2700&page=8

Look at the 2100+, then the 2700+ (closest in clock to mine).

Another pic:
http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content.asp?id=axp2700&page=5

Who doesn't want another 10 frames in a game? When you play many of the more prominent PC game shooter titles, any gains in frames per second make for a smoother experience.
 
Bhennies said:
Will it even help you that much? My understanding is that the 1.5 ghz aren't even performing that much better than the 1.25's on xbench and barefeats. It's the system bus that's strangling everything else.
Click to expand...

That's because people have been xbenching their laptops with the energy saver set to default. Someone set their energy saver to default on a 12 inch 1.33 and got 100. Then they set it to highest performance and got 128. Big difference.
 
Because of the prominence of gaming in the PC world, overall, overclocking has always primarily been done to increase gaming performance...mainly the fps in a first person shooters (UT, UT2k4, CS, Battlefield 1942, etc.)

I mean, to be competitive, you want the smoothest experience right? If you could potentially gain 10-15fps, with a slight increase in voltage to the cpu, memory, and some small changes in the memory timings, would you hesistate to do it? (again provided you know how of course)

Many gamers, of course, would not hesitate. However, just as many gamers, also, are not risk-takers and don't see the need to. That's the beauty of having such a huge market with PC's. You benefit from niche communities. Overclockers benefit from learning from this considerably smaller tweaking community (in the PC world).

And without spending money on a new cpu. Why should you have to buy another, when you can use existing parts for more performance?

However, the benefits of these changes are not just limited to games! These changes also means that apps like Maya or Photoshop can be run faster as well.
 
wow I just got an idea. For those who understand the G4...is the G4 in the PBook a different size than the ones used in the eMac/iMac? From what I understand in the PC world, mobile versions typically run at a much lower voltage (thus, if you raise the voltage in a mobile version, you can get higher clock speed running the mobile chip in a tower)
 
Mav451 said:
wow I just got an idea. For those who understand the G4...is the G4 in the PBook a different size than the ones used in the eMac/iMac? From what I understand in the PC world, mobile versions typically run at a much lower voltage (thus, if you raise the voltage in a mobile version, you can get higher clock speed running the mobile chip in a tower)
Click to expand...

to the best of my knowledge all of the G4 chips are identical.
 
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