Help! First time overclock a processor!

[rainingwalker]

Hi, everyone! Recently, I bought a new laptop Alienware M17x, which carries a QX9300, and I always want to overclock its PSB to 333MHz and make it runs synchronized with the DDR3 1333MHz memory. The thing is I haven't overclocked any laptop before, this machine cost me $5789 and I do realize some risks are there, so my questions are:

1. How badly the damage will be if I overclock it like that? (eg😱verheating, motherboard burned out or reducing useful life?)

2. Can I always remain the processor overclocked for long time? Let's say for years? (I will use this lappy in 4 years,to play game and do 3D modeling)


Some configurations:

CPU:QX9300(FSB,1066MHz)
RAM:8G DDR3 1333MHz SDRAM
HD: RAID0 256G(2x128)
(I'm can't find any infor. about its motherboard~)

Waiting for your kind replies, and I also appreciate other comments, thanks alot everyone! 😛


(Ps: I'm not a English speaker, so anything you don't understand, please let me know~

 

[Aneesh@4GHz]

NO man, Dont u know its the fastest laptop in the world,Dont overclock a laptop,dont u have a desktop OVERCLOCK IT!

 

[daship]

I wouldnt overclock it if you want it to last long.

 

[jsc]

Laptop hardware is not designed to be overclocked..

 

[mystoccowgod]

6k? you know can get a laptop with a desktop i7 in it for around 3k right?

 

[photonboy]

Do NOT overclock a laptop. Thermal issues are huge, not to mention if you overclock it then even in IDLE your laptop fan will be noisier. The added heat (even in idle) will increase the rate your battery wears out too.


HDTV:
I thought I'd add something many don't know and that is how to use a modern laptop to decode movies. I'm going to Copy and Paste here:

K-Lite with WMPC-HC (latest, I use standard) with DXVA enabled for supported video cards (like ATI's 3xxx and 4xxx series or NVidia's 8xxx and 9xxx). You can buy an ATI card for as little as $50 that supports hardware decoding of AVC/H.264, VC-1 and MPEG2. Thus hardware decoding of almost everything including DVD-Video, BluRay and many ripped videos.

Example:
Hellboy2 @ 1080p, MKV, AVC uses 65% of my X2-4800+ in XP and only 3% (yes, THREE PERCENT) total CPU usage with DXVA under WMPC-HC as the video is decoded by the HD3870 video card)

I use WMPC-HC for everything except DVD-Video (though i guess I could) but I use my standalone DVD player which uses 11 Watts and is silent. My CPU can decode anything but using hardware decoding via the video card minimizes fan noise.

 

[rainingwalker]

Thanks a lot guys! Thanks for stopping me from ruining my new laptop, especially photonboy, your reply is really an eye opener! I wonder why Dell sells 1333MHz memory in their new laptop, if they didn't provide any 1333MHz processor?! Well, thank you again!

 

[rainingwalker]

6k? you know can get a laptop with a desktop i7 in it for around 3k right?

Yeah, I know there are many laptops like Sager, Eurocom, they used Clevo D900C which can run i7 965 and 975, but they don't have any resellers
in my areas (China, Hongkong, Malaysia) hehe, it's hard for me to let my $5K+ machine carried by someone and traveled 20K miles.

I don't know too much about Sager, if they can cool down that beast and let it runs well, especially in the next 3 years. There are also not too many
reviews, videos or benchmarks about their NP9280, so I can hardly trust it. I have no choice but to chose lousy Dell, anyway so far my alienware runs super, I should have met you earlier mystoccowgod, thanks man! 😛

 

[photonboy]

"I wonder why Dell sells 1333MHz memory in their new laptop, if they didn't provide any 1333MHz processor?!"

I'm not quite sure what you mean. The MEMORY CONTROLLER is what you need to operate at 1333MHz to take full advantage of the RAM. The memory controller, even if integrated into a CPU is NOT the same as the CPU clock speed.

 

[rainingwalker]

"I wonder why Dell sells 1333MHz memory in their new laptop, if they didn't provide any 1333MHz processor?!"

I'm not quite sure what you mean. The MEMORY CONTROLLER is what you need to operate at 1333MHz to take full advantage of the RAM. The memory controller, even if integrated into a CPU is NOT the same as the CPU clock speed.

Oh, forgive my poor English. I mean if a 1066MHz FSB processor runs with a 1333MHz RAM, will the RAM be bottlenecked to 1066MHz by that processor? If so why Dell let their customers choose 1333MHz RAM in the M17x, you know that laptop doesn't run processors with 1333MHz FSB . (Before I guess those processors can be overclocked, but after asking you guys I understand I can't.)

Btw, does QX9300 have integrated memory controller?

Thanks again! 😀