Overclocking / Underclocking... Options

[maslovsky]

Can you prove this? I'm just stating what I was asked to proof-read. I've seen several laptops where oveclocked cpus melted holes in the case

I don't beleieve that. Even if that happened, this only means that those laptops were poorly designed and did not provide good CPU cooling. Most likely the manufacture used desktop CPUs, which produce much more heat instead of their mobile variants, specialy designed for laptops, with low power consumption and heating.

Are you telling me that you are 100% positive that the increases heat caused by overclocking leaves absolutely no traces?

I've been overclocking my CPUs/memory/Video Cards/etc. for years. I have not trashed a single pice of hardware. Yes, you have to think and understand what you're doing.

There is also the argument that you can't tell an overclocked CPU from a badly cooled normal CPU. I think that the heat expansion will cause micro-fractures in the CPU casing that can be examined under a microscope

Come on, do you realy imagine a warranty manager poking around your laptop with a microscope

P.S. I spell-checked "dissipation" in MS Word to check I'd spelled it correctly and the thesaurus gave me the following as alternatives: debauchery, indulgence, rakishness. Is this some strange Americanisation or did I get the wrong word

Better ask Billiy

[Stubear]

Are you telling me that you are 100% positive that the increases heat caused by overclocking leaves absolutely no traces?

I've been overclocking my CPUs/memory/Video Cards/etc. for years. I have not trashed a single pice of hardware. Yes, you have to think and understand what you're doing.

You didn't answer the question - did you even bother to read it correctly? I didn't ask if you had trashed anything, in fact I never mentioned damage, I asked if you were 100% positive that overclocking leaves no traces.

I never said overclocking was bad, I've got several desktop units overclocked - one of them has been overclocked for 3 years, but I can change the cooling in a desktop - you can't do that in a laptop or pda.
Never trashed a unit due to overclocking, but have trashed a video card trying to remove the heatsink to put a better one on so I could overclock it.

Stu

[Stubear]

I spell-checked "dissipation" in MS Word to check I'd spelled it correctly and the thesaurus gave me the following as alternatives: debauchery, indulgence, rakishness. Is this some strange Americanisation or did I get the wrong word ;-)?

Right word, the thesaurus gave you the alternatives for a different definition.

dis·si·pa·tion n.

1. The act of dissipating or the condition of having been dissipated.
2. Wasteful expenditure or consumption.
3. Dissolute indulgence in sensual pleasure; intemperance.
4. An amusement; a diversion.

Stu

[lardman]

I ought to invest in a dictionary and thesaurus for the office, Winword has its limitations :-)

Debauchery, indulgence and rakishness are all American qualities. But there's no relationship to dissipation (and you did spell it right).

John

[maslovsky]

I asked if you were 100% positive that overclocking leaves no traces.

Yes, if you know how to do it right.

[Yes, if you know how to do it right.

Time for some expertise here. I keep reading all of these theories from so called "experts" only because they have overclocked before.

I personally work for Broadcom in the engineering department. We design chips and thier specifications. Many of the chips we design are for embedded use, such as routers, PDAs and cellular phones. One of my jobs is to help define a chip's specifications and limits. Maslovsky, unless you are also a hardware engineer for chip limitations and specifications, your statement is completely unfounded. You are not aware of how different over-clocking speeds alter a chip's life or its true after-effect. Lardman and Stubear both have very valid points. Without the ability to alter the cooling within the PDA, overclocking has great risk to the unit and it is factually incorrect that it is safe. This also goes for Foxdie and others who claim it is safe. If you are capable of adding heat dissipation or ventilation, then perhaps you would have some points. But this is not possible on the Z. If others in this group are hardware engineers and work with chips and thier limitations, I am happy to engage in open discussion on the true effects on overclocking and would also be happy to debunk theories of its safety in an environment without ventilation or (dare I say) ability to "dissipate" heat.

Cheers,

EB

[Prefect47]

[quote]People who should consider underclocking:
[list]People who use e-book readers

[*]People who are checking email automatically

[*]People who generally want to display the same screen / image without it changing

[*]People who want to get more battery life out of their Zaurus[list]

Has anyone measured this? For instance, if all you do from full recharge to battery warning is read an ebook, how much of an improvement can you realistically (sp?) expect?

[Ethereal]

People who should consider underclocking:
[list]

Foxdie, those who are checking email automatically, how are they doing it? I posted a thread on this some time ago, but don't have the programming abilities to impement the theoretical solutions proposed in response. Is there a standard (packaged) way to set up automatic e-mail checking?

[Foxdie]

I assumed if the email client was set to quick load and automatically to check for emails every 5 minutes or so it'd light up the mail LED when an email was received.

I haven't tried this though so I may be wrong

[Ethereal]

I assumed if the email client was set to quick load and automatically to check for emails every 5 minutes or so

At least on my SL5600 with Sharp ROM 1.32, the client doesn't offer the option to check automatically--there's just an option to get mail now.

[padishah_emperor]

For me, overclocking raises one question, "how precious is your Z?"

For me, the risk no matter how slight, is too high, not everyone has vast disposable incomes to buy new hardware every month, it took a year of hard work to save for my Z. I simply will not risk it, no matter how slight or insignificant the risk may be.

But that's me. I love my Z.

;-)

[omega]

I have been overclocking (and underclocking) my Z since i got it a few weeks ago. I have found no issues whatsoever. One question though, my cpu is usually always at 100% (system cpu). Is this because of the apm daemon?

[tumnus]

There is an idling process that makes the CPU reduce power consumption during idle cycles. The CPU isn't actually being used during these cycles, but the way it is done makes makes it look like the kernel is consuming all the CPU. Really any process/CPU monitor should ignore CPU usage from the idling process.

[clofland]

Foxdie, thanks for your informative post.

One question I have is, what exactly is the difference between "Default (PXA255)" and "Normal." ? I mean, I see the difference in "numbers," but practically what happens?

Is "Normal" overclocking or is it not? If so, when? When does "turbo mode" kick in?

Would this mode be considered "safer" (again, I know this is opinion) than "Overclocked" and if so, why? (Again, what is different about it makeing it safer or not any safer than the other.)

Thanks.