Overclock and Reduce Heat

The requests in this sub-forum has been addressed with announced or soon-to-be-announced products
sabrehagen
Posts: 20
Joined: Fri Jul 10, 2009 8:05 am

Overclock and Reduce Heat

Post by sabrehagen »

I recently purchaced my fit-PC2 and am so far quite happy with it. I have chosen to install Windows 7 Professional and am using the Windows 7 optimized graphics driver.

Sadly, the fit-PC2 has trouble displaying video at the recommended 1920x1080 resolution. It *can* display at this resolution, but window animations and general usage is not smooth. I purchaced the fit-PC2 to be used as a HTPC which would be perfect if it could handle the full 1920x1080 resolution. Only at 1280x720 can the fit-PC2 successfully render 1080p video in Media Centre.

I also have an MSI Wind which has a built in overclocking feature allowing it's Atom N270 1.6Ghz processor to be overclocked by 24% to 1.98Ghz. This 24% increase creates a very noticible increase in performance, and maybe if the fit-PC2 could have this same BIOS feature, it would be able to perform satisfactorily at the 1920x1080 Full HD resolution. The hardware specifications of my MSI Wind and the fit-PC2 are exactly the same except that the MSI Wind has a fan for heat dispersion. Irads has mentioned that Compulab may introduce an external head sink for industrial applications. This could aid the notion of overclocking.

I love my fit-PC2 and I am a great champion of the device. I have noticed Irads is very against the concept of overclocking, but I feel that they shouldn't shut out a manufacturer specified BIOS controlled and 'safe' overclock as of yet.

Is there any chance Compulab could investigate the potential of overclocking for future BIOS updates? I believe this would give the fit-PC2 the boost it needs, and all this power is waiting to be harnessed in the existing hardware configuration.


Please comment everybody, I'm very interested to hear your thoughts, and how you have optimized your fit-PC2 to cope with loads such as those created by HD video.

irads

Re: Overclock and Reduce Heat

Post by irads »

Overclocking should not result in excess heat as the CPU is very power efficient. However, I'm not aware of overclocking facility for the Atom Z530 and the BIOS does not support that.

An advantage of the Z530 over the N270 is that media playback is done via HW acceleration. I believe that with up-to-date display drivers you will notice a significant boost in full-HD performance regardless of overclocking.

sabrehagen
Posts: 20
Joined: Fri Jul 10, 2009 8:05 am

Re: Overclock and Reduce Heat

Post by sabrehagen »

If you say that the Atom Z530 is very heat efficient then that's fantastic news! I know that the current BIOS of the fit-PC2 does not support overclocking, but it is within the manufacturer's ability (in this case Compulab) to create/make these settings available. As you can see in the first post on this forum (http://www.mydellmini.com/forum/dell-mi ... -z530.html) Sony's BIOS allows for the changing of the speed of the front side bus on their Sony VAIO model with Atom Z530 processor, resulting in a marked performance increase.

Also, you mentioned that by using an up-to-date display driver we will notive a significant boost in Full-HD performance. Is this the most up-to-date driver? It's the one I'm using on Windows 7: http://fit-pc2.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=726

sabrehagen
Posts: 20
Joined: Fri Jul 10, 2009 8:05 am

Re: Overclock and Reduce Heat

Post by sabrehagen »

If an option to change the Front Side Bus speed of the processor was available, and the BIOS handled the changing of the RAM timings automatically, this could be a very easy option. Also, maybe 3 pre-configured speeds could be created, such as 8%, 16%, and 24% and the user could select one of these. Of course, this is all permitting your BIOS programmers are able to do this.

The reason I am lobbying for this so much is that the hardware of the fit-PC2 is fixed - but it still has much more power available that can be unlocked through a BIOS controlled overclock. It seems a waste to leave processing power untapped when the device can not fulfill it's marketed task of being a HTPC because it can not handle the load of the operating system at Full HD resolution.

tccc143
Posts: 34
Joined: Mon Oct 26, 2009 1:57 pm

Re: Overclock and Reduce Heat

Post by tccc143 »

I have used SETFSB and successfully overclocked the FSB to 2ghz.....it is a dramatic change in performace. I currently run it at 1.8ghz constatntly and it seems to run fine. Heat is not an issue, but I did notice that the LAN will shut down when you clock above 1.68ghz. Not a problem as the woreless still works. I can only guess that the increased overclocking takes up extra power and the LAN shuts off to compensate.

sabrehagen
Posts: 20
Joined: Fri Jul 10, 2009 8:05 am

Re: Overclock and Reduce Heat

Post by sabrehagen »

Thank you for your reply - it is great to see somebody has overclocked the device!

I tried to use FSB the other day but was confused by all the potential chipsets etc. Could you please tell me all the details to put into FSB such as the Clock Generator and any other details that are relevant? Also, how did you determine that these were the correct settings?

It's great to see somebody on the forum interested in overclocking! Hope to see you round a bit!

Cheers.

tccc143
Posts: 34
Joined: Mon Oct 26, 2009 1:57 pm

Re: Overclock and Reduce Heat

Post by tccc143 »

I am out of town currently but will return tomorrow and let you know which code to use. Luckily I found someone using SETFSB with a very identical set up, I tried it and it worked.

I do know the people who designed the GMABOOSTER are working to do the same with the GMA500 series. Currently they only work with the 900 and 950 versions. I am sure as the FIT gets more and more popular we will see alot of options and tweaks for the little monster.

PartakePepsi
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Oct 28, 2009 10:27 pm

Re: Overclock and Reduce Heat

Post by PartakePepsi »

tccc143 wrote:I am out of town currently but will return tomorrow and let you know which code to use. Luckily I found someone using SETFSB with a very identical set up, I tried it and it worked.

I do know the people who designed the GMABOOSTER are working to do the same with the GMA500 series. Currently they only work with the 900 and 950 versions. I am sure as the FIT gets more and more popular we will see alot of options and tweaks for the little monster.
I am also very interested in ability of overclocking as Windows 7 MCE grinds to a halt so I can't watch TV at all (well works for a bit then Fit-PC2 crashes). Any ideas on boosting speed greatly appreciated.

sabrehagen
Posts: 20
Joined: Fri Jul 10, 2009 8:05 am

Re: Overclock and Reduce Heat

Post by sabrehagen »

PartakePepsi wrote:
tccc143 wrote:I am out of town currently but will return tomorrow and let you know which code to use. Luckily I found someone using SETFSB with a very identical set up, I tried it and it worked.

I do know the people who designed the GMABOOSTER are working to do the same with the GMA500 series. Currently they only work with the 900 and 950 versions. I am sure as the FIT gets more and more popular we will see alot of options and tweaks for the little monster.
I am also very interested in ability of overclocking as Windows 7 MCE grinds to a halt so I can't watch TV at all (well works for a bit then Fit-PC2 crashes). Any ideas on boosting speed greatly appreciated.
This is exactly the issue I am having! 7MC is perfect for the machine, but it just can't handle it. We need to squeeze that extra little bit of processing and graphics power out of the box and then it may be suitable for the purpose it's marketed for - an HTPC!

What resolution are you running it at? I can't get it to run 1920x1080 even without any load i.e. under normal windows. 1280x720 is the only resolution I can play a video successfully at for a while, then like you, my 7MC crashes!

tccc143
Posts: 34
Joined: Mon Oct 26, 2009 1:57 pm

Re: Overclock and Reduce Heat

Post by tccc143 »

Using SETFSB, the code you will select is ICS9UMS9610BL..........I run it at 1.8ghz constantly with no issues. Step it up slowly till you get to where you want. Just like anything else, the cooler the unit the more you can overclock it. I run my monitor at 1440x900. I get a good image that way. I also set my WIN7 up as if it were a laptop and applied some laptop tweaks as recommended at tweakwin7.com Good luck.....my next adventure is putting in bluetooth..............

Locked

Return to “Addressed requests”