Laptops often have two Achilles heels, the heat and limited battery time. There are, if not cures, at least remedies to make them less obvious. Read on how in our latest article.
A life full of computers has given me the chance to test almost everything. I have made chassi-mods and overclocked my computers. Now that I have obtained my fourth computer, a laptop, there’s not that much you can mod. As most people know, when it comes to the hardware of a laptop, there’s not much you can change. Well, you can change it, but it’s not that easy!
But a couple of months ago, I found some interesting facts about a whole new subject, undervolting. The expression undervolting is not really correct because it’s the tension were lowering and it’s measured in volts, but we will use this expression in this article.
Because CPUs are mass-produced, the voltage is set to a stable level that will suit all samples of that particular CPU. Everything from CPUs with “Friday Afternoon Syndrome” to real overclockers. There are lots of CPUs on the market that can be run at a lower voltage than what they are specified to. Especially the kind of low power consuming CPUs found in laptops. You’ll be surprised when you see the results of undervolting your CPU.
In this article we will look further on how you can undervolt the CPU of a modern laptop without losing performance or stability.
Our test-system is an Acer Aspire 5021WLMi which appear to be a good computer to undervolt.
I think it’s worth it. The stock voltage is generally overly cautious to ensure all CPU’s work reliably. However depending on the silicon lottery, lots of CPUs will run at a lower voltage, whilst still maintaining performance. Mine is a desktop, but I still shaved of 0.14v from the stock voltage (1.0v) of my Xeon and it dropped a few degrees when pushed hard. 0xc00000e9 So in a laptop it will definitely be worth it, with the caveat that it depends on the silicon, so some CPUs will accept lower voltage and some won’t, so make sure you thoroughly check… Läs hela »