I7-720QM oVerclocking

[banyanbraid]

I had a question. I bought an HP dv7t quad-core edition laptop. here are some basic specs. 6 GB DDR3 ram, i7-720QM processor(clocked at 1.60 GHz), nVidia Geforce GT 320M graphics card (1 GB dedicated DDR3 ram), and a 320 gb hard drive.

I was looking at some computers online and came across a Lenovo Y500 notebook with similar specs but instead comes with with 4 GB DDR3 ram, and the same i7-720QM processor clocked at 2.80 GHz. i noticed when I bought my laptop that it said it could be clocked up to 2.80 GHz. Should I look into overclocking mine and if so how should I go about it.

i'm just curious because I'd definitely want to overclock it if a similarly configured computer can be stable at 2.80 GHz. Or is there more to it than that?

Thanks

[Remeniz]

Hey.

The i7-720QM has a stock Fq of 1.6Ghz but it has an ace up it's sleve.

Under heavy loading the CPU will increase it's core speed from 1.6Ghz to a maximum of 2.8Ghz. This automatic increase in clock speed is Intel's Turbo function.

It's a handy burst of speed when you need it.

Run something like Real Temp and you will see the increase happen automatically as you work.

[banyanbraid]

Thanks that's a relief. But you're sure that I don't need to activate turbo myself right?

[Remeniz]

Download CPU-Z, run it and make sure your CPU is recognised. Then open your Windows Task Manager.

Then run some applications and watch the system react to complex tasks by raising the CPU core speed.