A clumsy person is attempting to speed up their Alienware computer.
A clumsy person is attempting to speed up their Alienware computer.
I used to push my PCs to their limits in the 90s. Eventually I realized it wasn't worth it. Upgrading to a new machine would be better, I thought. Just think about how quickly your hardware will wear out, I said.
Last month I purchased an AlienWare for $600 off. A $2100 system for $1500. It comes with an i7-9700K processor. Now I'm diving into flight simulation and planning to overclock it. AlienWare claims it supports built-in overclocking, but the OC1 and OC2 settings caused my machine to crash. I checked the BIOS/UEFI and saw the voltage was low. I searched online and someone advised not to exceed 1.4V. So I adjusted it to 1.3V, and it seems to work fine.
I found a screenshot of the BIOS/UEFI settings and what I configured. It appears stable, though I’m confused about the "PWR Limit" section. I also noticed other timing options like cache, but nothing stands out.
Here’s a picture of my BIOS/UEFI screen and the settings I applied. It looks stable, but I’m still puzzled by the voltage limits and overclock adjustments. Core voltage override was set to 1.3V, but it fluctuates during benchmarks. Should I increase "Core Ratio Limit Override"? It seems to match the CPU’s current frequency, though it still varies.
Please help an old UNIX administrator with this tricky situation.
Thank you.
I believe the variable changes during benchmarking are likely due to internal calibration processes such as LLC adjustments. Is your VCore active? Does its performance vary with different settings or is it unaffected by input values? 1,275v seems reasonable. It could simply be that you're using a high-quality chip.
It's an Alienware Aurora R8. The motherboard is a Dell OEM model; we could both find similar details by searching Aurora R8. For general specifications: i7-9700K, 16GB RAM (2993MHz), 2080Super. My main goal is to overclock the CPU without any other changes. The UEFI screenshot I shared covers only the UEFI (BIOS) settings. I set the voltage override to "1275" and it still works fine.
I believe the variable changes during benchmarking are likely due to internal calibration processes such as LLC adjustments. Is your VCore active? Does its performance vary with different settings or is it unaffected by input values? 1,275v seems reasonable. It could simply be that you're using a high-quality chip.