Overclock for audio production

[Francesco]

Hello everyone,

I bought this pc, and I was wondering how much I can overclock it in the control center. There are so many different possiblities and I am a noob in this field, I tried to improve some core to over x50 but the pc shut down itself so I freked out and that's why now I'm asking you. (The pc still works perfectly btw).

I don't know if it matters but I use it 99% for Flstudio, a music software, and unfortunately the program has an "internal cpu" and even tho my computer cpu is 30% the software still glitches underruns sometime with bigger projects. I use an external soundcard, I use "high performances mode" and I have set the proper buffer size.

Other than that do you have any other suggetion? I closed all the unuseful start up applications and I keep it clean with CCleaner and Malwarebytes, but it seems that my software does not receive all the "pc power".

Thank you!


Chassis & Display
Octane Series: 15.6" Matte 4K IPS 60Hz 72% NTSC LED Widescreen (3840x2160) (No G-Sync)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i9 Eight Core Processor i9-9900K (3.6GHz) 16MB Cache
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair 2666MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 2060 - 6.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1st Storage Drive
1TB Samsung 860 QVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
AC Adaptor
1 x 230W AC Adaptor
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre European Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Battery
Octane Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (82WH)
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-9260 M.2 (1.73Gbps, 802.11AC) +BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
3 x USB 3.0 PORTS, 2 x USB 3.1 PORTS, 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Keyboard Language
OCTANE SERIES BACKLIT ITALIAN KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
Italy/Italia - Italian Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365 (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MP FULL HD WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Dead Pixel Guarantee
1 Year Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs
Delivery
3 - 4 DAY DELIVERY TO ITALY
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 7 to 9 working days
Promotional Item
Get Total War: Three Kingdoms & More w/ select Intel CPUs!
Welcome Book
PCSpecialist Welcome Book - Italy

 

[SpyderTracks]

You don’t want to overlclock on a laptop, but especially not a desktop replacement, you’d instantly fry it.

In fact, to get it running even slightly normally you’d have to apply an undervolt. If you do stress tests at the moment you’ll find it’s thermal throttling.

 

[Francesco]

Ok so I should leave default spec that were set when I receive it, right?

Is there any way I can make sure that my pc is fully concentrating on this specific software though?

 

[SpyderTracks]

Ok so I should leave default spec that were set when I receive it, right?

Is there any way I can make sure that my pc is fully concentrating on this specific software though?

As said, you’ll need to apply an undervolt for the laptop to perform without thermal throttling. At the moment, the temps will be so high that the chip will reduce clocks to reduce temps, so it will be operating a lot slower than it should and you may damage it if you use it without getting thermals under control.

 

[Francesco]

Thank you very much. I’ll watch this video and I will study about undervolting.
Is there any Con in doing this?
I mean, it may be a stupid question but, if it is just better and faster why isn’t the pc automatically set in this way?

 

[SpyderTracks]

Thank you very much. I’ll watch this video and I will study about undervolting.
Is there any Con in doing this?
I mean, it may be a stupid question but, if it is just better and faster why isn’t the pc automatically set in this way?

It’s all explained in the video. It’s a failure of the CPU’s. Intel are just really poor CPU’s and don’t work as advertised.

 

[Francesco]

Hello again, I used the program showed in the video to undervolt (-80mV both CPU core, cache and GPU) but my pc temperature are pretty much the same as before (55/60c doing nothing to 70during stressful tasks).
So I had a doubt:
Since I saw you can modify clock and voltage both in TS and in Control Center (which was already on the pc) maybe I didn’t really change anything because of Control center? If I change clock in one software it will not change in the other I saw.
plus, TS Bench is pretty much always the same.

edit: even when I just watch the internet having the fan going fast (60c you can hear them a lot) is very annoying. How is this pc always so hot even with undervolting?

 

[Francesco]

Hello everyone!

I'll start by posting my specs:

Showing Order Reference 1546112
Chassis & Display	Octane Series: Widescreen LED IPS 60 Hz 72% NTSC opaco 4K 15,6” (3840x2160) (No G-Sync)
Processor (CPU)	Processore i9 Intel® Core™ i9-9900K 8 core (3,6 GHz) 16 MB cache
Memory (RAM)	DDR4 SODIMM Corsair 2666 MHz 32 GB (2 da 16 GB)
Graphics Card	NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 2060 – RAM video 6,0 GB GDDR6 – DirectX® 12.1
1st Storage Drive	SSD Samsung 860 QVO 2,5" 1 TB, SATA 6 Gb/s (fino a 550 MB/sR | 520 MB/sW)
2nd Storage Drive	None
1st M.2 SSD Drive	SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2 1 TB, NVMe PCIe (fino a 3500 MB/R, 3300 MB/W)

Some months ago I asked here how to diminishmy pc temperature, I've been suggested to underclock my CPU and it worked great. I put it back to normal just when I need it and I dont mind having noisy fan.

I was wondering tho, can I make it even better?
In Control Center I can modify also GPU and RAM settings, but I'm a newbee and I don't want to mess things up since I use for work. Can you help me? Is it even something that makes sense?
I hope so because sometimes even with just googling my temperature goes up to 60 and it doesn't really make any sense since it can easily stay 10 lower.



Thanks!! Have a nice day

 

[Scott]

When you apply an undervolt.... you leave it, you don't put it back when you need it. The undervolt doesn't lower the performance, it actually increases it as the ICU gets more thermal headroom. Removing the "undervolt" will reduce the performance, especially with a laptop.

The 9900k is definitely not a good choice of CPU for your uses. Your software will be mostly single threaded I imagine. When purchasing it's often best to ask for advice before ordering, in your use case I would have recommended the 9600k if it was available, or even the 9700K if not. The potential is there for you to sell the 9900k and get a 9600k, you would make money out of such a transaction and the increased thermal headroom would allow for a meaningful overclock on the 9600k chip.

Anyway, that's another story.

The reason why you are seeing only itro 30% CPU utilisation is due to the cores being used on the chip itself. You will find that the software is using one of the cores to 100% (the main thread) while using some of the other cores a small amount. It's perfectly normal for single threaded software to only use 20-30% of a CPUs capacity while actually running the cores to maximum potential.

If you download and install HWMonitor, you can watch the core utilisation including maximum/minimum. The Windows Performance monitor will also yield similar information. You want to know the temps of the cores max/min as well as the utilisation while using your preferred software.

So.... checks for the optimum system.

Ensure that the RAM is running at the correct frequency. I tend to use CPUz for this sort of information.
Ensure that the Fans are coming on at the correct time and that it's gradual. A decent fan curve can make a difference to mid-level performance vs noise.
Going by the age of the system I would probably recommend a re-paste on the CPU. Depending on how it was applied in the first place can have a significant impact on temperatures & performance.

 

[Francesco]

Thank you for your informations and suggestions! How hard is it to change CPU on a pcspecialist laptop? I shouldn't lose any information or project contained in my computer, right?

and if you really have time I have another question, is the 9600k better for one-core processing? Is it why you're suggesting it? Or is it just less powerful so it will be colder overall? You are right btw, the software I use (FLstudio) is pretty bad at multi-core processing.

Anyway I keep my pc undervolted, it's the underclocking that I change based on my needs. I don't know if it makes sense but it works pretty well.

Thank you!!

 

[Scott]

The 9600K won't use anywhere near the same power to keep an overclock running. So you could have the CPU running at 5ghz across all the cores without putting out anywhere near the same heat as the 9900k.

With the 9900k the best thing to do would be to tune the cores. I would probably look to run 2 cores at 5ghz and the rest of the cores at 4.6ghz. It would be a starting point at least, I would probably then move to 5.1ghz on the top 2 cores until I saw instability.

This may be a little advanced though so be careful with what you decide to do.

Replacing a CPU is relative, if you have experience working on laptops or switching out CPUs then it should be straight forward. If it's the first time doing anything of this nature it's easy to make a mistake and mistakes on kit like this can be expensive.

 

[Francesco]

Thank you very much. I definitely won't change it myself if I decide to do it. I probably shouldn't have bought an i9 but still I'm happy to have learnt something and at least it is powerful
Last question: tuning the cores is what you do in the "Control Center"?

 

[SpyderTracks]

Thank you very much. I definitely won't change it myself if I decide to do it. I probably shouldn't have bought an i9 but still I'm happy to have learnt something and at least it is powerful
Last question: tuning the cores is what you do in the "Control Center"?

No, you'd need to use something like Intel XTU.

Be aware though, it's very easy to fry the motherboard and or processor if you do it wrong.

 

[Scott]

Yeah, just a note..... I think increasing any voltage on the laptop would be a no-no. The 9900k at stock is using far too much voltage for the cooling solution anyway, so tune the cores with the current power limitations in place. Get as much as you can out of 2 of the cores, while sacrificing the other 6, and just run with it.