# Purchasing a CPU for laptop



## Phryq (May 9, 2016)

So I'm thinking about getting a new laptop (desktop is impossible for me).

Some laptops are now sporting desktop CPUs. Going up to 4.0 ghz

An overclocked laptop CPU can hit 3.7 GHz

I'm finding my current CPU can't handle my workload; getting artifacts when Realtime CPU usage hits 100%.

I also have problems with heat and fans going crazy.

So am I better off getting a monstrous laptop with a desktop CPU?
Will an overclocked laptop at 3.7 create more or less heat than a desktop CPU at the same frequency?

Is there a significant difference between Skylake and Haswell? If I get an i7 Skylake running 2.6GHz will it really give me much benefit beyond the equivalent Haswell?


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## chimuelo (May 9, 2016)

Dude if you can score a Pentium G4520 that sucker has better per core performance than Quads.
Benchmarks show different stories, but trust me, guys that do live work using one of those only need a couple instruments at a time when playing.
They have less IRQ and DPC issues too.

In theory it would be great as long as you bounce after tracking instead of the massive palette approach.
Depends on what you want to use it for.

Just check out some older reviews of the G3258.
That CPU is a bad ass dual core. This latest Pentium is even faster at stock speeds and has a really low TDP.

I actually was getting similar performance to a 4ghz CPU from an old Conroe Wolfdale E8600 years ago.
But that was for live use.


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## Phryq (May 10, 2016)

Hmmm, not finding any laptops with that CPU.

I generally use largish templates with many instruments, reverbs, EQs. I know I need lots of ram and a fast SSD for the samples, and a good CPU for FXs, that's all.


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## Scrianinoff (May 10, 2016)

Since 2012 I am on the same Dell Alienware M17x R4 with 32GB Ram, an i7-3820qm overclocked to 3.7-4.1GHz. Half a year ago I upgraded the internal storage to 2 x 2TB Samsung 850, 1TB Samsung 840 EVO and 1 TB mSata version of the Samsung 840 EVO. This way I have _all_ my samples mobile. I work with a disabled/frozen track setup now. Once you go frozen track, you never go back. A few months ago when the overclockable Skylake mobile cpu came out, I thought about upgrading, but what's the use. The Cpu speed increase would be around a shameful 20%. I do not need extra performance anyway, well perhaps if it would be a 2x or 3x increase...

Here are some of my ramblings of the past:
http://vi-control.net/community/thr...otebooks-for-serious-work.32337/#post-3711878
http://vi-control.net/community/threads/laptop-daw-questions.40948/#post-3846467


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## chimuelo (May 11, 2016)

Nice mobile solution.
If I could find one with Express 34 slots I'd be all over it.
Gamer rigs have made our rigs competitively priced for years.

Alienware has been at the top for a long time.
How easy was this to overclock?


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## Scrianinoff (May 11, 2016)

Overclocking the Alienware is easier than eating pancakes. Enable it in Bios. If you want to control the overclock in realtime use Intel XTU software, it will even allow you to set profiles. For example if program Cubase or Reaper is running then activate profile maximum overclock, if only Chrome is running then profile maximize battery life.

Intel XTU: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/24075/Intel-Extreme-Tuning-Utility-Intel-XTU-


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## Phryq (May 11, 2016)

Cool, so I can just run this without needing to touch my BIOS?

What's the drawback overclocking? I already have heat / fan issues, so maybe overclocking isn't the way?


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## Scrianinoff (May 11, 2016)

Yes you can run the XTU, however, it depends which options are available in XTU. For example if I disable the overclocking settings in my bios, less options are available. I specifically chose an Alienware laptop at the time, because it was the only laptop that unlocked the cpu frequency headroom in XTU, and has a powerful cooling system, meaning that the CPU can consume 55W of power without having the impression of standing next to a jet engine.

To put it into perspective: I only need full cpu power when Kontakt is playing thousands of samples and I have 5 reverb busses active, in other words, when I do not freeze tracks yet because I want to make small changes all over the place. When I am sketching or only want to make changes here and there, then I can switch overclocking off or even underclock and I literally cannot not hear the fans, because they are completely off or spinning at their lowest setting.

To alleviate your fan noise, you could follow the advice I gave in a previous thread to Guy Rowland:
( http://vi-control.net/community/threads/laptop-daw-questions.40948/#post-3846447 ) :
If the laptop is a few years old, then thoroughly cleaning the cooling systems definitely helps. I have done it a number of times and it always brings the cooling performance back to the original levels. What this means is:

1 Removing the fan
2 Removing the heatsink
3 Removing the CPU
4 Vacuuming the heatsink
5 Cleaning all of the above thoroughly, _especially the heatsink, degrease the cooling fins._
6 Removing the remaining (thin film of) cooling paste on the cpu and heatsink (using for example Arctic Silver Arcticlean)
7 Applying a high quality cooling paste between the cpu and heatsink
8 Reseating all of the above properly
9 Pray you didn't destroy the laptop in the process
10 Power up and be delighted by a cooler and quieter laptop


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## Scrianinoff (May 11, 2016)

At the moment, there are overclockable laptops available from a lot of brands. The mobile i7 cpus numbers ending in HK (i7-6820HK) have unlocked clock multipliers. It is however good to remember that when the mobile cpu runs full power, depending on how many cores are active, the clock speed is throttled in order not to exceed the maximum electrical power rating of the mobile cpu. A few examples: when my i7-3820qm is not overclocked on single core loads it runs at a maximum of 3.5 GHz, consuming 17W of power, when overclocked to 4.1 GHz for a single core load it consumes 28W of power. On an 8 core (hyperthreaded) H264 video encoding load it consumes 55W and runs at 3.3GHz whether it is overclocked or not. However, when I push close to a 100% 8 core cpu load, for example when freezing 20 or more tracks at the same time in Reaper, the CPU stays at its 3.9GHz 8 core maximum overclock while it consumes the same maximum 55W of power. The H264 processing apparently generates more heat per cpu cycle than the Reaper, Kontakt and Play processes.

Desktop CPUs are not bound by these cpu power envelopes, but to my knowledge there are no laptops available that can get rid of 250W of heat that an overclocked i7-5930k produces. There are the sagers, the eurocoms, etc, but they are all power throttled, and will not give you the same performance as an overlocked 5930k in a desktop motherboard in a desktop case.


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## Scrianinoff (May 11, 2016)

It might also be worthwhile to find out why you are hitting 100% _realtime_ cpu. Sub-optimal drivers, interfering processes. How are your latencymon measurement results?


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## lux (May 11, 2016)

100% cpu could be an heating problem or a cpu failure. I have the same problem, sadly, peaks and 95C° cpu heating (with fan going crazy), assistance told me that my i7 is most likely gone, so I'm getting a new laptop. Before this issue I hardly topped 50%, so you may have something unrelated with Cpu power, like Scrianinoff seems to suggest as well.


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## Phryq (May 11, 2016)

On the other hand, my CPU usage is low, it's only RT CPU that's a problem


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## chimuelo (May 11, 2016)

Great info Scri....

A most excellent and efficient use of the available tools.


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## Aeonata (May 17, 2016)

I ordered mine from (will arrive next week!):
http://www.da-x.de/


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