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Intel iMacs to overclock?

simontarr

simontarr

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 4, 2006
414
0
England
Hi all. I'm a heavy computer user in my free time & I'm also studying computer science, so I use computers a lot! :p

Since the dawn of time I've been using PCs (cos that's all my parents knew of when I was growing up...) but I've worked all summer holidays this year and have finally saved up for a 20-inch iMac which is proudly sitting on my desk with 2GB RAM. What a beast this thing is- it flies! So glad I've finally made the switch instead of putting up with the sorry excuse of an OS Microsoft has forced upon the world.

Anyway, I was just wondering if there are any things you can do to overclock the intel-based iMacs. There probably aren't any physical overclocks that can be done due to the enclosure, but are there any software alternatives for increasing the FSB & CPU Clock speed? From what I understand, these Yonah CPUs could give a fair bit more whack without superheating your mac.

I just like doing the overclocking to be honest. I'm not interested in keeping my iMac in cold storage, but if I can just get another 250-300MHz out of the CPU with an increase in the FSB, that would keep me happy! :p

I can't seem to find anything to do with overclocking through google (which is a bad sign already, I suppose) but if anyone here knows of anything, I'd be grateful. It doesn't matter how complicated the process may be- I'm sure I'll be able to figure it.

Thanks in advance
 
mkrishnan said:
You might look at this thread. Your best bet might end up being a Windows app for overclocking. The biggest barrier seems to be Apple's use of EFI instead of BIOS.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I think i remember seeing that somewhere else. How different technically is the firmware thing compared with a BIOS? Because I'm so new to macs, I cant say I've ever come across them in the PC world. Are there definitly no EFI hacks then, or is that the point of them- unhackable.

Thanks for the speedy reply
 
simontarr said:
Yeah, I think i remember seeing that somewhere else. How different technically is the firmware thing compared with a BIOS? Because I'm so new to macs, I cant say I've ever come across them in the PC world. Are there definitly no EFI hacks then, or is that the point of them- unhackable.

Thanks for the speedy reply
Click to expand...

EFI is a completely different ball game. You won't have come accross them in the PC world because nobody seems to want to get rid of BIOS, in case someone want's to plug in some 27 year old equipment.

Apple are the first computer manufacturer to bring them to the mainstream, and therefore, there are little hacks around. I'm sure this will grow with time, however.

But Windows support for EFI hacks will be limited for some years, considering Microsoft's dropping of Vista EFI support in the general release.
 
Yeah, what he said. :( The Firmware is going to guard your access to anything that would allow you to overclock. And so the technique has to be adapted to the firmware. In the long run, EFI might even be good for this, like it's going to be good for most things. But it creates a much smaller market, since as said, PCs are not going EFI anytime soon....
 
bigandy said:
EFI is a completely different ball game. You won't have come accross them in the PC world because nobody seems to want to get rid of BIOS, in case someone want's to plug in some 27 year old equipment.

Apple are the first computer manufacturer to bring them to the mainstream, and therefore, there are little hacks around. I'm sure this will grow with time, however.

But Windows support for EFI hacks will be limited for some years, considering Microsoft's dropping of Vista EFI support in the general release.
Click to expand...

Ah thats a shame. Not the end of the world though- this machine is still VERY quick, so theres not really much point. Compared with my old Qosmio G10 laptop. 1.7GHz Centrino, 1GB RAM....those were the days lol :p Glad I don't have to put up with it any longer!
 
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