Double the Physical CPU Speed and Front Side Bus of ASUS Netbooks

If you have an Asus Netbook and would like to be able to make its hardware and entire system run faster when you need it to, there is a clever way to do this that will enhance and boost the entire front side bus speed based on the chipset you have on your netbook. I am using this technique as I write this to you to ensure I can do several things at once in the background at speeds that meet or exceed that of my laptop. I use this tecnique often whenever I need a fast boost. Whenever you boost the hardware this way, at least on the netbooks, one of the small drawbacks is that it will use up to twice the battery power to kick the system into overdrive. So I tend to have it plugged in and on AC power most times when I implement this just to avoid unnecessary draining of the battery unless I am out on the town with it.

The Asus 900+ netbooks are fast and robust, and I tend to favor them over other netbooks for a variety of reasons. Many companies attempted to clone the ASUS netbooks, but weren't able to accurately replicate its versatility and power. At least, not yet. So this article focuses exclusively on the ASUS books. But nearly all of the netbooks in existence can be overclocked via software. It's just a matter of knowing how to do it, and how the hardware will respond to your approach.

Being able to double the processor and bus speed whenever you need to run several power applications at once certainly has its advantages! There are at least a few small compromises that sometimes must be made while doing so, though. Depending on the model and what you plan to do, there are occasional risks that need to be considered and watched out for. I'd like to discuss the technical details from here on out to ensure that you are aware of them and comfortable with things before we proceed.

There is a program called SetFSB which automates the task of overclocking processors and system hardware. You can find it as the first link at the end of this article, which lists some very useful information on how the program works and what else it can do. The second link at the end of this article is my personal web site where you may order hardware enhanced netbooks with a variety of features and upgrades that are not available anywhere else, (and never will be available from others unless steal what I'm doing and properly clone it). If you want a faster netbook in hardware that is custom built, I can do that work for you and sell you those that I've reprogrammed and upgraded. You won't have to worry about using SetFSB or doing other modifications then if you are interested in doing that. However, if you already have an ASUS netbook and just want to speed it up, then the rest of this article will show you the steps on how to do that using my 900HA as the example and guide.

When SetFSB runs and is told to, it will set the front side bus and processor speed to a special clock state that you specify for it. Before the program can set the proper clock state to accomplish this, it must first grab the state of the front side bus and data about the current clock speed. Before you make changes to any settings, you need to find out what chipset your netbook model is using and then have the program work from there based on what is correct for that model.

Every Asus netbook is slightly different, and even the exact same model may at times have slightly different hardware signatures from the manufacturer which can make or break whether or not a modification will be successful.. Also, what would seem to logically work fine may not work as intended or at all in some cases.

For example, I was working on an Asus 900 series book for a friend that used the solid state drive version instead of the model having a standard SATA hard drive (like I have on mine). Originally my friend just wanted to increase the storage capacity of their netbook...but after seeing how I was able to boost the speed of mine, they wanted to know if they could speed up theirs, too.

I decided to use the SetFSB program on their system with the same clock generator that I used for mine. I figured that if I used the same setup that I used for my personal Asus netbook to speed it up that it would work, because it was the same model, only with a solid state drive, right? No such luck! The approach seemed correct, but I was in for a surprise!

Not only did it not work, but it locked up the machine and started to put solid white lines all through the screen! Ack! It stopped responding to key presses and the power button, too. I had to disconnect it from the plug quickly, and pull out the battery to shut it off. After waiting a few minutes and reconnecting everything, the system powered on again fine, and the netbook worked correctly just as before. The changes that were made by the setting mistake were completely flushed out after the cold reboot, and all was well.

I realized the hard way that they use entirely different chipsets and clock frequencies even between the most similar of their models.

The techniques implemented by the SetFSB program (which does the overclocking via software when provided the right settings) is not limited just to use on Asus netbooks, of course. When given the proper frequency generator and the other settings are right, it should work to a degree on the Acer netbooks, Dell Netbooks, the Lenovo S10 series, and the MSI wind models as well. I do know that the Asus models are better protected from misconfiguration issues with the hardware and clock reconfigs than the Acer or Dell products are. That does not mean that ASUS units won't encounter any strange or potentially damaging situations though no matter how good their track-record is. You should always take all necessary precautions before overclocking any kind of system, and always save any and all work before you actually run anything like the SetFSB program.

I strongly suggest that you find out what the common clock frequency generator for your netbook is online if you're not using the 900HA series or the next level 1000 series. If you wish to overclock a non-Asus Netbook, there are various sources online for other netbooks and information on them. There are forum sites, usenet, myspace, and facebook groups as well as other general communities available. They frequently overclock various models of netbooks and discuss their results, successes, and pitfalls. The odds are favorable that you won't have travel too far or look too much to encounter someone who has the same netbook model and chipset that your netbok does while online. With any luck they will be able to help you further with other netbook models and chipset settings.

If you're still with me and are ready to make your Asus 900HA or Asus 1000 run faster, then lets do it!

Here is how I overclock my system via software:

On my 900HA, I run the SetFSB program and make sure that I am on the "Control" tab of it. I can see that the base frequency and current speed my netbook operates at is 1675.8 mhz (this is shown to me at the lower right hand corner). From here, I will proceed to select the proper clock frequency setting.

I use the ICS9LPR427AGLF for the Clock Generator on the SetFSB program, and then checkmark the "Ultra" box to ensure that I'll be gettng the most speed that I possibly can out of it.

After this, I click the button that says "Get FSB". The program gathers the information it needs to set the clock frequency of the cpu, adjust the motherboard, and direct channel speeds for connected hardware the moment you click the button. A meter appears after the data has been successfully grabbed for a chipset config. This slider (meter) will permit you to adjust the multiplier and increase the speed for the memory, bus, and processor all at once.

On the 900HA, the slider should show a default value of 139.5 or close to it. It should say 139.5/279.0 or a value very close to that. Use the slider on the left and set the value to 166.6 or as close as you can to 166.0. The values should now read 166.6/333.2 or close to it.

Now click the "Set FSB" button. The program should now make the new value effective, and all other changes that are automatically associated with it. If all goes well, you will notice that the clock rate of the computer now reports as 1999.5mhz (2GHZ) and that the computer is running a little faster than it was before.

If anything was not set correctly then the system is either going to freeze on you, or will go for a few moments at an increased speed and then will lock up unexpectedly. If you can use the new enhanced speed setting for longer than 10 to 15 minutes without a problem, then you should be ok. Otherwise, you might want to try a slightly lower setting or double-check to make sure that you selected the right chipset ID for the Clock Generator menu on the SetFSB program.

I am able to successfully set my 900HA all the way up to a setting of 180.0/360 and use it without any problems. At 180, the netbook runs at 2159.9mhz, which is an accurate figure for a 2.2ghz processor. Not bad from an Intel Atom Cpu that runs at 1.6ghz! We can safely squeeze out at least 484mhz more safely.

I can go as high as 185 on occasion, but I won't do that if I am working on anything that isn't saved on the machine, and I won't do it if I use any wireless usb devices. When I approach a value higher than 180, I notice that usb devices and the system itself can start to behave strangely. Usually after 180, I'll notice that the system will still run at an increased speed, but may start to lock up on access to or from usb devices, and it won't acknowledge or correctly talk to the built-in wireless device correctly unless I disable/re-enable a connection. At times that works, but it often drops the connection routinely at that point. I've noticed that running on wall power seems to help keep the system more stable than if we run on battery power with the experimental SetFSB settings.

The most frequent thing that happens is that the timing of a hardware event gets thrown off, and the whole system locks up. Usually at that point, if you just went a little above 180 to 185, you can still use the power button to turn off and on the machine. This normally resets the system without you having to unplug it and remove the netbook's battery. If you can't turn it off with the power button, then it means that the hardware has completely ceased to respond and you will have to disconnect both the battery and the power supply from the netbook.

By the way, a complete listing of clock generation sets and their corresponding chipsets are now available on the English version page of the SetFSB web site. From there, you can download and use the latest version of the freeware program. Here is the link to SetFSB and the chipset page: http://www13.plala.or.jp/setfsb/

Please be aware that with most digital electronics, the more a device overheats the less wear and tear it can deal with in the future. The same is true with miniature processors and the hardware they interface with. The more stress and the more you push their limits, the faster they will work and respond, but the shorter thier product lifetime and usefulness will be.

If you need more speed and functionality and are not worried about a physical year lasting 3 to 6 months less than it would have otherwise after years of use, then you should be ok to overclock a netbook in this way. Otherwise, if you cherish every working day that your netbook can possibly give you (and wish to get as many possible days of use out of it that you can...even the last 3 days of its lifecycle), then you probably wouldn't want to overclock it. The higher a cpu and overall hardware is overclocked, the faster it will go at the expense of its longevity. If it is overclocked to double or tripple its speed, then it will only have half or a quarter of its longevity as a digital device. If it is overclocked only by a fraction, then it will help speed up the system by that percentage safely, while only having its longevity reduced by a small percentage.

You can also use the SetFSB program to underclock a netbook, so that it runs slower but runs cooler as well, uses less battery life, and could possibly increase its longevity if you use it for programs where speed is not as important as stability and a long overall system life.

So that's the give and take with boosting the speed and performance of the hardware of a computer. There are other ways to get more speed out of a computer not related to hardware performance increase, too. Finding out the speed bottle-neck in software programs and storage technologies can assist you in getting more speed out of a system whether you decide to overclock or not.

In closing, I believe that overclocking a netbook, a laptop, or a desktop is okay as long as you know what you are doing, know what the best limits are, and you know what the consequences are. Most importantly, you must be diligent and aware of what is happening with your efforts as you do this. If done in moderation, overclocking your computer's hardware to work faster will give you a much greater performance level than its intended factory release does, and it will still be safe enough for you to use and have the benefits of without compromising the level of quality and reliability that you expect from your computer to have consistently.