Return Of The Turbo Button
The Erazer X700’s overclock button works with software to modify firmware. The button did not function for us when we tried to make changes using a different system drive. Changing the drive with Overclocking enabled caused it to remain enabled, and changing the drive with Overclocking disabled caused it to remain disabled.
Multipliers range up to 43x, which should be viable at the default overclocked voltage, as long as the mid-sized cooler’s liquid temperature is low. We found power throttling to be an issue, rather than thermal throttling, with the system drawing around 341 watts from the wall while fluctuating between 4.1 and 4.3 GHz.
We collected benchmark data using Lenovo’s default overclock of 3.9 GHz at 1.4 V. These parameters can be changed in BIOS, but the settings don’t stick unless they’re applied by the software application.
We wanted to try a lower overclock voltage to overcome power throttling, but software limitations thwarted that effort. Though firmware allowed increases from 0/256s of a volt and 25/256s of a volt over stock, those settings don't persist through a reboot.
We were also unable to play with RAM settings. The X700's firmware has memory ratios corresponding to DDR3-800 through DDR3-1600, but its timings menu isn’t selectable.
