Filed under: Hacks, Xserve, Mac Pro
ZDNet Mac Pro and Xserve overclocking tool
One area that the Mac has long lagged behind its PC counterparts is in custom tuning, particularly overclocking. With the Intel Macs this has naturally started to change, though the toolset for overclocking in OS X has been rather barebones. So it's interesting to see that the German division of ZDNet has released the ZDNet Clock tool for OS X.Using the ZDNet Clock tool Mac Pro and Xserve owners (and those only) can boost the processor, front side bus, and memory frequency resulting in a not insignificant "free" performance gain. It should be noted that overclocking puts a strain on the hardware and should be used with caution as it's certainly possible to damage your Mac. Furthermore, there are several side effects in OS X including distorted system time and problems when waking from sleep (the overclocking is disabled on wake). Nonetheless, for those of you out there lucky enough to have a Mac Pro (or Xserve) and crazy enough to push your hardware to the edge may want to have a look.
The ZDNet Clock tool is a free download from ZDNet (the link is in German, click the Jetzt herunterladen button to start the download) and requires a Mac Pro or Xserve running Leopard.
[via AppleInsider]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
steve ballmer said 4:55PM on 6-29-2008
Nac owners are crazy anyways!
http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com
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Arcsbite said 4:57PM on 6-29-2008
This just makes my mac pro freeze up...wonder why, woulda been nice to play with :(
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drewgaren said 8:47PM on 6-29-2008
Be nice if we can use it on other Mac's like some of the notebooks. I would love to overclock my MBA just a tad.
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lanejasper69 said 10:02PM on 6-29-2008
I over clocked my Mac Pro 8-core by 10% as suggested, and my fan went nuts!!! then machine rebooted and the fan remained on like a jet engine, so I launched the Appa again and took it back down to normal settings, rebooted and everything fine, but not overclocked. Can anyone report successful overcloking without the fan screaming etc.? I'm kinda scared and might just leave it alone. I have a 8-core Intel Core 2 Dup 2.8 with 6GB Apple Memory. 800FSB
Thanks,
Lane
Would love to overclok it at least 1/2 way maybe, but a bit skeptical and scared I'll fry something.
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bung said 9:25PM on 6-30-2008
8 core Core 2 Duo? I'm pretty sure you actually have 8 cores worth of Xeon. Core 2 Duo is a dual core processor, so there'd have to be 4 processors in there to get 8 cores. I don't think any of the Mac Pros have ever been released with Core (2) Duos. Anyway, I've been running my 2x2.8GHx Quad Xeons overclocked up to 2.996, without any trouble. Haven't done anything intense yet though so haven't a- noticed any improvement or b- had any issues resembling what you described. Those two factors might prove to be dependent on one another... :)
lanejasper69 said 9:56AM on 7-01-2008
Yeah, Xeon, oops...my bad, I did get up to 2.835 not much gain but maybe my ram doesn't like the OC'ing etc.. Oh well, still a screamer!!! Thanks for sharing your results though!! :-)
Cheers
Lane
Jash Sayani said 6:24AM on 6-30-2008
Is this SAFE ????
My Mac works fine and I dont want to screw it up!
But, If it will help in running my Mac faster without screwing up, then I can try....
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eric f. said 9:04AM on 6-30-2008
I am lucky enough to have a 3.2 8 core Mac Pro, but not crazy enough to use this.
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kris said 9:42AM on 6-30-2008
Just to clarify overclocking to some; typically people say you MAY damage your hardware to cover their asses if you do. In my experience (PC gamer) the worst overclocking has done was lock up my machine, and the only thing I needed to do was reset my BIOS. Modern computers have systems in place to make sure you can't physically harm your system by overclocking, and I think you'd find it somewhat difficult to do so.
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Mat Lu said 3:17PM on 6-30-2008
My primary worry vis-a-vis hardware damage is heat.
Libb said 7:25PM on 6-30-2008
Overclocking may not do immediate damage to your hardware, but over time, excess heat and/or voltage exposure WILL shorten the life expectancy of your CPU, motherboard, and memory. If you are willing to replace your computer in the next 3-5 years instead of 5-7, then it shouldn't be a problem, but just know that any overclocking does have long-term effects.
-Libb (posting this on a custom-built PC with a C2D E7200, normally running @ 2.53GHz, currently OCed to 3.0GHz, with more to come soon...)
lanejasper69 said 10:31AM on 6-30-2008
I don't think it'ss screw up as I did get it to around a 16% increase, and tried to go one more notch and then locked up, restarted and set back to that 16% mark again and it froze again. SO, I think the app is :
A. either unstable, or B. M Mac doesn't want to over clock, either way, I'm not going there with this any longer until I know. I'm luck as one stated above to even have a Mac Pro 8-core and certainly am not going to continue to try this in fear of doing permanent damage to cpu, ram, or motherboard etc. you never know, it could happen, I've fried a few on the pc side of things so I'm done.
Faslane
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jonnyfive said 11:18AM on 6-30-2008
I was able to over-clock successfully, performance gains were mild, probably not worth using this tool for.
What it does is actually increase the system bus speed by overwriting the clock chip's frequency. Since the OS takes it's system time using the system clock chip as an oscillator (why?) it will actually speed up time for the computer your CLOCK will run faster... which makes this terribly inconvenient.
Unfortunately, intel has hard-wired the speed of the processor into the silicon, and traditional overclocking of modern processors isn't very possible.
Any instability as a result of this tool is likely due to ram issues. On a system with only apple shipped ram it worked great, up until the 3146 threshold (on a 2.8 8-core) that the developer suggests (after that point instability is unavoidable)
With third party ram installed, instant cluster-f
Remember to delete this tool and clear the var/logs/system.log file before toting your pro into the genius bar after you break it.
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paul said 11:21AM on 6-30-2008
i cannot get this to work either. as others have noted, it freezes my MP, then when i reboot the fan goes nuts and all settings are back to normal.
i'd love to overclock... oh well.
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Michael said 12:23PM on 7-03-2008
Well, it worked for me, and pretty stable too (Mac Pro 2x2.66Mb, 6Mb RAM) - but the fact that it made my clock run fast makes it a non-starter for me, as it imprints creation dates on any files with the incorrect time, making version control a real problem - I use creation dates to check for most recent versions when sending proofs and comps to clients, for example. Too bad, the speed increase was definitely noticeable.
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Axel said 9:50AM on 9-19-2008
If you reboot after setting a higher speed your system clock will run normally. I can run my Mac Pro 8 x 2.8 GHZ safely at 3.15 GHz without hiccups or having the fans running faster. The speed gain is noticeable when I render in Final Cut Pro.
Al said 2:12PM on 7-07-2008
This is not what it appears, other apps such as VMWARE FUSION will not run correctly. Apps such as this, that need access to the system timer themselves will run for a few minutes then blow up (just appear to stop working).
Be very careful as this app has not been (fully) tested by anybody who knows what they are doing.
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