Liquid nitrogen-cooled MSI Wind U100 overclocked to 2.3GHz

When MSI rolled out its v1.09 BIOS, we're willing to wager it absolutely did not have anything like this in mind. The mad scientists in Team Australia are at it again, this time overclocking a netbook to the point (almost, anyway) of implosion. The unafraid members grabbed hold of a hopeless Wind U100 with 2GB of RAM, hooked up a little liquid nitrogen and proceeded to push the poor 1.6GHz Atom N270 CPU to an amazing 2.385GHz. No telling how quickly the whole thing was over, but still, this is pretty ridiculous, mate.

[strider_mt2k @ Nov 25th 2008 8:03AM]

That's pretty cool, uhh hot, uhh...

Nice work!

[OneLove @ Nov 25th 2008 10:22AM]

why?

[Jon @ Nov 25th 2008 10:56AM]

4ºC can be considered "cool" :)

[strider_mt2k @ Nov 25th 2008 6:13PM]

Why not?

[Dopefish @ Nov 25th 2008 8:03AM]

This is in true "because we can" style ;-)

[Thunderbuck @ Nov 25th 2008 1:28PM]

Not unlike hooking a Geo Metro up with nitrous...

[Shinigami @ Nov 25th 2008 8:11AM]

Some crazy overclockers had lots of free time, MSI Windo U100, a spare tank of liquid nitrogen and were totally bored. Or so it seems.

[Shinigami @ Nov 25th 2008 8:12AM]

Whats next? Nokia N95 overclocked to 500mhz under liquid nitrogen showing awesome java benchmark results?

[eiki @ Nov 25th 2008 9:02AM]

nope, gives a good idea of the limitations of the architecture, how stable and hot at overclock, the future of the Atom single core, what we can expect from future netbooks, so handy in that sense

[iEye @ Nov 25th 2008 8:21AM]

Kinda pointless, like tuning a Ford Festiva with jet fuel to make it go 0-60 in 4 sec., Yea pretty impressive for a shite box, but there are other normal cars that can do it without jet fuel...

[Csmitty @ Nov 25th 2008 8:45AM]

It would probably make it slower if it ran at all. The detonation would be horrible. I think it's equivalent to 53. Now Avgas would be different. Or in sc you can get like 105 at the pump.

[Skittles @ Nov 25th 2008 9:08AM]

Some people are born as idiots...others...they just have this life long urge to blow themselves up with jet fuel !!

[FOREX @ Nov 25th 2008 9:13AM]

FYI... Jet fuel is actually keroseen... kerosene, being less flamable then gasoline, would not cause your festive to run well. It would be more like a new mac book, without its battery in than an exploding iPod.

[010111 @ Nov 25th 2008 9:45PM]

i'm sure you think you are just making some ridiculous hyperbole or something... but pretty much any car enthusiast worth his salt is quite well aware of the Festiva-based SHOgun.

a Ford / Yamaha SHO 3.0L V6 mounted mid-ship in a Festiva.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Festiva#The_SHOgun

http://www.motorcities.com/media/image/640/05J98293125700A/1990-Ford-Festiva-ShoGun-A.jpeg

you said 0-60 in 4 seconds... 4.6 in a SHOgun. close enough.

due to extreme rarity... the SHOgun is most likely worth well more that any car you own.

[Steve @ Nov 25th 2008 8:24AM]

One word; badass.

[Chris @ Nov 25th 2008 8:25AM]

I have a 2.6 Ghz Intel something. Could I overclock it to like 2.8 without negative side effects? If so, with what program?

[Chris @ Nov 25th 2008 8:26AM]

I'm not sure exactly what processor it is since I am not at home, I'm using the provided MacBooks in our English 'Classroom for the Future'

[Kizorblade @ Nov 25th 2008 8:29AM]

The BIOS is your friend, and probably no side effects assuming you've got decent cooling (However I think that a 200mhz increase should be enough for the stock cooler to handle)
You might have a decreased life expectancy for your chip though, although again, due to the sliiiiight increase in clock speed, it probably wouldn't do anything measurable.

Oh, and to the rest: If I'm wrong or missing out on anything, prove me wrong. I haven't overclocked something in AAAAGES :(

[Kizorblade @ Nov 25th 2008 8:30AM]

Oh, and Macs don't overclock (with the exception of the Mac Pro)

:^\

[KilgoreTrout @ Nov 25th 2008 8:40AM]

No real point in doing that.
Moreover it won't play crysis anyway.

[kadajawi @ Nov 25th 2008 10:18AM]

Overclocking is an art that is hard to be mastered. No, not really. Still, it all really depends on your components, so giving advice here really doesn't help. But 2.6 to 2.8 GHz doesn't sound like much, so that shouldn't be a problem, but again, your components. Does your motherboard support it? How? Only BIOS or is there software under Windows to do it? Will your RAM still be stable when OCed? What about the temperature? There are enough forums and websites dedicated to this, so enjoy reading.

Nice overclock, though I'd expect LN2 to archive better results. 1.6 to 2.3 GHz isn't really that impressive. And yeah, pointless but cool.

[csmitty @ Nov 25th 2008 8:34AM]

Is that a LN canister in your pocket or are you just happy to see me.

[andres @ Nov 25th 2008 10:01PM]

OH GOD MAH BALLS ARE FREEZING

[matt @ Nov 25th 2008 8:41AM]

this is so awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Pete @ Nov 25th 2008 8:44AM]

It took liquid nitrogen to get a 1.6Ghz chip to go to 2.3?!?! What the hell kinda heat does that chip put out?

[Marko @ Nov 25th 2008 8:54AM]

Considering it only uses 4w, probably not very much!
But it probably just doesn't like overclocking otherwise!

[MarbleMind @ Nov 25th 2008 9:01AM]

You know, until 2.2 GHz, the increase in heat output is barely measurable with an industrial class computer thermometer, but as soon as you go a bit above that, the supporting micro-thermonuclear safety IC, elaborately camouflaged as southbridge, automatically kicks in to stabilize the die's structural integrity, reducing the risk of sudden gamma ray bursts that may or may not turn your brain into a bubbling mush.

[kal326 @ Nov 25th 2008 9:16AM]

I am thinking it was more of a lack of proper mounting options for a regular HS. Since if you look at the pictures it doesn't even appear to have a heat pipe cooler, just what looks to be an aluminum sink with a blower next too it. If you could have gotten a traditional CPU HS to keep good contact that probably would have been more then able to keep the OC Atom cool. Looks like it was just easier to cool a large area of the board with liquid nitrogen.

[Ian @ Nov 25th 2008 9:45AM]

Its not even a heatsink in it stock. Its a flat piece of aluminum that gets air blown over it.

[Ashley @ Nov 25th 2008 8:44AM]

I regularly run my MSI Wind with no change in cooling at 2GHz and it's totally stable so I don't find this surprising at all. The only surprise is how little difference the extra cooling makes.

[skittles @ Nov 25th 2008 8:46AM]

If i was to pour liquid nitrogen over my dogs head would he run at more or less 70% faster.....or do i need that 2 gigs of ram ??

Wait no thats cruelty to animals.....and machines......

[dog and laptop barks in agreement in the background]

[EK @ Nov 25th 2008 9:01AM]

THREE WORDS: This Is Stupid

[eiki @ Nov 25th 2008 9:03AM]

that's what your mum said at your birth

[bureX @ Nov 25th 2008 9:12AM]

The 3cell battery inside this thing is probably gasping for air.

Now that you mention pushing low-end CPUs to the limit, I remember that I used to overclock my Palm m515 with a hack called AfterBurner... It did work, performing somewhat faster, but draining the battery way more quicker. The add-on keyboard didn't actually work at all when OCd, but meh, I did it for the lulz, and actually got some when half of my apps started crashing abnormally.

[bureX @ Nov 25th 2008 9:14AM]

Grammar nazi fail.

[cheng @ Nov 25th 2008 9:18AM]

In "American" there is no such word as "mum" but there is in English.

[Ian @ Nov 25th 2008 9:43AM]

So... mine his 2.0Ghz with nothing done to it. I should make it unusable for 300mhz? I'll pass.

[iv @ Nov 25th 2008 9:44AM]

Actually, given the relatively advanced manufacturing process of Atom (remember - 45 nm, high-K, etc), 2.4 GHz seems very, very low. Either the CPU design has something intrinsic that fails at high frequencies or some other part of the system failed first - RAM, chipset, etc.

[r3loaded @ Nov 25th 2008 9:45AM]

Yet another futile argument between Brits and Americans...you both understood each other, what's your problem?

[JerkyChew @ Nov 25th 2008 9:53AM]

I don't get it, how did they get 2GB of RAM in there? I thought all the Atom single core CPUs were chipset limited to 1GB?

[mian @ Nov 27th 2008 11:58PM]

Negative. The most limited atom 270 netbook that comes to mind is the Acer Aspire One, which has a max of 1.5 gigs because it has 512mb soldered to the board and the single available slot maxes at 1 gig--the mobo's doing, not the Atom's.

And to the post, virtually every Atom netbook can go to 1.9ghz on air without instability, so while anything involving liquid nitrogen is, uh, cool, 2.38 tells you just how little overhead the atom 270 has to work with. I'm eager for the next generation of netbook processors so the ASUS n10j's configuration can become a little more common.
---
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[dukemang @ Nov 25th 2008 10:24AM]

Because nothing says Netbook like the nitrogen tank accessory.

[Major4Play @ Nov 25th 2008 10:57AM]

Whats really funny is Americans correcting people from the UK.
What is the language called again ? E-N-G-L-I-S-H

Do French Canadians hang around on French websites correcting spelling and grammar ? The mind boggles.

[jwilson02 @ Nov 25th 2008 11:01AM]

You do realize you said "MOM said know such thing" dont you? If your willing to correct someone else's grammar, start by saying "MOM said no such thing". No and Know are two different words in case your mom failed to enroll you in preschool because she thought this was all stupid.

[benven @ Nov 25th 2008 11:11AM]

its funny they can do all this and still have no clue how to take a screencap XD

[Nihility @ Nov 25th 2008 11:25AM]

Probably not stable enough to take a screen cap. You actually believe they don't know how to take a screen cap?

[LP @ Nov 25th 2008 11:54AM]

you're

[asdffdsa @ Nov 25th 2008 12:32PM]

this is like putting a $5000 turbo charger in a $1900 Honda Civic. Pointless.

[patrick @ Nov 25th 2008 12:38PM]

You just have to love the utter insanity of this!

[digitallysick @ Nov 25th 2008 1:47PM]

Doesn't seem like that high of an overclock, but required liquid nitrogen. So i guess the atom can't overclock that well