Ok so I downloaded Droid X Overclock, and I'm not sure what all of the setting mean... If someone would take the time to answer these questions in re-re terminology I would REALLY appreciate it. I've read the thread about Overclocking but I got lost in all the terminology. I'm a first time Android user so this is all kinda new to me.
1) CPU Frequence Scaling. What does the Max do and what does the Min do?
2) What is a Mhz?
3) Why are there 3 different settings for Mhz?
4) How exactly do the Mhz settings affect the phone performance/battery life?
5) I understand that overclocking takes a little more battery to perform better but how do the Mhz's apply to this?
6) How can you check tell how many Ghz your phone is operating at?
7) What is a kernel and how does it apply to all of this!?
Thanx..
The others posted good info, but I'll say one bit....
1. Just like computers, there is generally no need to overclock a device until it falls behind the status quo enough to require it. Everything else is bragging rights. If you need weatherbug to load up .2 seconds faster than the guy with the Droid X next to you, it's only because you really want to show off. When the phone gets older, it may be an important issue, but right now, this is a very fast smartphone.
2. You're potentially taxing the wear and tear on the battery, and important parts of the electronics by doing so. Heat = damage. If you keep it in limits, that's fine, but you can really reduce the longevity of any electronics by running it hotter than intended.
3. Overclocking is ok, if done properly, and within the limits of the device, but it can require lots of testing to sort out what those limits are.
4. See #1.
5. Underlocking can potentially be a good thing, but the Droid X does this, to some extent, on its own. Just like most modern CPUs, it will downgrade its speed as needed. You can go a step further, and limit the maximum, particularly if you want to stretch battery life to the longest it can be. Luckily, the Droid X is actually very good on battery life, left on its own. The apps you have loaded will be more of an issue, in general, but of course keeping the screen on will be very taxing, as will large downloads, graphic intensive games, and anything else that requires it to run at heavy loads.
/If you really want to overclock, by all means research it, carefully. Less is better than more. Don't try to go for the highest clock setting. Phones aren't watercooled gaming rigs, and you can't just replace the cpu on a whim, or the gpu, or the memory.
//And the mother of all suggestions, from me, is don't force it to happen after a re-boot. If you really need the speed, you can take the quick moment to set it to overclock after each re-boot. You'll get more performance by making sure apps aren't using up lots of resources behind the scenes, anyways. If there's some reason that it isn't cutting it for you, post here, and maybe someone can get an idea of what's causing the slowdown.
