Overclocking

[flawless]

Could any 1 explain to me what it is exactly is or link me to another thread. Also is it worth doing and is it easy to do?

 

[richc46]

This is just an opinion and meant just to help. I personally do not think that it should be done. This next portion applies to me as much as you, if you have to ask you should have another do it. I have helped on many BSOD, because of overclock. This is a great OS, does not need much help.

Now just wait a bit, the others will come along and say I am wrong.

 

[Kipper]

I personally only overclock when doing a hardware review that calls for stressing the system to see how the hardware performs in some hot and sweaty tests and then keep it at 3.8 to 4.0.

No reason to shorten the life of today's expensive components.

 

[flawless]

This is just an opinion and meant just to help. I personally do not think that it should be done. This next portion applies to me as much as you, if you have to ask you should have another do it. I have helped on many BSOD, because of overclock. This is a great OS, does not need much help.

Now just wait a bit, the others will come along and say I am wrong.

I personally only overclock when doing a hardware review that calls for stressing the system to see how the hardware performs in some hot and sweaty tests and then keep it at 3.8 to 4.0.

No reason to shorten the life of today's expensive components.

Ok. Thanks for your help.

 

[richc46]

I hope that we have helped and that you enjoy the OS as much as I do.

 

[spyknee]

Could any 1 explain to me what it is exactly is or link me to another thread. Also is it worth doing and is it easy to do?

OC'ing is pushing a piece of computer hardware beyond its manfacturers spec'ed settings.

ex: injecting nitrous into a V8.

Will basically shorten the life span of OC'd hardware. Done correctly, most people will have bought a new system before OC'd system dies. You OC, the cpu, the ram, and the video card.

 

[DMHolt57]

I have used Clockgen to increase the FSB only, on a daily basis, without any problems or glitches, for a modest gain of 14%, using an AMD dual core +3800. It seems a bit peppier with it set at 239, standard is 200. No voltage tweaking will ever be completely safe, and as memory gets faster there is hardly any reason these days.

 

[Mellon Head]

Could any 1 explain to me what it is exactly is or link me to another thread. Also is it worth doing and is it easy to do?

- It isn't worth doing. It isn't easy to do, and mistakes are expensive.

Now just wait a bit, the others will come along and say I am wrong.

They might, but I won't.

If you really must OC, do it gently, and for the right reasons. If you want to get a little (and I mean little) bit of extra performance out of some less than top end hardware, then sure. I made my last system perform better by doing it, and I compensated for a hardware limitation. But if you're just after benchmarks and bragging rights with OC nerds, well, they might be impressed, but just remember that women don't usually care too much about how well you can OC that rig, and that's what matters. Especially if the woman is your wife.

And if you can't afford to replace that CPU if you fry it, you have no business overclocking it.

 

[pparks1]

Overclocking is the ability to push your components a little further than they are intended to go. Generally speaking, to do this, you increase the front side bus speeds, multipliers and adjust voltages to the components. Most often the risk of shortened life comes from the increased heat generated by running the components faster.

Overclocking is an art and takes lots of patience. Some components simply cannot go any faster without losing stability, so it's always a matter of trial and error to see what works and what doesn't. But you have to be careful and do things slow, because you can fry your components pretty quickly if you do something a bit too radical too fast.

People overclock because it's free and allows them to tinker. It gives them more performance for the same price as a more expensive chip. However, the actual improvement in day to day tasks is probably almost non-quantifiable...so it's questionable whether the effort is really worth the investment of time.

 

[thefabe]

You've been given good advice. Overclocking is almost an art form. it requires special parts (aftermarket cooling mostly) extensive knowledge of your bios,CPU,Memory, and motherboard.
most often requires raising voltages which creat more heat and shortens the life span of systmem parts.
You can easiy brick your system if not done right, lots of research, not 2 exact systems will overclock the same.
It takes a lot of time trial and erorr and I would only reccomend doing it on a system you can afford to break, it's time consuming and not something anyone can tell you how to do. If your really interested in learning go to forums dedicated to overclocking.
It took me a while t learn how to do it, and now I still do but only just a small overclock.
It originated out of people being able to buy cheaper Cpu's and clock them up to a higher priced one now it's all about benchmark scores and pushing parts to or past their limits no one ever talks about how long the the lifespan is or how much it hs cost them to get their and in my opinion the gain verus risk and lifespan for bragging rights isn't cost efffective.
Although you can learn a lot about Bios and how your hardware works together,voltages,vcore memory timings
cpu mutipliers,plan on a lot of BSOD's no boots, CMOS resets.
This is why I say if you really want to get into overclocking do it on an older system not the one yo need for everyday use. These are just my opinions. Fabe

 

[flawless]

Thanks for all of your advice. I was never really sure what over clocking was and I read some where and heard from a friend that it can improve your pc. After reading all of your posts I can see it's not really worth it and it sounds like you don't get much more for the risk you're takeing if you don't know what you are doing. It also sounds like you need to want to learn about overclocking instead of just wanting a quick way to improve your pc because it's a hard and lengthy process. Thanks for all of your help and I think I will keep clear of overclocking for now XD
I will be sure to rep you all tomorrow as I am on my iPhone now =)

 

[A Guy]

Just generally, and I'm not being a wise guy. OC'ing is one of those things that falls under the category of, "If you have to ask, you shouldn't". It takes some reading starting with what is overclocking, and progresses through is my hardware capable of overclocking, to theory and method. It's not recommended for anyone not prepared, or the faint of heart.


So many new CPU's especially have so much overclocking headroom built in. It as if the manufacturers are saying, here is a great CPU, and oh yeah, if you want to overclock, there's room for that. My i5 750 is a perfect example. it's rated at 2.66GHz. 4.2GHz, 100% stable is very common. Certainly requiring excellent cooling and MB support. But a small overclock such as mine (basically 25%) with turbo and all power saving enabled, barely uses any more power than stock to run, temps are only slightly higher, and longevity should never be an issue.

But I think a dedicated, full time overclock should have a reason. For instance, a gamer trying to wring the last fps out of their games. They may very well do it with the understanding they are stressing their components excessively, but accept the trade off.

Overall, if you know what you are doing, do it right, and don't go crazy, overclocking is an acceptable method to extract the built in performance capabilities of superior hardware.

A Guy

 

[richc46]

Thanks for the comments and the rep. Dont forget to read the great post by AGuy as always he is giving valuable information.

 

[Nemix]

@ A Guy

I don't mean to be hijacking this thread or your comment but you are being sarcastic right? :sarc:

A 25% overclock is in no way a mild overclock speaking in the point of view of beginners. And in the point of view of a self proclaimed overclocker, no amount of overclock is good enough; it's just maybe the person hit a wall, too lazy to try harder or ran out of money and options to get the max overclock potential.

I agree it takes a lot of patience and dedication, not recommended for the faint of heart. But in my humble opinion, it's more like a lost art and a love for the sport.

 

[A Guy]

@ A Guy

I don't mean to be hijacking this thread or your comment but you are being sarcastic right? :sarc:

A 25% overclock is in no way a mild overclock speaking in the point of view of beginners. And in the point of view of a self proclaimed overclocker, no amount of overclock is good enough; it's just maybe the person hit a wall, too lazy to try harder or ran out of money and options to get the max overclock potential.

I agree it takes a lot of patience and dedication, not recommended for the faint of heart. But in my humble opinion, it's more like a lost art and a love for the sport.

No sarcasm. A simple BCLK change from 133MHz to 160MHz with turbo on is by no means an aggressive overclock. As I said in my post, I was advising the beginner not to overclock if he didn't know how and was prepared. I was also pointing out that some hardware is easily capable of even major overclocks. I picked the components of this PC with this exact overclock in mind. This thread was about answering the OP's question.

A Guy

 

[mickey megabyte]

with overclocking, you just have to know when to stop. push it too far and you get an unstable (hence not very useful) system, push it further and you can permanently bork your hardware.

i've clocked my 3 ghz e8400 to 4 ghz, and happily left it there. i'm pretty sure it could go much higher, but i've not tried as i'm happy with my pc as it is - stable and quiet.

unfortunately, i was unlucky with my graphics card - it falls over at 5% overclock, so that runs at stock.

 

[smarteyeball]

- It isn't worth doing.

It certainly can be.

It isn't easy to do,

That's both correct and incorrect.

Correct, in the fact it's not easy to learn what all the settings involved are, and how they impact on other settings etc. Basically, doing it 'safely'.

Incorrect in the fact that it's actually very easy to either download software and bump up a few values, or enter the BIOS and raise a few values (FSB, BCLK etc) with scant regard to other vital settings.

For example, voltage settings are often left on AUTO and the majority of boards tend to overcompensate with excessive and dangerous voltages. (depending on how far the FSB, BCLK is pushed etc).

Using stock cooling and ignoring temperatures is another common error.

and mistakes are expensive.

^^See incorrect.


Done properly (ie keeping within manufacturers 'max safe' VID and temp ranges) - Overclocking is not the big bad hardware killing boogey man.

Obviously Overclocking has the potential to shorten some components lifespans, depending on how far it's pushed, build quality etc - but reading, researching and double-checking goes a long way in potentially alleviating most 'expensive mistakes'.


As to whether or not you need to is entirely an individual choice.

Right hardware + research/knowledge = is worth the performance gains.

Going in balls deep without researching first = Not worth it. Same applies for simple 'bragging rights'.




OP - Bing-oogle overclocking in general first to get an understanding of what is involved.

Then start to Bing-oogle your components and then decide whether it's worth the 'risk' to you.

 

[Nemix]

@ A Guy

Agreed, hope no harm was done with my opinion.

You didn't have to quote me. But, I guess I could learn a little more as each graceful day passes.

 

[A Guy]

The quote was because the reply was to you and not so much the thread. Sometimes it can get confusing. No harm, no worries. A Guy

 

[pparks1]

http://www.sevenforums.com/member.php?u=80769And in the point of view of a self proclaimed overclocker, no amount of overclock is good enough; it's just maybe the person hit a wall, too lazy to try harder or ran out of money and options to get the max overclock potential.

Yeah, there comes a trade-off when the amount of time that you spend going for that "max overclock potential"....negates any performance benefit that you are going to receive from the change. I frequently find that overclocking to many becomes an obsession and eventually you spend all of your time testing, tweaking and upgrading components...but then spend no real time actually making your computer productive.