Overclocking opinions

munoi

munoi

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Hey guys as the title suggests I wanted to get a little insight on how many people actually overclock (cpus, gpus, etc). Can you really see significant gain in games and overall performance with just stock cooling?

Personally I tried to overclock my cpu (6300 Intel) but could only get it to 2.10ghz before my computer wouldn't even boot. I'm wondering if its my mobo, my memory, or even the cpu itself... anyway I just wanted to know if its worth it.

thanks
 
I've tried overclocking before but it just depends on the hardware setups you have. Some go farther than others and some just can't handle it.

Overall for me It just doesn't seem worth the effort imo.
 
I have a 1.9GHZ Athlon X2 Brisbane that I overclocked to a stable 2.56GHz. I could push 3GHz if I replaced my RAM, its my limiting factor right now. I'll probably get around to it down the road.

You need a CPU that overclocks well, the right board, a good heatsink, and depending on your method of overclocking you might need quality RAM. I highly recommend DFI motherboards for overclocking.
 
It may be hit-or-miss with stock cooling but overclocking is worth it for more than just the uber hardcore.

Video card overclocking is incredibly easy. Just bring up the nTune program and there's an option to find the optimal overclock. My 7900GS went from something like 535/660 to 565/800. FPS in games went up noticeably.

CPU on the other hand was a little harder. You need to go through the BIOS and increase the FSB. Also, the benefits are as apparent as the GPU. I OC'd my E4400 from 2.0 to 2.5 and I only gained 1 frame (from 45 to 46). Nothing compared to the GPU's performance increase (closer to 6-9 frames increase).

I always thought overclocking was like turning on an egg timer to when your components would burn up. But it's actually quite easy and can give you great performance increases. Just don't underestimate the power of after market coolers.
 
i overclock anything and everything


ive mentioned before that the opteron 165 is a champ...

stock 1.8 oc'ed to 2.6 currently.. others have take it even higher.

i want to go quad in the near future.. phenom! preferable ddr2 since ddr3 is $$
 
Same as the rest, I overclock all my stuff. No sense wasting potential. Safe CPU overclocking takes awhile having to boot and test constantly, but I find it fun to see how far I can push stuff.
 
yeah, but how do you overclock something that is locked by the manufactorer(in this case, dell)? I was trying to overclock a really old pc from 650mhz to 700mhz, but it was locked. I think i could actually push it up to maybe 1GHZ, but it won't work anyway. Dells suck for pcs now. From now on, i either buy something high end from velocity micro, build my own, or buy a mac. No more dells for me.:D
 
eh, I'm not a fan of OC'ing due to the fact of having to fine tune and worry about system stability. I always say just to buy a powerful enough computer first.
 
[quote name='blackbird3216']yeah, but how do you overclock something that is locked by the manufactorer(in this case, dell)? I was trying to overclock a really old pc from 650mhz to 700mhz, but it was locked. I think i could actually push it up to maybe 1GHZ, but it won't work anyway. Dells suck for pcs now. From now on, i either buy something high end from velocity micro, build my own, or buy a mac. No more dells for me.:D[/quote]

you can use Gigabytes easy tune 5 software.

Its meant to test theoretical Overclocking possibilities, but I know of people with stock machines that use it to overclock.

You'll have to manually enter you overclock everytime you restart your computer tho.
 
[quote name='seen']eh, I'm not a fan of OC'ing due to the fact of having to fine tune and worry about system stability. I always say just to buy a powerful enough computer first.[/quote]

But you can still get more out of those components if you overclock. I'm not trying to say you should, but it's the only way to get the full potential.
 
[quote name='blackbird3216']yeah, but how do you overclock something that is locked by the manufactorer(in this case, dell)? I was trying to overclock a really old pc from 650mhz to 700mhz, but it was locked. I think i could actually push it up to maybe 1GHZ, but it won't work anyway. Dells suck for pcs now. From now on, i either buy something high end from velocity micro, build my own, or buy a mac. No more dells for me.:D[/quote]

Dell, like any other name brand prebuilt, uses a lot of proprietary components not meant to be jacked with. If you're serious about modding and overclocking, building your own is your only option.
 
I got an Intel e4500 which I did a BSEL mod on to make it boot at 266 Mhz bus speed instead of the default 200. Technically this is not really overclocking, but it does run faster and I don't have to fiddle around with BIOS settings.

It should last me until quad cores are available in my price range.
 
[quote name='seen']eh, I'm not a fan of OC'ing due to the fact of having to fine tune and worry about system stability. I always say just to buy a powerful enough computer first.[/QUOTE]
This site is about being cheap and getting the most bang for your buck. I say, buying a $99 processor and overclocking it to the speed of a $299 processor is worth the effort.

Plus, for many its a hobby. I know I enjoy it.
 
[quote name='dafoomie']Plus, for many its a hobby. I know I enjoy it.[/quote]

That is really what it is all about. Building your own machine and overclocking it is more to me about the entertainment than the benefits. Am I going to notice a 1 or 2 FPS difference in a game? Probably not... I'm just doing it for the fun.

I always thought of it as similiar to people who like to work on cars, only computers are about 10% as expensive :p
 
[quote name='SpecTrE3353']...I always thought of it as similiar to people who like to work on cars, only computers are about 10% as expensive :p[/quote]

And they don't cover you in grease, and don't bloody your knuckles, and don't burn the skin off your arms, and don't kill you when they fall on you...
 
My sig tells it, I'm at 3.3 on a Q6600, so that's a 900 MHz gain, a 37.5% increase in power for free.

I'm using a $8 heatsink/fan combo (just sorted by price and bought the cheapest one), so I can't say stock, but I doubt stock cooling would be much worse.

I'm also still using the "AUTO" setting for core voltage and have decent temperatures, so I could probably go higher. I just don't see the need since this thing never goes to 100%.
 
[quote name='Richard Longfellow']Dell, like any other name brand prebuilt, uses a lot of proprietary components not meant to be jacked with. If you're serious about modding and overclocking, building your own is your only option.[/quote]10 years ago sure, but not so much now. About the only thing thats proprietary in any brand computer now is the CPU/MB. They are branded CPUs just configured for special sockets, like if you take a dell CPU and put it into another MB, might not work. MBs are still made by MB manufacturers, find your model number and google it, might be able to put a differnt bios in there that would allow you to clock it. Potential for bricking can be high though.
 
[quote name='Lupuri']10 years ago sure, but not so much now. About the only thing thats proprietary in any brand computer now is the CPU/MB. They are branded CPUs just configured for special sockets, like if you take a dell CPU and put it into another MB, might not work. MBs are still made by MB manufacturers, find your model number and google it, might be able to put a differnt bios in there that would allow you to clock it. Potential for bricking can be high though.[/quote]

you can use overclocking software with any propieratary hardware and it wont make you re install a new bios or anything like that.

And chances are if you bought a dell computer, you wont be getting much out of it by going through all that trouble anyway.
 
There's hardly any trouble involved, and if you call it "effort", you're just lazy.. It takes like 5 minutes to run through your settings, maybe. New processors and memory are hard to burn out; your computer will lock up and freeze before any damage is done. That's when you go in and lower your settings a bit.

I've got a 2.1ghz Core 2 duo overclocked to 3.0ghz, stock cooling. Took me a couple of minutes to go in and change.
 
[quote name='Koggit']I'm also still using the "AUTO" setting for core voltage and have decent temperatures, so I could probably go higher. I just don't see the need since this thing never goes to 100%.[/quote]

There isn't any need. Changing your CPU voltage is only effective when you're pushing it up to a speed where it doesn't have enough power to go at that rate.
 
[quote name='red flare graf']There isn't any need. Changing your CPU voltage is only effective when you're pushing it up to a speed where it doesn't have enough power to go at that rate.[/QUOTE]

The "AUTO" setting adjusts the voltage based on the FSB... so it's currently overvolted, when it doesn't necessarily need to be, making it run hotter than it needs to. Hence why I think I could clock it higher if it wasn't on AUTO.
 
[quote name='red flare graf']There's hardly any trouble involved, and if you call it "effort", you're just lazy.. It takes like 5 minutes to run through your settings, maybe. New processors and memory are hard to burn out; your computer will lock up and freeze before any damage is done. That's when you go in and lower your settings a bit.

I've got a 2.1ghz Core 2 duo overclocked to 3.0ghz, stock cooling. Took me a couple of minutes to go in and change.[/quote]
clearing out and finding a new bios, then tweaking it to its maximum is quite a bit of trouble, especially for rig that really wont benefit at all from it.

Ive got the gigabyte p35 board, with a dual core 2.0 Allendale, havent overclocked it at all.
 
If you have to do all that, then it isn't really a matter of trouble or effort, there's just not a reason to.

Why haven't you overclocked with your P35? They're supposed to be good for it.. I've got a 965P and overclocked right out of the box, simple as hell.
 
[quote name='red flare graf']If you have to do all that, then it isn't really a matter of trouble or effort, there's just not a reason to.

Why haven't you overclocked with your P35? They're supposed to be good for it.. I've got a 965P and overclocked right out of the box, simple as hell.[/quote]

I just dont understand how to do it with this board, since you can only up the system bus its kind of wierd.

Ive upped it before, but I just never really pushed it and went back to default.

But it does have some really awesome options so that you really dont even have to overclock.
 
I've got my E4400 (2.0Ghz) up to 3.07Ghz. I tried to go up to 3.10 but windows and CPUZ said it was back to 2.0. Am I hitting a ceiling or this some sort of anti-overheating thingy? My temps are still super low (43c under load) and I'd like to OC it even more. Maybe it's an issue with the voltage... I haven't touched that yet.
 
[quote name='SpreadTheWord']I've got my E4400 (2.0Ghz) up to 3.07Ghz. I tried to go up to 3.10 but windows and CPUZ said it was back to 2.0. Am I hitting a ceiling or this some sort of anti-overheating thingy? My temps are still super low (43c under load) and I'd like to OC it even more. Maybe it's an issue with the voltage... I haven't touched that yet.[/quote]
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core2duo-e6420_11.html

you're right at about the ceiling of our brand of chips.

So i think you're hitting a wall.

Not many people, depeding on the version of your chip go past 3.2 with the e4400 Allendales, so Id say 3.07 is probably YOUR max.

But if you up your voltage you could probably definately get way more out of the chip, up the voltage 1 step and see what happens. If it still gives you problems, up the voltage a second step but that second step will probably be your last.
 
since my system is winding down already and im thinking of upgrading in a few months..

i decided to try to push my pc even further..

i got my opty (1.8 dual core) to hit the 2.9 mark... thats insane. I was really trying to hit the 3.0 mark but i just couldnt... im proud of my system even though i doubt it ran fully stable at that speed.
 
[quote name='p00ndawg']http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core2duo-e6420_11.html

you're right at about the ceiling of our brand of chips.

So i think you're hitting a wall.

Not many people, depeding on the version of your chip go past 3.2 with the e4400 Allendales, so Id say 3.07 is probably YOUR max.

But if you up your voltage you could probably definately get way more out of the chip, up the voltage 1 step and see what happens. If it still gives you problems, up the voltage a second step but that second step will probably be your last.[/QUOTE]


I have an e4300, 1.8, overclocked to 3.0 (333 fsb with a 9x multiplier) and have had no problems. I would think that an e4400 would be able to do 333 fsb x10 multiplier with ease.
 
[quote name='dodgeme']how far do u think i could take my Fatal!ty Geforce 8500 gt video card. It was preoverclocked a very little.[/quote]


man i dont think your going to get too much out of those performance wise. you can try though.

check out ntune by nvidia.
 
i tweaked my p4 prescott from a 3.0 to a 3.3 on an abit ic7-g, all stock cooling. RAM was an issue, so replaced my pny/infinion 512x2 with 1 gig mushkin. Had the cpu up to a 3.5, but things got hot since i'm still running stock cooling, so backed off a little. Abit boards include overclocking programs (the IS-7 is fun to play with) as for graphics, with the few games i play, FPS is never an issue with my current card, so it's still stock, so can't help with that
 
not sure how those old p4's did but the c2d line is a dream to oc. very little temp change as well

but again im waiting to see how the new phenoms turn out..
 
[quote name='guyver2077']not sure how those old p4's did but the c2d line is a dream to oc. very little temp change as well

but again im waiting to see how the new phenoms turn out..[/QUOTE]

This P4 is pushing 5 years of hard abuse being o/c'd from day one. Just set the bios to warn if it gets within 5 degrees of my set emp limit, wich aside from the o/c 3.5, never has gone off.

This rig is getting old but still runs/handles anything I throw at it (havn't tried any new games, mainly only use doom3+expansion apck, and ut2004-doom mainly for the benchmark feature)

Waiting on some price drops to make a new setup-current config is 4,500ish for what I want.
And yes, i'll be stepping away from ATI on the next one (hate thier cheap warrenties now)
 
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