Am i wasting resources?

T

tom736928

Weaksauce
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Mar 14, 2010
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Im thinking of starting to "learn" how to overclock. Im currently using an i7 920 at 2.66 . I am using a thermalright venomous X CPU cooler.However i feel that im not really putting the venomous x to any real use by not overclocking. Does anyone have any input on this ?
 
the heatsink is keeping your processor cool at stock speeds, therefore you are increasing it's lifespan :)

Can't offer any input, it's your own personal experience. Do you want any encoding or games to be faster? If you don't have any reason to overclock, you don't need to overclock. You aren't being very [H]ard though.
 
Am i wasting resources?
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By not overclocking a i7 920 chip that can easily do 3.3 GHz with no change in voltage I believe you are wasting potential performance. However if you do not need the extra performance I you are saving some power.
 
I wouldn't say you're "wasting" resources as the Venomous X is still cooling your CPU (and better/quieter than the stock Intel heatsink). And from an econ perspective, the heatsink is a sunk cost because you already spent the money; you can either use it or not. Another thing to consider is that the harder you push an OC, your power use increases and becomes less efficient. Depending on what you do with all that speed, the trade-off may indeed be "a waste" as nobody needs 4ghz to play Solitaire and Word.

That said, you might as well try overclocking if you're interested in boosting your computer's performance; with the Venomous X you aren't really in danger of setting your CPU on fire.
 
drescherjm said:
By not overclocking a i7 920 chip that can easily do 3.3 GHz with no change in voltage I believe you are wasting potential performance. However if you do not need the extra performance I you are saving some power.
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that's true, he's actually conserving power and therefore saving our planet's resources :p
 
Its just that its a fairly new pc and i've no experience in overclocking at all, am afraid i might just cause unnecessary problems. Why fix something thats working. On the other hand if im gaming on eyefinity mode, would clocking the CPU increase the performance in gaming? Or is that overclocking the graphic card instead.
 
Its just that its a fairly new pc and i've no experience in overclocking at all
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Just raise the BCLK a little (5 to 10 MHz) and then run Intel Burn Test maximum to test stability. If you want use the machine for 2 weeks before repeating this step..

would clocking the CPU increase the performance in gaming?
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Depends on the game. There are games that are CPU bound and there are games that are GPU bound. Today most are GPU bound as designers do not target the highest end CPU.
 
I think i'll try it with my old gaming system so if anything fucks up i wont be pissed.
 
You generally can not harm your system if you keep the voltages the default and stay within reason. Do not try for 5GHz. You can harm stability however. But that will be reversible by backing off the setting that caused you to hit the instability.
 
A mild OC on an i7 is usually even easier than on an FSB based machine. Just turn up the BCLK a bit and there you are.
 
Maybe someone could help me out with a step by step beginner guide starting from the BIOS page ? :)
 
the.ronin said:
When you don't oc a 920 at least at stock vcore, a kitten dies.
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+1 agreed

I mean really at stock voltages and temps you run no risk of immediate pc damage. as electronic components experience wear and tear working them harder is going to break them in faster and potentially decrease the life of the pc but in many cases you can achieve the exact opposite. when I began my overclock on my 860 I started by finding the lowest voltages my system would run on at stock settings. using these versus what my mobo selects automagically I will get longer life with a stock speed "overclock" so to speak bc my temps dropped, I wasn't operating outside of intels spec, and I wasn't pushing the processor harder than it was meant to.

moral of the story, whether you need the performance or not...if u like saving money overclock and tweak your computer. you can get a much nicer system without any real short term risks and the average life of even oc'd machines is longer than most are willing to keep a computer anyway. overclock and cool correctly and you will gain nothing but good things.
 
so if i dont tweak with the voltage, i should not be causing any system instability ?
 
yes at stock voltages you can cause instability. What everyone here is trying to say is that at stock voltages you will not harm your computer. Instability is easily reversed by changing the setting back to when they were stable. This is why you bump up the speed in small increments and then test.
 
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