Is OCing worth it?

Heh Nearly every processor I have owned going back to a Pentium 60 (Yes the ORIGINAL Pentium) Has been overclocked. I see it as almost a hobby these days.... its fun...
 
Sure it's not good for your processor, nor is it bad for it. If the voltages and temps are kept under control, it's perfectly safe.

The one (yes one) CPU I've killed died through physical damage. I had a motherboard with an in socket temperature probe that stuck up too far and knocked a resistor off the bottom of an AXP 1700+.



Where are these people coming from? I always thought that this site catered to the people looking to push their personal tech as [H]ard as they can...

I always thought the underlying mantra around here was "If it ain't broke, fix it till it is." In other words: push your gear to the edge of stability, then bring it back a couple of mhz.

Hey Kyle - Have you registered oftocp.com yet?

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Now as for the question "Is it worth it?" That is completely up to the individual.

There is little risk and depending on what games you play and apps you run there is plenty to gain.


Little risk? LOL

That is rich.....

Let me see here, there is a risk of frying your chip. A risk of killing your motherboard and or video card. Dude, it is ALL risk haha...If it wasen't a risk to clock our Intel chips 500 or 1000MHz above stock then why didn't Intel release them at the faster speed in the first place? Could it be because at such faster speeds the chips could burn out? LOL

I OC my video cards but usually leave my CPU at stock speeds. I'll pay the extra cash to have the faster speed default knowing I don't have to fuck around with this and that and know pretty much everytime I boot my PC it will run problem free. Also I don't need 20 fucking case fans to keep my hardware cool enough to run without melting a hole in my floor. You guys crack me up!
 
Little risk? LOL

That is rich.....

Let me see here, there is a risk of frying your chip. A risk of killing your motherboard and or video card. Dude, it is ALL risk haha...If it wasen't a risk to clock our Intel chips 500 or 1000MHz above stock then why didn't Intel release them at the faster speed in the first place? Could it be because at such faster speeds the chips could burn out? LOL

I OC my video cards but usually leave my CPU at stock speeds. I'll pay the extra cash to have the faster speed default knowing I don't have to fuck around with this and that and know pretty much everytime I boot my PC it will run problem free. Also I don't need 20 fucking case fans to keep my hardware cool enough to run without melting a hole in my floor. You guys crack me up!

Given that he is here for advice it is unlikely he will be stupid with the settings he uses.
Just because there are settings that can cause damage doesnt mean they will be used.

Creating delusional arguments for something that isnt even being discussed is a bit crass you think?
 
If it wasen't a risk to clock our Intel chips 500 or 1000MHz above stock then why didn't Intel release them at the faster speed in the first place? Could it be because at such faster speeds the chips could burn out?

It's not all about about burning out the chip. There are many factors that go into setting the frequency for a chip. Steppings are designed to work at a certain frequency (+ headroom) at 100C for a certain number of years. Then wafers are produced and the chips get binned. They get binned primarily because in the process of producing chips flaws are introduced. Few chips will be able to run at the design frequency and at 100C. However most cores will be able to meet the lowest frequency the Intel sells. Remember in this binning process the highest frequency for a stepping and the lowest frequency for a stepping were created exactly the same on the same silicon and they cost exactly the same to manufacture. Setting the frequency for a chip is about probabilities and/or testing. Testing to ensure 100% stability costs a lot of money and time. Intel does not have the time rigorously test every single desktop core to verify that it will be 100% stable at 100C and marked with the highest frequency it can be sold for. As a result many chips can be able to run stable at a higher than what they are sold. On top of these reasons there are also market reasons, a certain number of each frequency need to be produced. People generally have a very high demand for the lower priced chips so if there is not enough to meet demand some cores that can run at higher frequency get marked as lower frequency chips.

This is not all, I said nothing about improvements in the process over time which generate a higher percentage of higher frequency cores and also market reasons not to clock a chip higher. One example of this is even though higher frequencies could be produced in the core2 lines you will not see any.

Also there are also power envelopes and voltage ranges that need to be met..
 
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Hey guys, I have the i7 920 running at the untouched 2.67 GHz. I pretty much just use the computer for high-end gaming. I have never overclocked before so it would take me a lot of extra time to learn and make sure I am doing everything right, since the penalty for messing up can be no fun.

Anyways, would overclocking to 3.5-3.6 GHz be worth it for gaming? Would I see any improvement in framerate which would allow me to increase Crysis and Arma2 graphics?

In other words, I don't need the bragging rights. I just want to squeeze the highest quality graphics that I can.

Its definitely worth it if you're a high end gamer, as some have mentioned some games are GPU dependent while others are CPU dependent. You may see better results with same games over others sure.

What I don't get is why people say I am going to overclock it to X amount? Overclocking isnt simply determining what speed you want, hell I would love for my i7 920 to run at 6.0 Ghz but just simply saying I want it to run that fast doesnt mean it will happen.

That being said almost every i7 920 out there should reach the speed you are looking to hit with a half decent cooler on it. I was able to get mine to that level with almost no effort however 3.8 seems to be my limit, its weird at 3.85 or more I have boot problems and stability problems. At 3.8 I can game for hours and hours and stress test for hours with no issues. It still bugs me that it seems like such a hard wall but I guess a 1.2 Ghz overclock is nothing to sneeze at!
 
I OC my video cards but usually leave my CPU at stock speeds. I'll pay the extra cash to have the faster speed default knowing I don't have to fuck around with this and that and know pretty much everytime I boot my PC it will run problem free. Also I don't need 20 fucking case fans to keep my hardware cool enough to run without melting a hole in my floor. You guys crack me up!

You sure you're in the right forum? lol.

My temperatures went up 10*c going from 2.66 to 4.0ghz... and there are no risks... it's practically at stock voltage, And the case could have a total of 3 fans + 1 on the CPU to keep temps within reason...
 
Little risk? LOL

That is rich.....

Let me see here, there is a risk of frying your chip. A risk of killing your motherboard and or video card. Dude, it is ALL risk haha...If it wasen't a risk to clock our Intel chips 500 or 1000MHz above stock then why didn't Intel release them at the faster speed in the first place? Could it be because at such faster speeds the chips could burn out? LOL

I OC my video cards but usually leave my CPU at stock speeds. I'll pay the extra cash to have the faster speed default knowing I don't have to fuck around with this and that and know pretty much everytime I boot my PC it will run problem free. Also I don't need 20 fucking case fans to keep my hardware cool enough to run without melting a hole in my floor. You guys crack me up!

You're doing it wrong.
 
Yea, I'd say that was just more QC issues right there, he lowered the volts so I doubt it was OC'ing that caused it. The board was setup to allow overclocking and that shouldn't have happened, as per the fact he got an RMA on the board. I have an i7 running at 4.2GHz and it's at 1.3v and runs nice and cool, took me about 20 minutes to get it there after throwing my rig together.
 
I OC my video cards but usually leave my CPU at stock speeds. I'll pay the extra cash to have the faster speed default knowing I don't have to fuck around with this and that and know pretty much everytime I boot my PC it will run problem free. Also I don't need 20 fucking case fans to keep my hardware cool enough to run without melting a hole in my floor. You guys crack me up!

So let me get this right. . .

You won't OC your processor, but you WILL OC the video card which generates MORE heat than a CPU in most cases, costs more than a CPU (in most cases), and can (arguably) be damaged more easily than a CPU?
 
The OP admits he OC'd his quad. He blew a cap near his CPU...do the math guys.. LOL

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this one out....
 
Open up both eyes and look at the pics provided. Notice what cap was blown off his motherboard?

Do you guys realize this is a $3 USA part tops?

Anyways there is a risk to the motherboard if you go over the motherboards design power rating by overclocking. This rating should be at least the highest W processor that fits in the slot + at minimum 25%.
 
OMG NOOOOO! OCing is NOT worth it. If Intel finds out they will increase the size of the stock heatsinks and spec the chips faster and raise the prices. Worst case they do a simple post production thermal and speed testings and bin the cpus and scale the prices accordingly. So STFU, OCing is hard. You have to actually understand what all that stuff in the bios settings does. It makes your stuff explode and there is no way you can buy a $200 cpu + $50 heatsink and make it run faster than the $1000 version. Come on, thats just crazy talk so knock it off.
 
O/Cing is worth it when it takes little time to set up, but when it requires a lot of time to tweak, test and stabilize, that's when I stop. It used to be fun to push an O/C hard, but now there's just not enough time for it [ultimately for the bragging rights].
 
to op - all you need is some decent air cooling, and maybe 5 or 10 changes to your bios settings and your stock i7 will be overclocked almost 50%. do you think a 50% increase in clock speed, and corresponding increases in bclk, ram speed, qpi, etc will show any difference in your frames rates? it most certainly will, dammit.
 
Open up both eyes and look at the pics provided. Notice what cap was blown off his motherboard?

Perhaps you should take your own advice.
How does overclocking affect the onboard soundcard?
Show me any report that identifies overclocking as the cause of damaged onboard sound caps for ANY motherboard.
Thats right, its a rare failure not caused by overclocking.

Different caps used for CPU voltage regulation are at risk when using an extreme overclocked quad core CPU in a P5K board (the board in your quoted link) as this boards final implementation is clearly not designed to be pushed so hard.
This page identifies the problem:
http://www.overclockers.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=428
Let me stress that these failures are seem to occur only under extreme conditions, i.e. liquid nitrogen cooling etc...This is NOT a widespread problem you should be concerned about.
Note those caps are NOT on the soundcard and the problem is not relevant to other motherboards.
So please explain how a problem with a P35 board losing a capacitor from its onboard sound circuit will affect the op overclocking his i7 system?
 
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Probably. I overclocked my mechanical pencil last year and it shot out molten graphite all over my notes! Guess I shoulda stuck that old zalman heatsink i had laying around on it after all.. :mad:

If you combine that with an overclocked bench vice you can make diamonds.
 
The i7 is not going to be your bottleneck for gaming, your GPU is.

That said the i7 is an easy chip to overclock and since you're a noob to OCing maybe you should give it a shot. This is seriously the easiest chip I've ever overclocked.
 
who the hell thinks he isn't trolling? I'm pretty sure everyone knows he's trolling.

I've known mal for 10 years, no mater what forum he is on, he is a troll, and is usually identified as the village idiot within 3 posts of starting at any of them. :D
 
Depending on the CPU you're using, sometimes it can be almost a crime to NOT overclock. Take my old E4400 for instance. Default clock was 2ghz, and it ran 3ghz for almost three years with NO VOLTAGE BUMP, 100% Prime95 and OCCT stable. Then I sold it. The difference between 2ghz and 3ghz is night and day on a Core 2. Learn your shit, learn how to properly OC, and reap the benefits. That's my opinion. You can certainly fuck things up... but unless you go crazy, overclocking is perfectly safe.
 
I've known mal for 10 years, no mater what forum he is on, he is a troll, and is usually identified as the village idiot within 3 posts of starting at any of them. :D

And so you also know I have never lost a motherboard or CPU or GPU or HDD or even a ram stick during this 10 years...

You have lost 3 or 4 motherboards, several ram sticks 2 or 3 VGA cards and a few HDD's LOL

You OC and I do not!

How much more proof do you wankers need?
 
I've been overclocking my equipment since I was in grade school. Never a problem.

Stop the trolling, it's a calculated risk and as long as you stay within a decent safety margin there is no overt concern.
 
And so you also know I have never lost a motherboard or CPU or GPU or HDD or even a ram stick during this 10 years...

You have lost 3 or 4 motherboards, several ram sticks 2 or 3 VGA cards and a few HDD's LOL

You OC and I do not!

How much more proof do you wankers need?

I haven't lost a single item to overclocking.
I have lost 1 cpu due to power surge.
I have lost 3 motherboards, 1 due to overheat, 1 due to power surge and 1 due to short circuit.
I have lost 1 video card, due to overheat.
Never lost ram.
I have removed power supplies because they could no longer handle the system due to upgrading, a 430 watt no named one, and a 520 watt vantec stealth.
I have never lost a hard drive.

So quit bein a lying idiot just to pump yourself up and trying to make others look bad.
 
Overclocking = getting computations done faster
Money = Time

Of course you should. I've OC'd every CPU I've owned since 486's. There's just absolutely no reason not to. I have never had one die on me from OC'ing. They all retired because of age, not because they broke/died.

If I told you I could sell you the same car, and instead of going 0-60 in 8 seconds it went 0-60 in 5 seconds, for the same price, which would you choose? Thats the analogy that is overclocking in a nutshell for ya.

If you're the guy thats doing heavy rendering, video, or photo editing, you wanna throw everything you can at the project because its time to compute is where you're losing money, not in your production of the project, because having to wait to go from Step A to B = wasted time, lost money :)

If you're a gamer, its all about the eye candy, and higher clocks can allow for higher resolution / smoother gameplay
 
And so you also know I have never lost a motherboard or CPU or GPU or HDD or even a ram stick during this 10 years...

You have lost 3 or 4 motherboards, several ram sticks 2 or 3 VGA cards and a few HDD's LOL

You OC and I do not!

How much more proof do you wankers need?

then your on the wrong forum bro, reason why this is called [H].:rolleyes:
 
Back in the day, I was a huge OC'r. If it could be pushed, I pushed it. Now most of my stuff runs stock. When I get around to it, I will OC my i7 and boost my ram, but not the Vid Card.

I haven't run a bench in a year.
 
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