Overclocking Question

[bloodyredd]

As the title says I would like to ask what are the benefits of overclocking? I plan to overclock and buy an i5 3570k which is unlocked but then I realized it was a bit expensive. So what are really the benefits for me to overclock in exchange of it's expensiveness?

 

[Condition]

If you do a mild overclock of say 10-15% i'd say the benefit is free performance at no extra cost besides an aftermarket cooler. (sometimes not even that).

In today's world I think overclocking is far less useful than it was back in the AMD Athlon XP days and before. I mean, today machines are so fast anyway, you are going to see a much better performance gain by going from a Platter HDD to an SSD than you ever would by overclocking.

I personally have an old i5-760 that runs perfectly fine with no overclock, I just have a beefy 560gtx ti graphics card and an SSD. I don't see myself upgrading for awhile.

Overclocking too much can cause overheating issues, if poorly executed, which in return will shorten the life of your CPU. Then again, many people have great results, it just takes time and research.

With a K processor and UEFI Bios, overclocking is almost foolproof now, just don't get in over your head. No need to push 5ghz unless you know what you are doing.

TL/DR: Overclocking has its risks, and benefits. I think in the current state of technology, you're better off putting your money in a good graphics card and SSD vs overclocking.

my 2cents

 

[Tiporaro]

So what are really the benefits for me to overclock in exchange of it's expensiveness?

For any chip (not just the 3570k), overclocking simply gives you essentially faster performance per core. Whether you can take advantage of that is a question left up to you. The difference in chips is the base characteristics, and the method available for overclocking (some chips are very friendly - i.e. any "k" based intel current gen chip, whereas some are much more locked down). If cost is a factor but you're looking for a similar chip, some great deals can be had with the 2500k's.

 

[bloodyredd]

I see thanks for your answers. But would I be able to overclock a processor even if it is not unlocked? I only wanted to overclock to 4.5 Ghz or even less. I won't do any stuff that uses too much cpu but I really wanted to overclock since everyone is doing it.

 

[Melon]

I see thanks for your answers. But would I be able to overclock a processor even if it is not unlocked? I only wanted to overclock to 4.5 Ghz or even less. I won't do any stuff that uses too much cpu but I really wanted to overclock since everyone is doing it.

Technically you can "overclock" a locked chip by changing the BCLK frequency, although it's not recommended, as the increase in CPU speed is negligible and has adverse effects on the PCI-E bus if raised too high.


If you want to overclock an Intel CPU these days, you need a K series processor..