Overclocking; Why and how

Chronictank

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Found a good article this morning so i thought i would share;
X-bit labs - Newbie Overclocking Guide

I tend to fall into the group looking for price/performance :p

There are beginner overclockers. The beginner has already got a PC and has no choice of the configuration. He has to deal with what he’s got already.

There are thrifty overclockers. They want to have as much performance as they can yet spend as little money as possible. The PC is assembled out of simple, cheap and outdated hardware parts the person can afford. The default performance of such a PC is below necessary level, but it can be usually overclocked to a more or less acceptable level. A thrifty overclocker is not necessarily a poor person. There are just a lot of other values in our lives besides computers. You may want to invest your money into your education, family or recreation instead of your PC.

Experienced overclockers have somewhat different objectives. Their goal is to get maximum performance and fun without overpaying for that. It’s silly to waste your money purchasing senior (i.e. expensive) components, yet it is also silly to limit your own opportunities by saving on trifles. This overclocker considers numerous factors as he picks up every component. He wants an overclocker-friendly mainboard, a highly overclockable CPU, and a quiet yet efficient cooler. The resulting performance of his PC will be very high, comparable to or better than the default performance of a system assembled out of top-end components. Although such an extremely high performance may not be vitally important, the overclocker finds his pleasure in the feeling of satisfaction from a job well done.

And finally, there are PC enthusiasts whose goal is to get the highest possible performance at any price. They use everything – top models of components and extremely low temperatures – to find themselves on a breathtakingly high peak, unattainable by the crowd. It’s a kind of sport where you can enter the top ten, five or three and that’s the only reward a PC enthusiasts needs.

Of course, these categories are not sharply outlined. There are no definite landmarks between them. Beginners become experienced overclockers over time while experienced overclockers may go in for extreme experiments. You can meet such an exotic combination as a thrifty enthusiast even!
 

fettoken

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What price range are you looking for ? And what parts do you already have ?
 

Chronictank

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What price range are you looking for ? And what parts do you already have ?

not looking for any, found a good article so i posted it :p
Atm i have a E6600 @ 3.3Ghz (Sythe Ninja), DFI Infinity 975x, and 4gb GEIL 800Mhz Ultra
 

Lamp

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Doesn't over-clocking severely limit and reduce the lifespan of your processor ? And you really gotta know what you're doing otherwise the CPU can catch fire, burn your house down, and melt through the floor to the centre of the earth
 

Chronictank

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Doesn't over-clocking severely limit and reduce the lifespan of your processor ? And you really gotta know what you're doing otherwise the CPU can catch fire, burn your house down, and melt through the floor to the centre of the earth

It is actually not as easy as you think to seriously damage your components.
But that does not by any means it is a excuse to be complacent, i have been oc'ing pc's for 3 yrs and have never had one die on me.
All you need to do is be sensible and use common sense

I still have a old 750Mhz duron (bought 2001) overclocked to 1Ghz working as a file server with no problems whatsoever (actually had a heavily tweaked version of source running on it the other day lol)

In reality the difference in lifespan is so insignificant that by the time you get to that time your components would have been replaced long ago
 

Maeloch

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In reality the difference in lifespan is so insignificant that by the time you get to that time your components would have been replaced long ago
Hrmm what is the 'lifespan' of a processor anyhow?...given as you say they almost always rendered close to useless by becoming redundant yrs b4 they actually pack in.
 

Chronictank

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Hrmm what is the 'lifespan' of a processor anyhow?...given as you say they almost always rendered close to useless by becoming redundant yrs b4 they actually pack in.

Processor life is based on how the silicon layers inside the processor sink upon each other. They sink at approximately less than 1nm per year wtih normal usage. This is caused by the silicon heating up and becoming softer with time and allowing the upper layers to sink down ever so slightly. The problem is, after 10 years or more, certain parts start to sink further than others. This causes hairline cracks. and when you consider how small the technology is, a hairline is a huge damage, which is why the processor will stop working.

If you are overclocking you NEED proper cooling, if you go beyond without sufficient cooling the only reason a component died is stupidty,
the lifespan is reduced simply because you are straining the components more, so they produce more heat. When you reach your stock limit and start adding volts through the processor this will naturally will increase temperatures further, thus reducing the lifespan on the CPU
However a processor generally is the last to go as the strain is not as much as the other components, Northbridge and RAM is usually the first to go as often they arent cooled sufficiently, again it comes down to being sensible and watching temperatures.

To put things into perspective, the lifespan of a processor is about 3-4years depending on model and make (lower the power the longer the life)
 

BloodOmen

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Heh I see no point in overclocking unless your craving a little extra life out of your old cpu or a cheap one you've picked up :) it makes me laugh when little 'l337' kids go "omg I just overclocked a brand new top of range processor!".... "Woooow your really good.. now show me one game thats out which requires what you've just done pls) :eek7:
 

Chronictank

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Heh I see no point in overclocking unless your craving a little extra life out of your old cpu or a cheap one you've picked up :) it makes me laugh when little 'l337' kids go "omg I just overclocked a brand new top of range processor!".... "Woooow your really good.. now show me one game thats out which requires what you've just done pls) :eek7:

Maybe for the challenge of it? seeing as for some people (such as myself, altho i dont tend to buy the most expensive hardware for e-peen boosting), do it as a hobby?

Edited to be less aggressive, apologies but crap like that annoys me
 

tris-

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whats the challenge in it though?

calculate how many much energy the bits of stuff will give out, then put in some cooling to off set it. simple maths surely?

i dont know really, not having a go or anything :)
 

Chronictank

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whats the challenge in it though?

calculate how many much energy the bits of stuff will give out, then put in some cooling to off set it. simple maths surely?

i dont know really, not having a go or anything :)
Football is just a bunch of guys kicking a ball into a net ;)

As with all hobbies depends how much you want to go into it,
if you simply want a bit more performance without all the hassel you simply boost the fsb and volts if needed with a descent cooler and away you go.

However the real challenge is tweaking memory settings, voltages etc to get the best performance possible to get that little bit more.
 

Sharma

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Hrmm what is the 'lifespan' of a processor anyhow?...given as you say they almost always rendered close to useless by becoming redundant yrs b4 they actually pack in.

MTBF is something silly like 1 million hours or something daft provided it's taken care of properly, same with most computer equipment.

/edit:

Processor life is based on how the silicon layers inside the processor sink upon each other. They sink at approximately less than 1nm per year wtih normal usage. This is caused by the silicon heating up and becoming softer with time and allowing the upper layers to sink down ever so slightly. The problem is, after 10 years or more, certain parts start to sink further than others. This causes hairline cracks. and when you consider how small the technology is, a hairline is a huge damage, which is why the processor will stop working.

Not implying anything but you do know the lifespan of a CPU thats constantly on is massively higher than one thats switched off at night? :p
 

Chronictank

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Not implying anything but you do know the lifespan of a CPU thats constantly on is massively higher than one thats switched off at night? :p

Yep, there no cool down and heat up etc.. so there's no cracks
 

Sharma

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Yep, there no cool down and heat up etc.. so there's no cracks

And yet I still can't put it past my dad that leaving my base unit on at night downloading torrents is not only good for my system but doesnt cost a massive amount.

Bah.
 

Gamah

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And yet I still can't put it past my dad that leaving my base unit on at night downloading torrents is not only good for my system but doesnt cost a massive amount.

Bah.

Stop being a kid and move out of home then!

It's great, no money, find yourself saying things like..

TURN THAT LIGHT OFF! DON'T PUT TA HEATIN' ON GET A JUMPER!

xD
 

Chronictank

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And yet I still can't put it past my dad that leaving my base unit on at night downloading torrents is not only good for my system but doesnt cost a massive amount.

Bah.

ideal world we all would, but pc's tend to take a fair ammount of power which equates to your electricity bill :p
Especially with modern gfx cards (Nvidia's are at near full power all the time unless you use something like rivatuner to clock them down for example)
 

Maeloch

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Ah kk ta for the explaination. Wondered how something without any mechanical parts could fail tbh, assumed might have been chemical degradation but then silicon is pretty inert. Guess it is actually mechanical in the end.

This means the lifespam of faster proccessor generating more heat is actually less than the old ones?
 

Gamah

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Ah kk ta for the explaination. Wondered how something without any mechanical parts could fail tbh, assumed might have been chemical degradation but then silicon is pretty inert. Guess it is actually mechanical in the end.

This means the lifespam of faster proccessor generating more heat is actually less than the old ones?

No, because a lot of the new processers run cooler than the older ones :p and it's all about cooling..
 

Sharma

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This means the lifespam of faster proccessor generating more heat is actually less than the old ones?

Nah, lifespans only getting longer these days because of motherboards and stuff having more accurate thresholds before shutting off the computer to prevent damage.

Fans these days are a lot more efficient, but they will inevitably fail since CPUs are so intricate these days, you only need a crack thinner than a hair line and bang, whole things gone.

As my boss said recently.

"It's not working, it just hasn't failed yet"
 

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