Why people don't overclock..
(Newegg prices) 1ghz Tbird - 93. 1.4ghz Tbird - 173. Might be able to get that 1ghz to 1.4 so I chose those two. Yes, some got a bit higher, several haven't gotten that far.
1.4 buyer and 1.0 buyer both:
Put the machine together, make sure it works - Done with the 1.4.
Now for his $80 savings, OCer:
Take the CPU back out, pencil or use some other method to connect the bridges (not applicable to all CPUs)
Bump the FSB, try 1.2 Boot, verify. Stable? Go higher
Bump the muliplier. Boot, test, stable? No? Bump voltage. Stable? Maybe. Higher?
Run over to 2cooltek and get a delta. Stable now? Almost, case temps bit high though. Back to the store, 12 fans and a baybus later, all stable, quiet as that coolmaster AMD approved, all done. Only spend two evenings and fifty bucks to get it there. Say you get by without any parts, two evenings (a very conservative number for anyone overclocking) are worth more than $40 each to a lot of people.
5 seconds here, 8 there, maybe a full minute processing some huge job. Takes a long time to recoup the time spent overclocking and testing to make sure it's stable.
It was asked over in the overclocking forum awhile back "why oc" and most agreed it's a hobby. Maybe a compulsion But for most it's not a money saver unless you have a lot of spare time or don't value your time much, and most do spend some money on a bigger heatsink, faster fans, more fans, etc that they wouldn't have necessarily needed if they'd just bought a faster chip in the first place.
Irks me that those who choose not to overclock are labeled as fearful, lazy, lack of knowledge or "skill". It's an appliance, sorry if anyone finds it offensive to have their pride and joy described that way, but it is. Some drive our cars to work, others spend their entire weekend polishing the lugnuts. I wish I could push my 650 past 800, especially when it's taking over an hour for some of my encode jobs, but I've reached the reward/tired of fiddling with it point. Time to just use it and find other things to do while waiting, like reading these forums, petting the dog, whatever.
--Mc