Why overclock?

[randym431]

I just slap in the MB and thats it. Always done it that way. I've always had good luck with them working and booting first try, on the few I've built. But I never really knew why so many are into overclocking, and why?

 

[Cutthroat]

-Because we want to get the most performance possible from our hardware.
-Because we want to pay less for more.
-Because we can.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: randym431
I just slap in the MB and thats it. Always done it that way. I've always had good luck with them working and booting first try, on the few I've built. But I never really knew why so many are into overclocking, and why?

Each CPU and many memory chips today are binned. They test each one to certain tolerances. If it does not pass the internal testing it is not scrapped. Sometimes a CPU cannot do 2.4Ghz at the rated voltage and it is labeled as 2.13Ghz. Then you can take that chip and give it more voltage and overclock it to the same levels or higher. It's free performance.

To put it another way. I can buy a $100 CPU and overclock it so that it performs at the same levels as the CPU that retails for $900. Obviously you can overclock the more expensive CPU as well, but the point is you don't need to pay $900 to achieve the performance that the manufacturer claims.

 

[Miramonti]

I overclock for 2 reasons:
1) speed
2) speed

The faster my computer goes, the the more efficient my programs for work go. As for my personal computer, I overclock it a little, but don't care to overclock it much.

 

[jkresh]

As others have said, its an issue of speed. If you know what you are doing and have proper cooling its easy to take a lower end chip and match or exceed the speed of high end. Looking at teh quad cores now, you can get a q6600 for about $300 or spend close to $1000 for a qx6850, even with an ok motherboard and stock cooling you should have very little trouble getting that q6600 up to qx6850 speeds (perfectly stable) and with some skill and proper cooling you could get it much higher. In fact if you were to spend that $700 difference on a phase change kit (for extreme overclocking) you could almost guarantee getting the q6600 up to 3.6 or realy closer to 4ghz (again fully stable). So overclocking lets you get higher speed for less money, or much higher speed for similar money, though it is never a guarantee and depends on your processor/motherboard/memory/cooing at skill.

 

[randym431]

Thanks for the replys and informing someone new to this, as to the whys and hows.
Now you've got my interest. I gotta try this to see the speed payoff.
What are the dangers? How do you determine the limits?

I just put together a media pc with the biostar 7050 mb. Also put together another with the asus m2a-vm mb. Both use an amd dual x2 64. One is 3800 and the other 4600.

I see there was a utility included with one of the boards for over clocking I'll have to mess with it, now.

 

[chizow]

Nowadays, I'd say there's very little danger outside of faulty components/power supply. There's enough fail safes built into your CPU/MB so that if an OC isn't stable, your PC will simply crash or fail to boot/POST. The downsides of OC'ing are that there's more troubleshooting involved if you're having problems, especially if you're not hitting your target OC expectations. Also, in the past, you'd have to spend more on quality components (RAM, Heat Sink, PSU) to overclock, however, nowadays you can achieve good overclocks without overspending on premium components.

 

[Finnkc]

bang for my money ... If I can OC a C2D and have it out run a C2D that is 600-1000 bucks more stock then why not right?

 

[bendixG15]

People overclock for the same reasons they climb mountains....

Because they want to.......

 

[Wicked Akuba]

I overclock not just to get better performance. It's intresting and can be like hobby

 

[ultra laser]

Overclocking is pretty fun. Running a stock 2.13ghz CPU at 3.6ghz gives a huge performance increase.

 

[theprodigalrebel]

You can chop a few hours off your x264/Xvid encode?

 

[WildHorse]

Overclocking is fun!

It's a challenge!

When you overclock your rig you'll understand it much better.

ALso, I think my overclocked rigs are much more stable that the typical vanilla PC, because of the extensive testing and adjustments made in the overclocking.

For example, people with regular stock computers talk about BSOD problems.

Well I hardly even know what that is, because my oc'd rigs are made extremely stable in the course of being made to run much faster.

 

[kmmatney]

I still thing that true overclocking is done to get the best performance for the least amount of money. It can save you a lot of money. The latest Core 2 Duos and Athlon X2s are so easy to overclock it hard not to - I have almost a 50% overclock with my E4400, at stock voltage. It could go higher but only if I crank up the voltage. That's with cheap RAM, too. I also want my system to be quiet, so really don't want to go any higher so that I require a case fan.

I really don't get why people spend a lot of money to overclock some of their cpus a few more MHz. I know someone who wasted hundreds of dollars going through several cpus amd motherboards, just to get his cpu overclocked to 3.5 GHz. The end result was good, but honestly the bang-for-buck was crap when you take into account all the effort and money it took.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

There ya go. Use the MB's speed fan control if you want to overclock and still have a quiet PC. Also enable C1E and EIST to keep the CPU cool at low load (fan running at slow rpm).