Thread: Benifits of overclocking?

  1. #1
    Seven years? civix's Avatar
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    Benifits of overclocking?

    What is overclocking?
    What are its benifits?
    Whats are its downsides?
    .

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    Re: Benifits of overclocking?

    Originally posted by civix
    What is overclocking?
    What are its benifits?
    Whats are its downsides?
    1) What is overclocking?

    The process of making a computer component run at a faster than factory specified speed.

    2) What are its benifits?

    It will process instructions faster, thus improving performance.

    3) What are its downsides?

    Well anytime you change a factory setting there can be trouble. Its like putting racing stuff on a regular car. Sure it will be faster but thats faster than factory specified so it could damage components in time. May cause overheating etc etc. I personally never do this because of this reason, I spend hard earned money of my parts and I don't want them to die pre-maturally.

    Nvidia graphics cards and any cpu's are notorious for being overclocked.
    Last edited by MrWizard; 12-04-2002 at 11:49 PM.
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    >>What is overclocking?

    A really bad idea.

    >>What are its benifits?

    Makes your computer faster for a while.

    >>What are its downsides?

    Extra crispy cpu among other things.



    Seriously it's not something i'd recommend, for the reasons MrWizard stated. MrWizard's explaination is very good by the way. Something I would add is that overclocking increases random errors. Pushing up the clock speed narrows the design margin thus reducing both physical reliability (as in the cpu frying) and computational reliability. I don't like the trade off myself. A few percent gain in performance can get very expensive quickly.
    Last edited by kevinalm; 12-05-2002 at 12:26 AM.

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    Civix explanation? What did he explain??

    Oh yeah, I forgot it can also cause computational errors. Thanks for pointing that out! When the processor heats up past a "reasonable" temperature it can produce errors.
    "...the results are undefined, and we all know what "undefined" means: it means it works during development, it works during testing, and it blows up in your most important customers' faces." --Scott Meyers

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    cereal killer dP munky's Avatar
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    wizard you know he's talking about you.....dont be so modest
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    MrWizard

    Sorry about that. I was actually referring to your explaination. I'll edit my post right away.

    It's not only the heat. You start messing indirectly with various apects of system timing for example. But one of the most objectionable is cpu heat induced errors. The "blue screen of death" is kind of hard to miss.
    Last edited by kevinalm; 12-05-2002 at 12:34 AM.

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    Registered User TravisS's Avatar
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    Overclocking can be a good idea IF you are well prepared for it. To overclock properly can be a tricky thing.

    On the gamers HQ board for mad onion are lots of people who overclock to the extreme. I'm talking 3+ Ghz out of a 1.6 Ghz P4, 4+ Ghz from a 2.4 Ghz P4 (and a few AMD in there too ), etc... Lots of people who push their FSB (front side bus) up to and beyond 200 MHz.

    IF your components can handle it, and IF you have the proper cooling this will not reduce the life of your computer beyond the already short obsolescence lifespan of maybe a few years. A CPU is designed from the factory to last approximately 10 years, most last longer. If you overclock properly you may not shorten this lifespan by much, maybe by 3 years.

    It's all about heat. Not just CPU, but also all PCI (except nForce 2 motherboards), AGP, RAM, etc... basically all components that are in one way or another connected to the FSB. Watercooling helps the CPU, and case fans help everything else. There are a lot of people who's overclocked systems run cooler than my default AMD system.

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    Originally posted by kevinalm
    MrWizard

    Sorry about that. I was actually referring to your explaination. I'll edit my post right away.

    It's not only the heat. You start messing indirectly with various apects of system timing for example. But one of the most objectionable is cpu heat induced errors. The "blue screen of death" is kind of hard to miss.
    No problem I thought I was missing something, ha ha.

    TravisS:

    Proper cooling and such helps prevent damage to components but does not garauntee anything. Sometimes its a matter of Russian Roulette on if something will break. My point is, when you start tinkering with things like that you are running a risk period. Maybe if you overclock is small no big deal but one day you will get greedy and burn up your cpu. It seems like such a quick way to get speed at no cost but believe there is a great cost associated with it. So maybe people are having more luck with it nowaday's. I'm just saying be careful.

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    Yeah, it's risky business, no doubt about that

    There's a lot that goes into it. Even the same brand/speed processor will overclock differently, depending on things such as its stepping. Plus, there's always that "I want to go faster" problem

    My GeForce 4 is overclocked, and runs overclocked 24/7. The rest of my system on the otherhand is not. I upgrade video cards way more often than CPU's, so I don't care about a shortened lifespan on that, plus I've taken measures to ensure it's safe.

    Basically, it comes down to: Overclock if you're well prepared for it, are ready to test intesively for stability, and have the money to burn if something goes wrong.

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    cereal killer dP munky's Avatar
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    cant cooling systems alone get pretty pricey when overclocking though?
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    Registered User moi's Avatar
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    overclocking is overall a good thing. you must be careful and always ensure proper percatuions, esp with reguard to temperature. if you can't keep your CPU die at a reasonable temperature, turn down the speed. my everyday machine is a duron 600 (1.60V) @ 900mhz (1.75V). temperature is usually around 36-38 degrees C; never had a problem with it yet.
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    Originally posted by moi
    never had a problem with it yet.
    Famous last words
    "...the results are undefined, and we all know what "undefined" means: it means it works during development, it works during testing, and it blows up in your most important customers' faces." --Scott Meyers

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    Much older and wiser Fountain's Avatar
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    Yeh, to me it seems too much messing.

    Why spend time over clocking etc-just buy the faster chip!

    AMD chips are not expensive remember?
    Such is life.

  14. #14
    Registered User TravisS's Avatar
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    Athlon XP 2000+ and below = dirt cheap

    Athlon XP 2100+ and above = expensive

    My 2200+ cost me $200 USD. A 2000+ would have been about $90. I wish they had some of those in stock when I went to upgrade

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    Visionary Philosopher Sayeh's Avatar
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    overclocking is overall a good thing.
    No, it's not. It shows a basic misunderstanding of discrete circuitry and motherboard design. Although a chip might be able to operate at a higher-clock rate, it doesn't mean everybody should do it. It is a custom tweak reserved for the knowledgeable, the rich, or the foolish.

    When people think about clockspeed, they think of increased cycles per second, but they don't understand _how_ that is achieved. It is achieved by running increasing amounts of current through the chip.

    The reason it gets hot is because the physical material of the traces and the silicate substrate are resisting electron flow. It's literally frying the chip. It will always shorten the life of the chip unless the temperature rise falls within an envelope originally designed for that chip.

    Adding fans or other cooling devices may save the chip, but don't take into account that the motherboard itself was designed to run at a certain clock rate-- traces on the board are designed at specific lengths to support certain clock rates.

    If you push the clockspeed of the processor, the mobo itself may not have high-enough quality materials (traces, layers, etc) to support the added current. In which case anomolies will appear that are almost impossible to find-- memory errors, hangs, crashes, corrupted data... or worse (a volcano in a chip)...

    Just be careful and remember overclocking isn't for everyone. If you sweat just changing a NIC Card, HDD, or Display Adapter-- leave your CPU alone.
    It is not the spoon that bends, it is you who bends around the spoon.

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