QOTD: Do You Overclock Your PC?

[Mygind]

E7200 / G31. Dont need OC. Better save energy. Therefore passive cooling and no noise. Fast enough for web, office-purposes and medium games.

Why overclock - I can't see the differnce - maybe it works for games high end - but I wonder if it matters.

 

[grieve]

I have Gigabyte X48-DQ6 and run my Q9550 @ 3.4ghz(400*8.5) using a Xigmatek HDT-S1283 heatsink.

Its a moderate OC, that i can run 24/7... i don't see the need of pushing it to 3.6-3.8

 

[atomicWAR]

[citation][nom]atomicWAR[/nom]overclock every rig i have. Want to get as much power out as i can get without burning up my CPU's. Qx9650 @ 3.6ghz w/ OC profiles up to 4ghz (3 evga GTX 285 FTW stock cooling) CPU water cooled with zalman passive sinkphenom II 940 @ 3.4 w/ OC profiles up to 3.6ghz (3870x2 + 3870 stock)Cpu water cooled with passive sinkQ9300 @3ghz (3870x2 + 3870)water cooled w/ fan sink[/citation]

 

[PepiX]

I have a E2140 overclocked to 2728MHz.. (about 70% overclock..)

The processor is running with stock fan and no overvoltage. It has been run at 3120MHz (95% overclock) with a moderate overvoltage, so these 2.7GHz should be fine for it. (It average temperature is 30-40C.. )

 

[willtoons]

Its not worth the hassle. i found building your own power house computer is worth the value. their is a big difference between dual core and quad.
clock speed was never our issue more like cpu processing power.
you could have a 4.0 MHz single core computer but a 3.0 MHz dual core will out perform it any day.

 

[megabuster]

For about a year I have:
Q6600 G0@3.8Ghz 400x9 VID 1.48V cooled with Aquagate Max 34CIdle/59CLoad
Gygabite p35DS3L v2.0 (no problems there after adding a small fan onto the NB heatsink)
Corsair XMS2 800Mhz 4-4-4-9 1:1 ratio
MSI(216)Geforce GTX 260OC 735/2350 stock cooling fan 80% gaming only
GFXcard OC has not produced as much improvement in gaming as CPU OC thus I don't run it often.
Upgrading to i7 is not worth to me, since gaming performance does not increase substantially in the games I play @1680x1050.
I guess I'll have to wait till 32nm chips come out.

 

[TheZander]

I do lots of HD video editing and hi res photo editing, so overclocking was worth it for me. Of course I pushed by Q6700 to the max on air, which was 4.0GHz for Vista and app stable, but only 3.98 for running benches. I also overclocked the RAM and the video card up the wazoo to find the best possible performance my system could put out without starting on fire. (the voltage it took to hit 4.0GHz is kinda scary - don't recommend!) After benching I dropped it to 3.67GHz on the CPU for 24/7 operation. The performance gain for the extra $60 I spent on the TRUE was extremely well worth it. And I had all this great performance on the budget friendly $120 P5Q Pro. Stability was never compromised, and the processor is still kicking today, notwithstanding all the abuse I've given it. I've seen real, tangible, noticeable gains in heavy duty games and apps. Some programs will never benefit, but a lot of them do, and multitasking and boot speeds benefit from the higher clock speeds. A full GHz overclock for an extra 60 bux is a bargain.

 

[Dax corrin]

I have overclocked my E8400 to 3.6 by upping the FSB to 1600 thus matching with my DDR2 800 RAM. I use a Zalman aftermarket HSF because the stock retail fan with the 45NM CPUs are inadequate for any OCing.

 

[darkgoth678]

When i first got it, I did push my Q6600 as highest i could on air with my ZALMAN CNPS9700. At first I was thinking 3Ghz would be a feat, but I was appaled when I got there line nothing! After that every once in a while I tend to push the thing to see what i get, but most of the time when i'm doing some average gaming or just srufing the web, she stays at stock.

I think that now its just when Im going to benchmark that I shove the clock up. I also Overclock everything else when im benching, graphics, RAM everything that is tangable to clock I clock up.

I will note, Benching and Overclocking is addicting.

 

[Guest]

I up my C2D 6750 to 3.2 GHz. It justifies my Zalman 9500 and arctic cooler if nothing else. For the same reason I OC my CF 3850's by about 8 - 10%, although for some games I need to shut that off to avoid crashes.

 

[Plyro109]

e2180 @ 3.33Ghz (333FSBx10) with 1.392v (I CAN push it to 3.4, but it takes 1.55v, and 3.6 can be hit with 1.65, but I wasn't willing to keep that for 24/7 operation)
CPU cooler is a Vigor Gaming Monsoon II TEC. (Yay for free cooling that rivals high-end water cooling setups~ I

 

[dangerous_23]

got an E2200 at 2.83GHz and 1.36V running 24/7

 

[celestus]

P4EE s478 3.2 @ 3.8ghz air - stock voltage - 4-6 years new

E5200 2.5 @ 3.66 air - 1.35v - 6 months new

Core-i7 2.66 @ 4.2ghz water 1.365v - 3 months new

 

[brendano257]

Intel E8400@4.05Ghz with CM TX2, and an EVGA GTX260 216 55nm at 740/1060 core/mem. The graphics boost is worth it with a 100mhz+ core oc, and for the processor mostly because I can keep it stable at that and it's 135% of what it used to be, it may not show huge performance gains, but 4Ghz+ is bragging rights and a little extra performance.

I started not knowing OCing at all and I've gradually learned more, especially once I got my E8400, it's not too hard and relatively low risk with a little common sense. And I just can't leave my computer alone XD

 

[mitch074]

I still have a s939 Athlon64 X2 3800+ running at stock 2.0 GHz.

I have it fit with 2 Gb of DDR-SDRAM in dual channel. I can push it up to 2.4 GHz with but a BIOS setting (and some RAM tuning) without having to change its voltage; since I can't push my BIOS further than a 20% clock increase, I used other utilities to push it past that, and it reached 2.6 before I had to change voltage, cooling and memory settings - at which point I got bored, and stopped.

But I didn't leave it alone: to its base clock speed it went back.

Reason 1: I built this rig to be silent. That means fans blowing noise is a big no-no;
Reason 2: the heaviest game I run on it never takes more than 80% CPU time (WoW, all settings up @ 1680x1050, will start showing a lower frame rate in the middle of the day in Dalaran, only because my Radeon HD 4850 doesn't have enough RAM), so I don't NEED the extra clock speed;
Reason 3: I mainly run under Linux, which looks at a CPU's microcode to set up a CPU's frequencies, so even if I set the CPU's speed in the BIOS to 2.4 GHz, it'll actually run @2.0 - except if I disable CnQ (and then , see reason 1).

Long story short: this almost 4-years-old rig (apart from the CG) has enough power for what I ask of it.

And since, under Linux, I could build Xvid to my precise CPU specs, I can encode movies very strongly at more than real time while watching the original material, I must say that not only do current apps have more juice than needed in my old CPU, I would gain zero time on CPU-intensive tasks I'd throw at my rig if I had a more powerful one.

I did overclocks on P75s (upped to 112), Cyrix 6x86 P150+/120 MHz (@133, anything higher and it would have melted), Pentium 133 (@166, only because my 430TX-based Shuttle didn't support anything more than a 83 MHz FSB), Celeron 300A (@460, once at 504 but it required such a voltage increase that I deemed it unreasonable), and Duron 950 (@1150); the latter actually showed LOWER performance at a higher clock speed, and actually got its greatest performance boost @933 with a very high FSB and very low RAM latency.

So, I learned my lesson: a good overclock is a way to improve performance, that's for sure; but the MHz-hunt doesn't necessarily bring more performance, and I consider now that a good balance between speed, stability and comfort is what to look for in such rad tuning.

As it stands, my X2 3800+ works very well @stock for my use - not for lack of trying.

I may change it the day I need more than 2 Gb of RAM.

 

[Ed Brown]

E8400 @ 3.6 + ASUS V52 cooler, 1.23 volts...lulz all you want - it doesn't go over 55 on prime95 and it's rock stable.

G.Skill DDR2 1066 @ 960 + stock small spreader...yeah, that's underclocked, I just wanted something more reliable than DDR2 800 would be OC'd that much.

HD 4850 + Accelero Twin Turbo up from 625 to 700 core, MEMIO usually low 60's except for crysis, call of juarez, furmark, ect. where it brushes up on 70 (still too hot imo). "Core" temp (not shader or displayIO) NEVER above 55.

GPU memory NOT OC'd - 3 of the last 4 vidcard I've had have died due to memory going bad so I'm not tempting fate, heh heh.

Note: 2x120mm case fans (front push rear pull), 92mm push fan on case cover over CPU cooler, 80mm push fan on case cover lower vent. I live in Texas, so all fans except CPU are directly connected to PSU +12V...don't care how loud it is (it is), I'm listening to loud music or playing games 90% of the time.

 

[radguy]

E5200 at 3.8ghz on 3.625v using an antec 900 and HDT-s1283. Passed 30hrs prime with max temp of 59C.
I spent 72 total dollars on the case and 25 on the cooler after I got my mirs back which I did. 73 on the proc.
Thats over a 50% oc and really good performance. I overclock to get better performance out of cheaper parts and because its a fun hobby. I try to upgrade on average every 18 months with lower end parts so I never really get out of date and I'm not ever paying a premium for higher end parts.

 

[Gryphyn]

I've been wondering if overclocking is really free, as you need to make sure to have better quality memory, a good overclocking motherboard, and a good aftermarket cooler. I think the real thing to say is that it is a cheaper way of getting a high level of performance out of your processor.

I have an Opteron 170 (socket 939) at a 35% overclock (2.7 Ghz) that has performed wonderfully. Rock solid stable at stock voltage, and extremely cool with my Tuniq Tower 120 and Antec 900 case.

 

[fancygreyfox]

I have a Phenom II 940 overclocked to 3.6ghz using a Cool IT Domino A.L.C at low settings. I overclock it to see how much performance gains I can get. I was able to oc it to 3.6ghz with the stock cooler but it was too loud so i got this Cool it. I might push it to 4.0ghz but i dont think its worth it especially if i have to bump the voltage above 1.55v.

 

[Tekkamanraiden]

I tried overclocking back in the P3/Athlon days. It was fun till the system crashed. Never saw any significant gains, not worth the instability. (Was big into 3dsmax at the time.) I know most silicon is much better now but I can't be bothered. The only part of my computer I have tweaked would be the fan on my 4850. I have it running at 45% at all times. I know it's rated to run at very high temperatures but I still makes me uncomfortable. I like my silicon at a temperature I can touch it with out getting burned.

 

[scryer_360]

Every day for two years I've booted my E4300 rig (on a P965) and ran from its stock 1.8 gigahertz to 2.4. Recently, when Empires: Total War taxed the system some, I boosted it to 3 gigahertz. I'm running +1 GCHM (or whatev) voltage and stock CPU voltage and its still doing just fine.

 

[Animebando]

e6600 @ 3.4GHz... just using a Freezer Pro knockoff that gets the job done. On sale at the time, and keeps me at 25C idle and about 45-50C with my typical load. Not bad for a $20 cooler.

 

[eddieroolz]

I was interested in overclocking since 2005 and managed to learn most of the basics back then. I used a Pentium 4 2.8, but the biggest detriment was that I was using a OEM machine, so it locked out any overclocking. When that broke down, I bought a laptop instead, so I had to wait until September of last year to finally get my hands on a overclockable machine.

Currently I have a E7200 overclocked to 3.32GHz on stock volts. I pushed it as high as 4.0GHz with 1.265v for trial, but the heat output was too great. I use a Gigabyte cooler from the Pentium D days, so most likely that's what's holding me back.

Overclocking actually brought significant boosts to my E7200 system. Superpi completed about 10-11 seconds faster, and CoD4 saw a significant boost with my old 8500GT. Haven't tried stock 2.53GHz with my new GTS 250, but I'm still sure the 725Mhz overclock is doing its job.

I found out the hard way that case airflow has more effect on temp than I thought. When I put in a Corsair VX550W, it screwed up my airflow completely, and now my E7200 idles at 45C. Next purchase: Antec 900.

 

[Tiberiusfury]

I overclock my Intel 6750 (stock 2.66) to 3.5ghz, using a Zalman 9500. It's stable even though it's encoding at 100% CPU 24/7.
My new AMD 9850 Quad is similar, though I've only overclocked to 3.0ghz until I get a better cooler. Similarly, I use that for encoding and as a dedicated torrent box.

I intend to pass on my AMD computer to my grandmother, and I'm sure a small overclock should be stable enough (and maintenance free) with adequate cooling, like the $20 Rosewill RCX-Z940-SL I just ordered.

 

[jcknouse]

I have just started OCing the past couple years.

I currently have:

AMD PhenomII x3 720BE 2.8GHz @ x4 3.4GHz
8GB DDR2-800 5-5-5-15 RAM (non-OCed)
1 WD 150GB Velociraptor
1 Samsung F1 500GB HD
1 XFX 9800 GTX+ (non-OCed)
Acer 24" 50000:1 2ms Ferrari gaming monitor
DVD burner, media card reader, 3.5" FDD, HP Scanjet scan/fax/copier, etc.