the PC i just built has a motherboard designed for easy overclocking
to someone like me, i don’t even know what overclocking really is. i do in theory – running components at higher specs then they were sold as. that can include the CPU, memory, hard drives, and even cooling fans
for hardcore overclockers they see this as a hobby, just like we do with OpenSim, and continually push the components. they use water cooling and chart performance versus temperature versus voltage
with a normal motherboard, you have to do all sorts of hacks to the BIOS and change voltages and monitor stability to find the upper end of overclocking performance. i certainly don’t have that type of knowledge nor is it something that i am interested in learning more about. BUT . . . this motherboard has some automated ”overclocking” profiles and the one i tried out is pretty mellow
one thing i was keeping in mind is that chip makers, like Intel and AMD, will intentionally throttle back chips to be able to sell them at lower price points. i don’t know which ones are like that so i’ll use a fictitious example of a EnerChip 3000 – a make believe chip that runs at 3 GHz. so i manufacture this chip and it is architected to run at 3 GHz but i also want to compete in the 2.5 GHz and 2.8 GHz market, so i throttle it down to those frequencies. in practice, the EnerChip 2500 can be run a 3 GHz if you are able to “unlock” it
supposedly the i5-2500K that i used in the computer build can “safely” be overclocked to 5 GHz but that makes me nervous because overclocking a CPU means it uses more voltage and increases its operating temperature. the higher the temp, the less stable your machine will run, and the shorter the life of the CPU
i used one of the pre-configured overclocking profiles and pushed the CPU from its default 3.3GHz to 4.6GHz. i also set the RAM to its rated speed of 1600 (it was running at 1333 for some reason) and set the cooling fans to speed up if the CPU goes above 50 degrees Celsius
the results? pffft, beats me! =D
i can’t feel any diff in OpenSim and running Speccy shows that my CPU temps have stayed close to what they were before the overclocking (34 vs. 31). i can only see a difference in the Windows Experience Index and not really sure if that is a big deal
the good thing is that this motherboard made this an easy test to do – taking only about one minute to make the changes. i did read about it and research it for about 15 minutes so it was not much effort to do this test but gives me the bragging rights to say “of course i overclock my PC, don’t you?” =p
i can already feel the accolades coming on . . . lol, i am so full of baloney! have a great holiday weekend! =)
before and after overclocking
I’ve been using ASUS motherboards and AMD processors for awhile and I think they’ve all had easy overclocking built in. But, I’ve never messed with it. I run Windows and enough weird stuff happens already. :)
While the chips do all come from the same place and are built the same way, that doesn’t mean that they were tested at all voltages.
Remember when 5 1/4″ diskettes were sold as single and double sided? Yes I know many people aren’t that old. :) The double sided ones were more expensive. But, you could buy a single sided one, a little tool that could notch out the write tab on the opposite side, and then just flip them over in the drive. Making one single sided diskette into two single sided diskettes, basically. I did do this. It wasn’t much trouble, saved some money, and I just formatted them a couple of times to make sure there weren’t obvious problems. I never had an issue.
I suspect overclocking by a moderate amount is probably the same. The chips are made with enough tolerances that normally, it shouldn’t be an issue. I just don’t bother with it.
Micheil Merlin
2 Sep 12 at 8:32 pm
I had countless desktops over the years and i never messed with overclocking, for one reason only, not knowing what to do or if it would really improve performance without compromising stability!
I know for sure that overclocking si welcome and can be a very good thing, but only for experts, not for simple users like me!
ZZ Bottom
3 Sep 12 at 9:36 am
Overclocking is somewhat analogous to making do a person do a series of sprints. This should be ok if it turns out they are healthy. The problems surface if it turns out they have a heart valve defect.
Some triple A games push a PC so much the official FAQ says “Do not overclock”.
In fact, google “overclock stability game crash” and read peoples accounts.
Overclocking strains everything: the bus, the ram, the mobo controllers, the graphics, the powersupply. It will test these components and soon tell you if one of the components is at bad end of the manufacturing reliability bell curve.
My rule of thumb is try overclocking on your 3 yo machine, if you wouldn’t be heart broken if it failed.
Breen Whitman
3 Sep 12 at 2:38 pm
good point Micheil – the overclocking actually voids the warranties on everything i believe – so this is something to only do if you can handle taking responsibility for your own actions (sounds dumb, but many people have a hard time accepting that)
well ZZ, i am certainly not technical! the only reason i was confident enough to do this is because the motherboard has an automated setting that i simply selected from a drop-down list! =) otherwise, i would never try “real” overclocking where you have to figure out what to change and then spend hours testing and tweaking
very good philosophy Breen – i like the 3 year old PC part and your analogy to being in shape and doing sprints is a great way to think of this
Ener Hax
3 Sep 12 at 6:14 pm
Really overclocking is reserved for the elite gamers who pretend they can tell a difference on modern hardware. A decade ago when you could really and instantly tell the difference in performance of a 10% overclock versus standard it was more important. Today not so much.
If you’re buying new hardware, it’s really not worth it to plan to overclock it instantly. If you find you have a game in a few years that needs more performance that you don’t have, overclocking may sneak an extra year into your hardware lifespan though.
CyberMage
4 Sep 12 at 8:44 am
great philosophy CyberMage – save the OC stuff for older machines and don’t threaten the stability (and longevity) of the new machines
since my WEI index is held back by the video card, the small gain in CPU and Mem isn’t worth the risk (i’ll be setting it back to default but will cling to being able to call myself an Overclocker!) =D
Ener Hax
4 Sep 12 at 1:37 pm