At what point does everyone stop OCing CPU?

[error8]

I oc it until I have games or other programs crash on me. If it gets too hot, I increase the fans speed. I don't care for power consumption, heat and noise, these are for old people. I only go for the maximum the hardware is able to give me, without dieing. Unfortunately, with my current chip oced to the max ( 3.7 ghz ) my motherboard died, so I'm now keeping it 100 mhz lower. Hopefully I'll buy a new mobo that will let me once again, to shoot higher.

 

[SniperWulf]

I usually set an attainable goal and stop at nothing to reach it. Dialing back is always a last resort

 

[PingviN]

I ramp up clock speeds untill the computer crashes, then lower untill I can run Prime95 stable for 4 hours.

 

[Ben90]

I never stop overclocking, it takes years to find the optimal subtimings and by then ill have a new platform to tighten to the brink of instability.

 

[richierich1212]

Initially I wanted to go as high as possible. But now I figure I'll just go as high as I can with stock voltage or less. I'm not really using my computer for anything else besides web browsing, some occasional photoshop and gaming (mainly TF2 and Borderlands, both have very low system requirements).

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

I could be wrong but I thought the x58 based core i7's also had the on demand "ocing" feature, it's just implemented better on the newer cores being the 1156 cores. At least that's from my understanding

really?
i thought shutting down unneeded cores and ramping up clock speeds was a new feature on the 1156 cpu's.

 

[Makaveli]

Have to agree with everyone so far. When I first started overclocking it was all about maximum mhz. As I've aged alittle and have more money, my goals have changed. Right now i'm all about how far I can push the chip at stock voltage, while keeping my system quiet.

Currently running a 920 D0 at stock vcore at 3.6Ghz.
Turbo is disabled however speedstep is on, so system idles at 2.15Ghz. With a Revision C TRUE and one S-Flex 1900 RPM fan and HT on I idle at 38c and full load is 69C

My case also has about 6 Case fan all on a 6 button fan controller and its very quiet. Enough so that if need be I can sleep next to the rig while its running.

 

[Zensal]

I usually set an attainable goal and stop at nothing to reach it. Dialing back is always a last resort

This. With my current E5200, I wanted at least 3.7 out of it.

 

[Fox5]

I go for the highest I get with 100% stability. If it crashes under any circumstances, that's not good enough for me.

Coincidentally, I've found that to always occur around whatever the max speed processor in that line is, so now I just aim for the max speed processor in that line, and if I can't hit that then I dial down until it's 100% stable.

 

[Pederv]

Usually happy medium.
Just upgraded from a S939 4800+ to a 965BE, that's the biggest single jump in clock frequency for me.
I haven't finished installing software but I did take Need for Speed Shift for a drive and I can tell the difference.
With the stock cooling and the cool fall air the new system pushes close to 60C when running Prime.
When I get an after-market HSF I'll give over clocking a try but I don't plan on making it part of my system configuration for a few more months.

 

[halley]

I was curious what stops everyone from over clocking as certain points. Do most of you OC to the highest point of stability? or just find a happy medium, or heat issues? I wonder because my q9550 does 4.0, but is unstable sometimes at that in gaming, so 3.8 and no problems all around.

I used to overclock my Intel or AMD computers just of curiosity, not out of necessity. I overclocked my first AMD 5 years ago to handle my game. Now my interest has been shifted to quality of pictures and video streams. I reset all my machines back to default stocks until there is a need to improve visual quality by speeding up CPU's.

 

[Marty502]

With this machine, I don't bother with high temperatures or insane OC anymore.
It's a Socket 939 X2 AMD. It's not like it's gonna set the world on fire if it runs at 2.8 Ghz. Tiny cache, DDR RAM... slow architecture overall.

At 2.4 Ghz I get a bit more performance from the stock 2 Ghz, but below stock volts (1.250v, stock is 1.350v)
So the temperatures are in check and the fans never ramp up.

 

[arcenite]

"Go big or go home"

I hate knowing that there might be a few mhz left at a certain voltage point.

I go for the combo that best fits max safe temp, max safe voltage, and max frequency.

I have no problem running the chip at 70c if that is the max safe temp. Luckily, with my cooling, I hit the voltage ceiling first.

My chip: Q6600 @ 3.75ghz 1.5v, 60c load temp

I never stop overclocking, it takes years to find the optimal subtimings and by then ill have a new platform to tighten to the brink of instability.

This. Laugh if you will, but it's one of my favorite things to do in life.

 

[myocardia]

really?
i thought shutting down unneeded cores and ramping up clock speeds was a new feature on the 1156 cpu's.

Shutting down unneeded cores is a new feature with LGA1156, but overclocking core #0 started with LGA1366.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I overclock until I can't run Prime95 Small FFT for at least 6 hours and blend for 12. Then I test OCCT for an overnight run (8-12 hours).

If it doesn't pass I adjust, whether it be voltages etc. Basically I start by booting to windows, then I try to stabilize that speed without getting crazy on voltage or temps. After that I go down a step at a time until I can get it to a happy medium.

Right now my Q9550 is running 3.8Ghz @ 43/38/36/35 idle and load is 60c max on any one core. That's with 1.4v idle and with vdroop under load 1.34v

 

[2March]

I used to clock as high as I could but that was in the Celeron A and Coppermine days. The powerrequirements weren't that high and heat was not such an issue. I remember checking a PII for a friend that crashed a lot and its temperature of almost 60 degrees caused quite a stir. My Coppermine would stay below 50 with a 50% OC...

My last OC was on a A64 at 2.4GHz and that was about a 100 MHz less than it could handle. I cant see the point in squeezing out that last bit of speed. It still runs flawlesly which is a good thing too.

I have an I7 920 C0 now and it runs 3.6/3.8 with Turbo. It's a good chip with only 1.23V Vc so it can really do more but I can't be bothered. It get's up to 75 degrees FCS... I did notice though that it crashed once while stress testing with Win 64bit so it does need a bit more Vcore with 64 bit

What the smeg happened to my userdetails?

 

[OCNewbie]

I'm a happy medium OC'er. I'm currently running a Q9550 @ 3600MHz, but it's undervolted (slightly), so I'm actually running slightly cooler, using less power, but still running a good bit faster than standard. My cooling isn't spectacular either right now, so I don't think I'd like the temps I'd get from the higher voltage 4GHz+ would require.

 

[Belmont]

I OC until my software can't handle it...

 

[Shmee]

Sweet spot for me. I try to maximize oc while still within safe temp and voltages. 920 D0 @ 4.2 GHz @ 1.39 Vcore, and Q6600 G0 @ 3.5 GHz @ 1.41 Vcore, each linx stable maxing around 70 C, or so I recall. Using a Push pull lapped true on the i7, and a xigmatek dark knight on the Q6600.

The difference between the two systems however, is the reason behind why I stopped. With the Q6600, I could probably do 3.7 with a bit of a vcore bump and better cooling. With the i7, I reached the chips max, pretty much. 4.3 required almost 1.48 Vcore, and I didnt dare leave it that high, and 4.4 was never stable. I got one of the lesser D0's it seems, and I am chip limited, while with the Q6600, I am temp limited by my cooler.

 

[TJCS]

I OC until my wallet can't handle it.

 

[child of wonder]

I haven't overclocked my latest Phenom II rig simply because I don't have the time and would rather be sure my system is stable. 30 year old father of two with two jobs doesn't leave much time for OCing.

 

[judasmachine]

I like the easy OC. If I can't do it in a few minutes, and have it stable, cool and decent voltage, I stop.

^this.

 

[LoneNinja]

I stopped at 3.5Ghz on my Phenom II 940 simply because I can't get 3.6 stable. My 940 does 3.4Ghz at 1.325V, 3.5Ghz at 1.375V, and 3.6Ghz can't even make it 5 minutes in Prime95 at 1.45V and I've got no desire(or good enough cooling) to push the voltage higher.

 

[luv2increase]

Since I am not heavy into benchmarking, I always stop at an OC that I can run 24/7 and is completely 100% LinX/Prime95 stable and which runs at a temperature that isn't too hot while idle and/or under full load.

 

[cbn]

I was curious what stops everyone from over clocking as certain points. Do most of you OC to the highest point of stability? or just find a happy medium, or heat issues? I wonder because my q9550 does 4.0, but is unstable sometimes at that in gaming, so 3.8 and no problems all around.

I have overclocked in the past but these days I don't really find the need to.

Maybe when my system starts to get really old I will overclock it for the last 6 months of its life.