Why do you overclock?

[StageLeft]

I am not worried at all. So many people have done it with so infrequent problems.

I do it for free speed. Biggest overclock was 300@450 on my celeron, then 366@ 533. Currently running 1000 @ 1120. Why not do it? CPU takes it fine.

 

[NelsonMuntz]

<< i overclock because its good for TMPEG and i am encoding from Divx to VCD. >>


I only overclock my main machine when I am going to do some DIVX decoding or something like that. The rest of the time I just leave it at stock speeds. With my older machine it is harder to switch back and forth, so I keep it overclocked just a little (450 MHz up to 500 MHz is all) so I get a little more performance. It is already a 100 MHz FSB and I can get it to run stable close to 600 MHz, so I play it safe and come down to 500 MHz.

 

[Elledan]

Hah! Real men build their own MOSIX or Beowulf cluster!

Even a collection of 'obsolete' PC's in a cluster blow the average OC'ed system out of the water. For a lower price and much more fun, that is

 

[Harvey]

Because I can. If my 1 GHz T-Bird (100/200 MHz FSB) doesn't mind running on the 133/266 bus, why shouldn't I enjoy a 33% speed bump?

 

[luvya]

You think I would do something for no reason?
oh, wait...why did I overclock back then?

 

[geekybear]

because all the cool people do it

 

[FrogDog]

I have my Celeron 800 overclocked to 1120MHz. I do it because I don't see any risk and the more MHz my CPU can run at the better.

 

[Dark4ng3l]

Overclocking will pickup again when amd .13 chips are released and o/c's start getting meaningful again, now you can barely get like 10% because we are reaching the limitations of .18 micron.

 

[Jerboy]

Usually I have no reason to overclock. I have my P3 overclocked by 3% and my Athlon by whopping 6.07% just so I'd get slightly better time one SETI.

 

[geekender]

I don't. Too risky.

 

[Thegonagle]

Just to get a little something for nothing because I can.

I'm running a Celly 566 at 850. If I couldn't, I wouldn't be pissed, but it saves me from wanting to buy a faster processor so soon.

 

[phillydog]

FYI... almost all the chips (from the same manufacturer and level) are the same.... so basically an athlon 1500+ or 1900+ are the same... or atleast this used to be true...

what happens is that the company makes the chips, then does a benchmark and what ever range the chip lies in, that is what it is called. The (old) pentium 150 and 166 were the same chip, and basically the 150 was on the low end of the 166 spectrum, and was dubbed a 150, but could be overclocked to atleast 166.

I am running my athlon 1.4ghz at 1.533.... nowadays, the motherboards have methods where if the chip gets too hot than it just shuts off, but AMD has always run cooler than Intel. My K6-2 350 ran so cold, it actually could cool a drink... meanwhile a Cyrix M2-300 processor would burn your hand from just a post bootup test with cooling fan.

Hope this helps.

 

[MistaTastyCakes]

Because I can, and my Epox board sure would be a waste if I didn't. That and I get bragging rights at LANs.

 

[Skel]

<< I don't. >>

 

[RC5Bri]

I still use a dual celeron 366@550 setup with an Abit BP6. I overclock so that I can decrypt more keys in RC5, and so that I don't have to build a new computer. It still fits my needs well.

 

[HappyFace]

I used to overclock, when chips were under 500Mhz. Nowa day I'd rather not bother. Chips are so fast that a few Mhz doesn't really show huge performance gains.

 

[xero940]

<< Hah! Real men build their own MOSIX or Beowulf cluster!

Even a collection of 'obsolete' PC's in a cluster blow the average OC'ed system out of the water. For a lower price and much more fun, that is >>



What's a Beowulf cluster? Enlighten me, please?

 

[Tates]

Everything you wanted to know about Beowulf Clusters but were afraid to ask....

 

[Vic]

Number one reason is because we can. 'Nuff said on that.

Number two reason is performance. The performance increase is real and (if the OC is good enough) very noticeable.

Number three reason is because is enables you to have a faster processor that what is currently available for sale. For example, I have a 1.0GHz Tbird (AXIA stepping) at 1.46GHz. An Athlon at that speed was not legitimately available until about 9 months after I bought mine and OC'ed it. I suppose this falls into bragging rights, but another important thing this does is that extreme overclockers demonstrate the upper limits of how far a particular CPU brand and stepping will be able to go. For example, later stepping Athlon Tbirds never made it much past 1.5GHz. Therefore, it was known in advance that the CPU architecture would need to be revamped for AMD to get past that speed, and it was with the new AthlonXP. Now those CPUs are showing that they won't make it past 2.0GHz, and it is clear that AMD will need a die shrink to pass that milestone, which they will do with the T-bred, which will be released in late March or April, starting at 2.0GHz (PR 2500+). At that point, I would not be surprised if people started getting as much as 2.7-3.0GHz with the 0.13micron T-bred Athlons (and that will end up being the extreme limit of that model). Intel had the same problem with the P4 Willamette. Try as they might, extreme OC'ers could not get one much past 2.4GHz. In order to go faster, Intel revamped the architecture and did a die shrink to 0.13micron. Now some are getting 2.2GHz Northwoods to as much as 3.5GHz (using extreme methods right now), and I predict that speed will be the end of line for the P4 Northwood line, and Intel will have to die shrink again to get beyond that, or switch to a new architecture (so, contrary to all the hype, to me this is proof that the P4 will never scale up to 10GHz, unless Intel die-shrinks to 0.07micron).

Number four reason is that it can breathe new (or extended) life into old systems. You were gonna throw out that old Celeron 533a, but a little bump in vCore to 1.8v, and an adequate but very inexpensive HSF and you get 800 with no issues, and an extra year or more of usuable life on that machine. Not bad.

 

[Logix]

So that SETI runs faster, and because I can.

 

[Koing]

I oc mine (650 @ 780) as its free and I can. 650 is slow for me but at 780 its much quicker

And P3 chips are pricey and I don't want to upgrade as 780 is pretty good for me. Does everything else I want.

 

[Trader05]

Free mhz lol....i have a 600mhz Celeron @ 933mhz....Can't argue with it.

 

[Theslowone]

Because it makes it more interesting, overclocking cpu, lowering cas on ram, overclocking video card, I just wish i could overclock my damn floppy.
Most product will not get screw up for overclocking, processors, video cards, ram all have tell tell signs of problems if they are "overcloked" to much. For most people regular speed is fine, it runs the apps you want at a speed that is reasonable, but there are those who want as fast as they can get with what they have. And yes in some apps and games you can tell the small changes.

 

[MrCraphead]

I used to overclock as well, but I grew tired of the blue screens, and just wanted a stable system. I haven't tried my 1.2 Tbird AXIA yet, perhaps I should......hmmm.......

 

[Ionizer86]

I have only overclocked my video card so far. It was an aging Vanta, and I could get some more frames from it, so I oc'ed. My current mobo has no ocing on it, so I can't oc unless I do that pre SoftMenu III style tweaking.

When I get my EPoX, I will refrain from tweaking with the fsb, because everything will be oc'ed and something might go bad (I don't have $ to go get a new hdd, new optical drives, new PCI cards, etc). I won't tweak the fsb unless the new bios with dividers come, in which case I can run everthing @ 166fsb with only ram and cpu suffering. In addition, I won't push the CPU too far (ie XP 1600+ to 1533mhz) because if it fries, I'll be stuck on a cheap duron or something