Why overclock ?

[Dave2150]

Hi all,

I've just spent several days, (while foot is in plaster - crushed between motorbike and a high kerbstone - motorbike argued with a Petrol Tanker and lost ! ), hunting down parts to replace my, still gorgeous and swift, and ancient, pre-2009 build :-
Asus M3N78+AMD Phenom 955-Arctic 7 ? cooler+4gb Ballistix
Kingston SV300S37A60 SSD, Zotac 9400GT,
Seasonic 430watt psu in there somewhere, ....Jmicron eSATA pcie x1 card
...must be some other stuff in there ...LG DVD ROM, DVDRW, Camera card bay, 160gb+500gb 7,200 hd's in there, ...Startech caddyless hd bay, ...Kingston boot SSD is in a 2.5" to 3.5" converter, in an Antec Solo case....enough of my kit.

So since pre-2009 it hasn't missed a beat. Wouldn't want to knacker my Windows platform by OC'ing it ! I have tentatively read up on the subject several times across past few years, and several times, (after always first imaging boot hard disk out to external hard disk ready to recover knackered Windows registry), experimented a little, then pushed a "little," a little too far, and always ended up with a knackered registry.

So, I always thought to myself, why stress that expensive CPU, (and RAM), beyond the thermal rating at which it was binned ? ...I don't fancy frying it and having to buy another one, ...I could barely afford the last one ! And if I'd found a stable overclock, I doubt the thing would have lasted 6+ years. After decades of chucking out motherboards and CPU's, (almost monthly in the early years), for that next better model/generation, it was great to reach a point where hardware has remained pleasantly useable for over 6 years !

Anyhoo, I've just received an Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0 (didn't need SLI or CrossFire or whatever it's called - don't play games), FX-8320, 2xBallistix 4gb Tactical (damn / that means I've got to get a 64 bit Windows :-(, and will soon be rearranging the innards of two PC cases. I noticed, during my wading through the web that the above board is bristling with overclocking features but, I doubt that I'll be using them.

But then again, if I could have a small overclock without frying the thing, or corrupting the registry, I might get tempted

bfn, Richard

It's better to into a bend slow and come out fast,
than it is to go in fast and come out dead !
...or in my case, ...go in fast and smack into a petrol tanker

I've got a X58 I7 920 overclocked by 1.2Ghz from stock 2.66Ghz to 3.86Ghz from day one.

Build was delivered December 22nd 2008 - 6 years 4 months, and it hasn't missed a beat. No failed windows installed, no corrupted data, nothing.

Certain CPU's are simply capable of a far greater frequency than they were binned for.

As long as temperatures under load are fine and the voltage increase to get to the desired overclock isn't too much, then you have no issues at all with overclocking.

 

[rjk44]

Hope you didn't pay for that FX. Just isn't worth it against a modern Haswell i5 (or Skylake). I've never overclocked. Too lazy. And the only difference in single player games are the minimum's and the dips (don't play multiplayer) which can be offset by buying the fastest stock clocked CPU you can and using MCE.

Dunno how you worked that out ?
FX-8320 currently Passmark scores 8064
i5-4690K scores 7776
the i5 from ebuyer.com is £184
...I got my 8320 new sealed and unused on ebay £104

= NO CONTEST

okay, would have liked a high end i7 but, haven't won the Lottery yet !!!
regards, Richard

 

[rjk44]

sorry, duplicate post.

 

[rjk44]

It roughly equates to being 'buggered' in the non-literal sense. I suppose, if you were to take being buggered literally, you could be knackered from too much buggery.

That's hilarious [ROFL] !
...though, makes one wonder just what's going on in your mind !

regards, Richard

 

[DrMrLordX]

Passmark

'ware Passmark scores. They aren't always useful in determining how fast a CPU will be on "real world" applications.

That being said, don't mind the Intel promoters. At least one or two will pop up in every thread where someone seems to be happy with an AMD chip. And the opposite is also somewhat true, in that AMD zealots will pop up in Intel threads from time to time . . . it happens. Just ignore it.

Good luck with your 8320 regardless, let us know if you need help tuning the clockspeed and voltage or if you want to go in for more esoteric stuff like NB overclocking.

 

[escrow4]

Dunno how you worked that out !

i5 4690K Passmark cpu charts, gets 7776
AMD FX-8320 gets 8064

i5 4690K currently £184 on ebuyer.com
8320 new/sealed from ebay £104

= NO CONTEST !

regards, Richard

Passmark is worthless. Real world stuff FX falls way behind, especially in gaming.

 

[rjk44]

Passmark is worthless. Real world stuff FX falls way behind, especially in gaming.

....I just worked out where more posts were located, ...little "Page ? of ?" bottom of screen, duuuh !! ...so sorry for duplicate posts !!

As I mentioned earlier, I don't really play games on PC.
I looked at a whole variety of benchmark results, to get an impression of "real-world" benchmarks. Passmark scores are aggregated from real PC's, unlike many of the biased bench results plastered all over the web.
Anyway, whilst wading through many benchmark results, I looked mainly at video encoding performances as I use AVS Video Encoder occasionally. Whilst I would have liked an Intel processor, because of their superior video encoding performance, even the old 3770K was a ludicrous price, as were all the half decent quality socket 2011 boards to put it on.
And as my old pre 2009 Asus M3N78+AMD 955 processor has stood the test of time, and is still very responsive and pleasant to use, (even my years old DVD2one prog. will resize a full length DVD film on hard-disk in just a few minutes), held up mainly by SATA 300 data transmit speeds I guess, I thought that a newer board with faster interface specs., (even though such hardware performs to only a proportion of it's specification), would improve overall performance speeds by a desirable amount !

If there was not such a massive price difference between Intel Processors and boards, I may not have stuck with AMD.

One has to draw the line somewhere at the amount of money one spends on hardware.
Long ago I bought my first Seagate hard-disk, (which was 100mb's !!! ...on an ISA card, and I should , and could have instead bought a small Island in the South Pacific for the same amount of money !!!

best regards,

Richard

 

[hawtdawg]

If you make sure you're good and stable before really doing anything with it, you're not likely to screw up windows in my experience.

 

[escrow4]

....I just worked out where more posts were located, ...little "Page ? of ?" bottom of screen, duuuh !! ...so sorry for duplicate posts !!

As I mentioned earlier, I don't really play games on PC.
I looked at a whole variety of benchmark results, to get an impression of "real-world" benchmarks. Passmark scores are aggregated from real PC's, unlike many of the biased bench results plastered all over the web.
Anyway, whilst wading through many benchmark results, I looked mainly at video encoding performances as I use AVS Video Encoder occasionally. Whilst I would have liked an Intel processor, because of their superior video encoding performance, even the old 3770K was a ludicrous price, as were all the half decent quality socket 2011 boards to put it on.
And as my old pre 2009 Asus M3N78+AMD 955 processor has stood the test of time, and is still very responsive and pleasant to use, (even my years old DVD2one prog. will resize a full length DVD film on hard-disk in just a few minutes), held up mainly by SATA 300 data transmit speeds I guess, I thought that a newer board with faster interface specs., (even though such hardware performs to only a proportion of it's specification), would improve overall performance speeds by a desirable amount !

If there was not such a massive price difference between Intel Processors and boards, I may not have stuck with AMD.

One has to draw the line somewhere at the amount of money one spends on hardware.
Long ago I bought my first Seagate hard-disk, (which was 100mb's !!! ...on an ISA card, and I should , and could have instead bought a small Island in the South Pacific for the same amount of money !!!

best regards,

Richard

A 3770K obliterates a 955:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/88?vs=551

And price wise both settled around $300 ish when they were released. 955 was a flagship in 2009 for AMD.

 

[rjk44]

A 3770K obliterates a 955:

Try the "Quote Selected text" button," you keep plastering up my whole post !

http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/447/AMD_FX-Series_FX-8320_vs_Intel_Core_i7_i7-3770K.html
Anyhoo, I wouldn't describe, "In graphics tasks and games, the processor has 3% higher performance," as "obliteration."
The single threaded perf. of the 3770K at 79% faster than the 8320 should perhaps be highlighted.

This is probably my last comment on ridiculous comparisons, as I have said several times, I don't really play games, ...though I am now hunting for a Zotac pcie card, (solid cap.s' ...and will probably settle for one with a passive heatsink, min. 900mhz core clock, or maybe the £35 - 797mhz core clock.

best regards,

Richard

 

[rjk44]

Good luck with your 8320 regardless, let us know if you need help tuning the clockspeed and voltage or if you want to go in for more esoteric stuff like NB overclocking.

Many thanks for your input. I may have time to do some reliability testing when it's built, doc's just given me another "unfit for work" ticket for another two weeks. Still waiting for 8320 cpu to arrive :-(
M5A97 EVO's on my left side worktop awaiting it's arrival. I may even have time to run Spinrite 6 on my theoretical 1 or 2 x WD 1tb Blue hd's, (also not yet ordered), although may leave that churning for hours and hours, when I'm away from machines, for hours and hours

regards, Richard

 

[maddogmcgee]

Buggeritall, millenium hand and shrimp!

OMG, I have a new respect for pratchett and random text generators. Or should I say. At discovery discourse departure objection we.

...now back to the topic.

I have a 2500k im itching to upgrade since it is so old, but because of my overclock, I simply cannot justify it. If I was on a stock 2500k I would have upgraded with Ivy for the extra IPC and mhz and maybe Haswell as well. As it is, I simply increase voltage and mhz every time I get the upgrade itch. Saving maybe 700 this time round(ddr4, motherboard, cpu). Why would I put money away for Skylake when I Have a 4.6ghz Sandy whose pci 16x 2.0 is more than sufficient? Overclocking has saved me thousands!

 

[BD231]

You'd be pretty hard pressed to mess up system files via overclocking as windows 8 can repair pretty much anything you manage to botch. Just start above the average voltage of the clock range you're aiming for if you want to be absolutely certain nothing goes wrong with your install and reap the benefits stated above.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

OMG, I have a new respect for pratchett and random text generators. Or should I say. At discovery discourse departure objection we.

...now back to the topic.

I have a 2500k im itching to upgrade since it is so old, but because of my overclock, I simply cannot justify it. If I was on a stock 2500k I would have upgraded with Ivy for the extra IPC and mhz and maybe Haswell as well. As it is, I simply increase voltage and mhz every time I get the upgrade itch. Saving maybe 700 this time round(ddr4, motherboard, cpu). Why would I put money away for Skylake when I Have a 4.6ghz Sandy whose pci 16x 2.0 is more than sufficient? Overclocking has saved me thousands!

You're not alone -- not exactly.

I've got a 2600K and 2700K under my desk. Without pushing "current capability" or other tweaks, they both OC to 4.7 within voltage limits acceptable to me.

I also managed to acquire an un-abused year-old i5-3570K last fall, and used it with a budget Z77-A board to replace my brother's old E8600 rig upstairs. I was thinking to OC the i5, but thought better to leave it running stock since Bro is a "user" and not an "enthusiast."

Now I've seen the performance expectations for IB versus SB at stock settings, and I think you could expect no more than 10% -- if that. But the IB "just seemed" quick -- or so quick I didn't want to piddle with the BIOS and stress-tests.

It was only a few months ago here that a fellow member PM'd me to say he thought he could squeeze another 4 years out of his Sandy Bridge. Personally, I don't know and can't say. I'm a "game dabbler" and not a "game enthusiast." I build a system with latest and greatest parts maybe once every three years or so, just to keep my iron in the fire.

And I keep putting off my "Haswell E" project, which could simply turn into a Devils Canyon Project. If I wait long enough, it might be a Broadwell or Skylake project.

 

[soccerballtux]

sometimes you save $500 like here: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/pentium-e2160_14.html#sect0

 

[rjk44]

Hi I spent all day yesterday transplanting M3N78/955/4gb ddr2 Ballistix from Antec Solo case into Lian-Li case. After a heart stopping few minutes when it refused to boot, and Antec PSU tester showed "fault," tracked it down to a Molex to small AMP 4 pin adapter lead - to one of two case front fans.
Then, Logitech M305 mouse wouldn't work !
After stabbing around for an hour, penny finally dropped - I've got 2 M305 mouse's (mice !), and I hadn't swapped the nano receivers over, (both plugged into case front USB ports).

So, now about to fit M5A97 EVO into Antec case, (cpu arrived yesterday).
Yesterday, lapped copper base of Arctic cooler 7, (rev-? ...white fan on it), on fine'ish wet and dry paper for perfect flat finish with very fine score marks, (my preference!), ...and it looks GORGEOUS :-

regards, Richard

 

[Headfoot]

"Why overclock" It makes it go faster.

 

[Bleeder]

Opps, I should have said an "extra/new" Windows (64bit), as I'll be transplanting M3N78/955/2x2gb Ballistix etc, into my other / 2nd, PC case), ...Lian-Li case, ...and chucking out the Conroe 865PE board, and XP Home ed. in it, that's all been sat there unused for two or three years !

If you haven't chucked that Conroe 865PE board yet, let me know. As long as it still works, I'd be interested in taking it off your hands.

PS - I would have PM'd if I could..

 

[alcoholbob]

Passmark is worthless. Real world stuff FX falls way behind, especially in gaming.

Well except multi-GPU due to Intel limiting PCI-E lanes on the mainstream boards to 8x/8x and allowing 16x/8x (5820k) and 16x/16x (5930K+).

Once you start running Titan X level cards there is a difference between 8x and 16x PCIE speeds, so it's another reason to go X99, even if the extra CPU cores may or may not be doing anything.

 

[lord_emperor]

So, I always thought to myself, why stress that expensive CPU....

You're doing it wrong. You buy a cheaper CPU and make it perform like the expensive one.

 

[LTC8K6]

Small overclocks make no sense to me.

It's big overclocks that I like to achieve.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Small overclocks are great for n00bs to get their feet wet. My first overclock was a Sempron 2800+ using the stock cooler and stock vcore on a Chaintech VNF3-250. I think I hit 2.3 ghz or something on it, which was pretty good considering it was only a 1.6 ghz chip! Still, it was "small" compared to people that were hitting 2.7 ghz with better setups (a LANParty, plus aftermarket cooling).

People on a budget who can't afford to replace a burnt-out chip or to buy good aftermarket cooling solutions often stick to this strategy. Depending on what you get, it's still free speed, just like the old days . . . well, sort of. It is if you buy mostly AMD.

 

[Dufus]

just like the old days . . . well, sort of. It is if you buy mostly AMD.

What does that mean?

 

[potzocalli]

Overclocking was/is fun and exciting. Haven't done it in several years because frankly it is not needed with today's multi-core high frequency CPUs and I do not have the time to fiddle.

Last time I did any sort of overclocking was for my 1GHz AMD CPU. After I upgraded to a 1.8GHz CPU I resorted to upgrading my video card to increase gaming performance.

 

[DrMrLordX]

What does that mean?

It means you can overclock nearly any chip AMD sells right now. Some of them are a challenge to overclock, such as the A8-7600 (it can be done, but it is not easy). But most of them are unlocked from the get-go. Even cheap chips like the 860k or 750k/760k are unlocked.

Outside of the G3258, the Intel camp is vastly different.