Overclocking PCs

[Nitrous]

I recently read an article on a website that said something about a man overclocking his processor to almost double its speed.

But I really do not understand what it is, nor understand how to achieve it (not saying I want to, just want to know more for knowledge sakes).

Care to explain anyone?

 

[Markb]

Overclocking = making the processor/memory/graphics card run faster. Overclocking a processor is done in the BIOS screen (when you turn on your pc, it says press del to enter setup (do not change anything in there if you are unsure what it does)). The downside is that your processor will run hotter, and so you need to have sufficient cooling in your pc. Some people even go to the lengths of water cooling their pcs to get the most out of overclocking.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overclocking

 

[BlackWolf]

Not mentioning extreme overclocking with dry ice and liquid nitrogen etc.
Those numbers of twice as fast are not actually that realistic.

Normal processors on market depending of processor ofc. are possible to tweak from 10-50% higher speed on normal conditions.(by normal conditions I mean situation that you could keep up 24/7) In reality this means gains of like 10% speed increase as speed doesnt correlate directly to Mhz amounts.

Skilled guy who has time and will and is ready to invest a bit to his system can reach up to 30% speed increase with smart overclocking of whole system including GPU, CPU and memories.

All in all... be smart dont start. It is cool when you can do it but not so cool if something gets broken, and eventually you just end up to get hooked for that stuff and spend more money to parts than you actually save from knowing what to do. Then theres things like noice etc. as you wouldnt want 70db fans blowing out in your room only cause of some heat. So in the end you will do as majority and actually tweak your system to be more silent not to actually run any faster

Also theres the point of powerusage which on modern days is raising its head. Faster it goes more it consumes... so basicly you just pay bigger electric bills for speed you dont really need. (as if you think that oc:ing can make sucky comp better you are wrong, it is not life saviour. It can turn barely playable game to run bit better or rather good running game to ran smooth, but it cant make miracles)

 

[n0c0ntr0l]

Steer well away nitrous, it's something that eats into your pocket. Makes you buy things such as 200quid watercooling parts, desktop cases costing 100 quid. It's fun but a bad addiction that I need to kick.

 

[Dark_Angel]

Overclocking on that level is for the overclocking enthusiast.

He probably spent more money on cooling equipment that he would have to BUY a processor twice the speed of the one he had

If you plan to overclock, do plenty of research and make sure you have the right gear. Also, make sure buying that gear doesn't cost more than simply buying a new processor.

Without the right cooling equipment you risk doing damage to your processor/motherboard, and your computer is likely to switch itself off randomly (as if you overclock your processor and the temperature goes above a certain point, your system will fail and the computer will switch itself off after the temperature of the CPU goes beyond a certain point.

 

[Azzer]

I agree with everything BlackWolf says on it. I myself no longer overclock my PC beyond very "minor" adjustments that have next to no impact on heat etc.

Any medium to major overclocking drastically increases the heat output of the components - and while you can stick liquid cooling on that will help dissipate the heat so that the computer doesn't crash/melt itself every hour, the increased heat generation still drastically shortens the long-term lifespan of such components - a heavily overclocked PC could start breaking down within a year to 2 years - RAM crashes/freezeups, BSOD's starting up without warning etc. etc.

Only good if you are rich enough to afford a new PC every year or two and don't care about it's lifespan shoretening, and most popular with "e-peen" wavers who hang out on overclock forums showing off to eachother how much they overclocked their PC by with very few actual practical applications...

 

[Steve_God]

In scientific terms, the hotter it is, the more unstable it is.

The more unstable it is, the quicker it will break and no-longer be useful!

 

[BlackWolf]

Well actually many of those crashes can be overcome by increasing the voltages... As electrical input and heat detoriates the metals on processor and normal processor is meant to last around 3-6 years, so overclocking reduces that time (Mainly cause you increase voltages to overclock thus detoriating faster). But same time adding more voltage to already detoriated metal only increases its throught put. So in theory it is possible to increase the life span of processor by adding more voltages later on...

Bit too complex thing to explain here and bit off topic too.