Overclockers

[katka]

For any of you people that want to learn about computers go to www.overclockers.com. The fourms have a lot of information.

Quick question does anyone else here go to overclockers.com. Oh and how many people here overclock?

 

[CruddyLeper]

I have been there... only to discover that my current setup is totally unsuitable for overclocking (sigh).

 

[col]

I used to overclock my Celeron wildly from 66Mhz fsb to 100 Mhz fsb. When I got a Pent III I immediatly tried overclocking it but discovered when I ran lots of benchmakrs that it actually ran faster without overclocking. I'm not 100% sure whether it was the video card that didnt like the higher rate or my memory missed a few cycles.

Either way, check every change against good benchmark programs. The biggest speed up I did was to put a lot more memory into the machine. Made more differcence that overclocking!

And yes - overclockers .com was a great site but I havent been there for quite a while....

 

[CIVPhilzilla]

I just overclocked my PC with the help of various people from hardforums.com. I overclocked my Athlon 64 3000+ from 1.8 GHz to 2.4 Ghz, with only a slight jump in temprature of about 8 degrees celcius full load 34 C to 42 C.

 

[vbraun]

I don't overclock my machine as it's hot enough. When I'm not doing anything it will get to about 45C and when I'm playing an intensive game it will go up almost 20C!

 

[CIVPhilzilla]

I don't overclock my machine as it's hot enough. When I'm not doing anything it will get to about 45C and when I'm playing an intensive game it will go up almost 20C!

Put some extra fans in your system it helps cool it a lot. Also I believe you have an error in your post, either you switched the numbers or mistyped the second one. I doubt you get a 15C drop in temprature on full load.

 

[vbraun]

Put some extra fans in your system it helps cool it a lot. Also I believe you have an error in your post, either you switched the numbers or mistyped the second one. I doubt you get a 15C drop in temprature on full load.

I already have. Those numbers are right. I think the biggest problem is where I live. We get 110F summers...

I'm thinking of getting a better heat-sink. It's mainly the CPU temp that skyrockets.

Here's a screenshot from yestrurdays tempurtures:

 

[Dabomb18359]

I have been there... only to discover that my current setup is totally unsuitable for overclocking (sigh).

How do you find whether your setup is overclockable or not?

 

[Mise]

I recently had to *underclock* my processor from 2000 Mhz to 1750 Mhz because it kept crashing all the time.

What's the highest temperature a processor should run at? Mine wasn't running more than 45C, and my old processor regularly hit 55C without crashing.

 

[Zelig]

I recently had to *underclock* my processor from 2000 Mhz to 1750 Mhz because it kept crashing all the time.

What's the highest temperature a processor should run at? Mine wasn't running more than 45C, and my old processor regularly hit 55C without crashing.

Temps like that definately shouldn't cause crashing problems.

 

[CIVPhilzilla]

I already have. Those numbers are right. I think the biggest problem is where I live. We get 110F summers...

I'm thinking of getting a better heat-sink. It's mainly the CPU temp that skyrockets.

A better heatsink would help. Also try placing you computer in a cooler room like the basement or someplace with good ventilation or air conditioning. My computer is in the basement with the air conditioning from upstairs just sinking down here. My computer doesn't run any differently when its 32F or 100F outside.

 

[CruddyLeper]

How do you find whether your setup is overclockable or not?

It's a memory thing - I can't increase my FSB beyond 333MHz because the memory can't keep up.

When I do overclock, I get these horrible latency pauses while the system "catches up with itself". Maybe once a minute I'll spend a few seconds with a locked system. Totally duff for online gaming.

Good news is, the mobo is fine for faster memory and I've got some nice juicy PC4000 sticks on the way.

Been saving up for them for MONTHS... although I daresay I'll keep 'em to PC3200 speeds for at least a month before trying any real overclocking.

Oh yeah, the case had space for an aft case fan, and a 90mm fan fits nicely over the speaker grill - 20 minutes careful duct taping and the temeperature dropped 10 degrees.

That's before I start changing the processor heat sink/fan etc.

Would like to try for a 3 Gig Barton on aircooling - supposed to be very very difficult to get it stable.

EDIT: There is a Brit site, http://www.overclockers.co.uk. Much the same as the US one except the prices are higher. Harder to get on the forums too.

 

[Zelig]

Would like to try for a 3 Gig Barton on aircooling - supposed to be very very difficult to get it stable.

I don't think anyone's managed that. You're going to have a very very hard time even getting a Barton to boot at all at 3 GHz.

Even the new Venice and San Diego cores rarely make it to 3 GHz, especially if you're trying to do so with the lower multiplier models.

 

[CruddyLeper]

A few people have done it with water cooling or dry ice - luck has a part to play because AMD never test CPUs for maximum clocks, they just make sure it will work at a given rate.

I don't expect I'll be doing it anytime soon, although I have a couple of tricks in mind that should help.

 

[Zelig]

Are you using a mobile barton chip? I had been forgetting about them in my last post, but if you aren't using one, you won't be getting near 3 GHz on air.

Though you could run you aircooling system in a humidity controlled room with a temperature around -20 degrees and crank the voltages up. I'd wager you could get even better performance that way than with a phase-change system, as your ram, motherboard, video card, etc. would all be getting cooled by the fans as well.

 

[CruddyLeper]

The XP mobile is on order.

Active cooling on North and South Bridges, motherboard and memory OK for 500MHz DDR.

Fingers crossed it's a good clocker.

 

[AceChilla]

I overclocked my videocard. A 6800GT

Clocked it from 350mhz core frequenty and 1 ghz memory frequenty to 400-1.10. That's basically 6800 Ultra speed.

3dmark 2005 went from 4700 to 5100. Temperatures where hitting 80C sometimes so I decided to get a Zalman vf700-CU. I can recommend it to everyone it's a beatifull fan.

My temperature dropped from 56 idle - 80 stressed to 45 idle 59 stressed.

I'm gonna see if I can push it a bit farther now

This is my first try at overclocking anything. I never overclocked my CPU but now I'm thinking about it.

 

[GrandAdmiral]

How do you find whether your setup is overclockable or not?

If its a retail setup then don't expect much.

Find the best overclocking motherboards and see if they support your cpu. Then educate yourself on how to do some real overclocking besides just bumping up clock speed in your bios.

This is a good place to find the best setups and how to tweak them:
http://www.akiba-pc.com/news.php
Their forums and tests will show you how to get the largest gains from overclocking. They usually test in stages, starting with stock cooling, then performance cpu fan cooler, then something extreme like water cooling or liquid nitrogen. They also let you know which setups are stable and which ones are just there to show the limitations of the hardware.