Is there a downside to OCing, besides the obvious?

There's also stability issues, but you can't really ruin anything besides your CPU if you overclock, so no big deal.

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Whoever thinks up a good sig for me gets a prize :wink:

First time overclockers make mistakes that lead them to believe that overclocking is not worth it. Either they overclock jsut a little and think "Gee Golly, this isn't much faster, why did I bother?" or they overclock way to far and think "this is not even worth the trouble". A lot of people are still afraid of the warratee. Some people think of overclocking as a method of dishonesty. Some people fear instability to the point that they refuse to even try.
I have never seen a person fry a processor just from overclocking, it was always heat or excesive voltage that did the damage.

Cast not thine pearls before the swine

well if u increase the fsb, ur bascially o/c ur pci and agp. so if ur pci gets like 35mhz instead of the normal 33mhz the components get 'worn' down faster. but that would take like 10years or something and by that tme u would have new parts or a pc  

The only realy down side I see is once you overclock as far as you can go. Then TWEEK the crap out of every setting and software hack to try on that setup or computer.
You start getting the bug.The itch for something else to Tweek.To overcclockjjustt allittlele biitmmmmmmmoore.jjust 8 mmore frrriikkin poinnnts aandd iiii could bbbbeeeee # 1.
Damn this one just ain't going to run any faster thats it.
Looks like I need some NEW PARTS!!!!
Do it all again.
REPEAT!!!!!!
REPEAT!!!!!

I aint signing nothing!!!

<font color=blue>OK, on an Intel - yes, FSB is only way to go and that does mess with you PCI. (I am going from what I have picked up - not pesonal experience on this). But, most AMD boards allow for multiplier and CPU FSB adjustments in which case only the proc gets the beating.

I figure - if you are in a forum asking oc questions, your more capable than 99% of computer users and are probably more than savy anough to go for it and oc you proc. No real downside, as long as you incremental change you oc. I mean you don;t go 600 Duron, lets try 1.5G! Start with 650. You will hit instabluility long befoe you will fry the proc. I do suggest a good hs/fan. I personally am a fan of the WinFop32 - great price/performance ratio.

In answer to your question "why isn't everybody doing it?" Well, most everybody tech savvy is.

:cool: <i><font color=blue>on company time....</i>