Do I have to OverClock?

[yabyab]

I've never OCed anything before and I'm wondering if I'm missing a lot because of this? how good is OverClocking? does it improve my PC 50% or more? or is it around 10% overall performance? does it shorten my hardware's lifespan in the long run? should I avoid it being a newbie to this thing?

 

[systemlord]

You have asked some good questions, overclocking does offer good gains in performance and there are some things you should know first. First overclocking does decrease the life span of the components, this depends on how far you go in overclocking of your porcesser. A mild OC (from 2.4GHz to 3.2GHz in my case) is pretty easy for the most part, little is needed as far as CPU Vcore voltages.


Intel designs it CPU's to last an average of ten years, so if you OC you get lets say three to four years knocked off the CPU with high OC's. Most consumers upgrade every two to four years so the years that have been knock off hardly effect you. My processer can make it to 3.8GHz providing some water cooling is used, thats a huge OC that will decrease the life span even further. For someone that upgrades every two years this is not an issue.


So if you decide you still want to OC there are a few things you will need, Prime95, Orthos, and Memtest are programs use to test your OC's stability at least for 24 hours running it with no errors. Also a bigger better CPU cooler is needed to remove the extra heat from your CPU. We are here for you if you need help with your OC so if your still intrested in overclocking this is the place to be. Last June I was a noobie just like you are and here I am helping others learn how to OC to, its a great learning experience. You can pick up a Tuniq Tower 120 like this one at NewEgg for $44.99 and will fit most standard ATX cases.


What are all your PC spec's, this will help us help you better?

By systemlord at 2007-11-13

By systemlord at 2007-11-13

 

[yabyab]

Hello SystemLord,

Thanks for the friendly feed back, I really appreciate it. I haven't decided what system to buy, my old system is not worth my time anymore. I've been checking the 2.66ghz Core 2 Duo processor, not sure if its enough for me. I'm also aiming for a 8800GT 512 or better graphic card. 4GB 800mhz ram. Everything is SATA, HDD and DVD writer.

Do I need OCing with such system?

 

[systemlord]

Hello SystemLord,

Thanks for the friendly feed back, I really appreciate it. I haven't decided what system to buy, my old system is not worth my time anymore. I've been checking the 2.66ghz Core 2 Duo processor, not sure if its enough for me. I'm also aiming for a 8800GT 512 or better graphic card. 4GB 800mhz ram. Everything is SATA, HDD and DVD writer.

Do I need OCing with such system?

I have seen the E6750 2.66GHz OC past 4GHz, also NVidia is coming out (Feb 19th) with a duel GPU graphics card soon. A Raptor 150GB is the fastest desktop drive avalible and runs at 10,000RPM, most others run at 7,200RPM which are still good. Yes overclocking such a high-end system does wonders for hard to play games like Crysis, which will bring any system down to its...


I OC my 8800GTX from 576MHz GPU core to 651MHz, Shader from 1350MHz to 1525MHz and video memory from 1800MHz to 2006MHz. This made Crysis run a lot smoother and adding 15+ frames per seconds. Panning left to right was much smoother than before when it wasn't as smooth. Heres a detailed look at my OC'ed system. My stock performance in Crysis on the first level in FPS (frames per second) was hovering around 50 FPS and with the OC'ed system (CPU and GPU OC) it was hovering above 60-75 FPS always staying above 60. I could never go back to stock CPU and GPU clocks.

By systemlord at 2007-12-08

By systemlord at 2007-12-24

 

[yabyab]

I didn't know I could OC 2.66ghz to 4.0ghz! that's huge difference. Well, if I can just OC it to 3.0Ghz would it still need a special fan and cooling system? can I do it alone? is it reversible?(mean I can set it back to its normal speed)?

I've heard a lot about Crysis, is it really that intensive? should I get a better GPU or CPU to run it smoothly?

 

[Silverion77]

You can always set an overclock back, just set the settings back (unless you damage the CPU, but that only happens if your stupid and fry it)

At 3.0 I doubt you'll need extra cooling. Just do it and use speedfan and Prime95 to check temps (try reading CompuTronix's guide at the top)

 

[systemlord]

Overclocking to 4GHz is a tough thing for all components but can be done with water cooling, not all E6750's can get there all things not being =. I can restore my stock CPU and GPU clocks in the time it takes to reboot my PC, you can even save lots of different overclocking profiles in BIOS. I would not try to OC your CPU to 4GHz on your first OC, in time when you learn the ropes of overclocking then maybe if you mobo, CPU, and PSU can take the abuse then sure.

I learned to OC last June and I'm still learning new things. With the stock Intel CPU cooler you can OC to about 3.0-3.2GHz, but ambient temps being the deciding factor. Even if you decide you want to OC to 3.2GHz your DDR2 800MHz Ram will be able to handle that without a problem.

 

[Groveling_Wyrm]

Cooling a Core 2 Duo to 3.0 GHz can be handled by air cooling with a good heatsink/fan. You could probably reach 3.4to 3.6 GHz with air cooling. However, going beyond that will require more extreme cooling, most likely water cooling with extra cooling on the northbridge and possibly even your RAM.