Q8200 OCed but no difference in speed

[Guest]

Hey guys,
I have been trying to overclock my Q8200 for a while now but cannot see a significant difference in speed. I am now sitting here asking myself if overclocking is only for gamers. It appears that whether my system is overclocked or not, it takes the same time for windows to load and application to launch. Could it be that I am doing something wrong? I have never overclocked before and have gained all of my knowledge from this site. Below are my specs. Could someone please shed some light or a link that can assist me. Thanks in advance.

P5QL/EPU
CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) XMS DDR2 800
Q8200 2.33Mhz

When overclocked I can get up to 2.93 stable.

Bios settings
FSB 417
PCIE 100
DDR Auto
CPU Voltage 1.2
CPU Vcore offset 50mv
DDR Voltage Auto
DDR Timing Auto > Not to familiar on this yet so Auto is safe for me.

CPUID readings
All cores are below 54 degrees celcius
Cpu voltage is @ 1.20. ( I read that the motherboard automatically controls this for best results even though bios settings are different.)

CPU-Z readings
Core speed 2926.4
Multiplier X7.0
Bus speed 418.1Mhz
Rated FSB 1672.1Mhz
Core Voltage 1.184V

Prime readings
Ran without any errors for 2hrs on both
Blend and In-place large FFTs


Even with this, no difference. I am left to believe OCing is a gamer thing or perhaps good for applications that demand heavy cpu resources...definately doesn't make a difference for the regular Joe..

 

[CompuTronix]

It appears that whether my system is overclocked or not, it takes the same time for windows to load and application to launch. Could it be that I am doing something wrong?

Yes.

Load times are most affected by your hard drive. If you want fast loads, then you want a Western Digital VelociRaptor 10,000 RPM drive. If you want loads that you won't see if you blink, then you want an Intel SLC Solid State Drive (SSD).

Also, you can't accurately judge the effects of overclocking, unless you run benchmarks relative to your applications. However, you actually don't need to. Just check out Tom's CPU Charts - http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2009-desktop-cpu-charts/benchmarks,60.html

Simply walk through the benchmarks to compare your Q8200 to a faster processor, and it's easy to see the benefits of overclocking.

Comp

 

[4745454b]

There are so many things in a bios that can change when overclocking that you really shouldn't use auto. You should manually set your FSB (duh), CPU multiplier, ram timings, all voltages, etc. By leaving on auto, you can get some strange results if the system incorrectly tries to compensate for what your doing. For example, by leaving your ram timings on auto, your ram sticks might now be running at 5-5-5-18, and at DDR2-533/667 instead of DDR2-800. This will prevent your OC from being as good as it can be.

As also mentioned, unless you are timing everything you might not feel the difference. If your stock 8200 can convert a DVD to ipod/.mp4 in 12min and 35secs, will you really notice if the overclocked one takes 11min and 45secs? Unless your timing/measuring everything, you might not notice the extra speed.