The Joys of Computer Tinkering...

[Bluescreendeath]

Although I love my main i7 gaming system, I occasionally find myself tinkering with my "lower-end" home computer.

After building a high end system, I realized that I have little incentive to overclock or upgrade because
I can already do everything I want maxed out.

Whereas my lower end system only has a dual core and lower end GPU, thus it isn't as fast as I would like it to be - so I find myself constantly overclocking it and finding configurations to increase its performance.

Do you enjoy tinkering with/overclocking high end or lower end systems?


EDIT: Now I have another question for AMD users: Do you enjoy overclocking more or unlocking cores (if successful) more?

 

[masterasia]

I like to play with high end stuff, but most of the time I'm tinkering around with low end stuff because that's all most people have nowadays. If they had high end stuff, they should already know about computers and usually don't need my help.

 

[jsc]

Yes.
Summary of my three systems:
GA-EP45-UD3P | Q9550 OC'd to 3.6 GHz (425 MHz X 8.5) C3 stepping
GA-EP45-UD3L | Q6600 OC'd to 3.6 GHz (400 MHz X 9)
GA-EP35-DS3P | E5200 OC'd to 3.78 GHz (315 MHz X 12)

 

[Kithzaru]

I think messing around with low/mid end stuff is more fun. You get a better reaction out of it when you can notice an increase in performance, where as in a top end system there really isn't much out that could push it at stock.

Low/mid also have the bonus of if you mess something up, you can replace the part for not nearly as much $$ as a top end part.

Overclocking an I7 is cool, but really what are you going to do with it that you aren't already? Overclocking an e5200 to max crysis? Taking an AMD and unlocking cores? That's the good stuff.

 

[AMW1011]

I went with the high-end one since it is just exhilarating to see the tip of performance out of all that nice hardware, but, in truth, both are just as fun to me. Assuming of course that the motherboard isn't a bitch to overclock with, I once used a decent G35 board which only gave me the options to increase voltage by 10%, 20%, or 30%, horrible.

 

[AMW1011]

Overclocking an e5200 to max crysis? ...That's the good stuff.

It loses its thrills after your third E5200 build. Though I must say overclocking the AMD Athlon II X2 250 to 3.8 GHz and getting a noticeably greater amount of performance out of it than the E5200 still has me tingling.

Knowing that both "budget" CPUs trounce your High end CPU of its decade because your POS nforce board can't handle anything over a 420MHz overclock and just deciding to settle on 3.2 GHz because it is easy, that isn't so great.

 

[Kithzaru]

The CPU not being the limiting factor does get frustrating

 

[Bluescreendeath]

Awww, nV chipset OCing ftL

 

[obsidian86]

Awww, nV chipset OCing ftL

ftl yeah but still not as bad as amd nv chipset clocking

 

[Bluescreendeath]

was this before amd acquired ati?

for some reason it sounds like an oxymoron... =(

 

[masterasia]

Yes.
Summary of my three systems:
GA-EP45-UD3P | Q9550 OC'd to 3.6 GHz (425 MHz X 8.5) C3 stepping
GA-EP45-UD3L | Q6600 OC'd to 3.6 GHz (400 MHz X 9)
GA-EP35-DS3P | E5200 OC'd to 3.78 GHz (315 MHz X 12)

That's nothing...Here are all my systems that currently get used daily.

i7 920 D0 @ 4.0Ghz | Foxconn BloodRage | GTX 260 SLI (Main rig for PhysX Game)
i7 920 C1 @ 3.8Ghz | ASUS P6T Deluxe | 4870 CFX (Other Main rig for other games)
AMD Phenom II X4 955 @ 3.6Ghz | ASUS CrossHair III 790FX | ATI 3870 X2 (Extra LAN computer)
Q9550 @ 3.6Ghz | Foxconn BlackOps | 4790 CFX (Wife's computer)

HTPC
AMD 4050e | ASUS M4A78-EM | ASUS Daimond ATI Wonder (HD 3600 and 600 Wonder Tuner)
AMD 5200+ | ECS Black | GTS 250 | Hauppauge 1600

 

[englandr753]

I had 5 systems and finally decided to liquidate some of them.

Main system in my sig
HTPC Q9550 | ATI 5770 | EVGA 730i Mobo | 4G Corsair 1066 ram
AMD 6000+ X2 | EVGA 8800GTX ACS3 | 2G ram | Gigabyte mobo

I also have an array of laptops working and not working. So all in all I still have about 6 computers at my disposal but I promise I only use one at a time...

 

[HansVonOhain]

I love tinkering with old computers. OP could not explain it any better. I have same intentions as you.

 

[Bluescreendeath]

I love tinkering with old computers. OP could not explain it any better. I have same intentions as you.

Yep, I guess for us, tinkering with lower end systems is funner due to greater rewards and greater necessity.

 

[yannifb]

That's nothing...Here are all my systems that currently get used daily.

i7 920 D0 @ 4.0Ghz | Foxconn BloodRage | GTX 260 SLI (Main rig for PhysX Game)
i7 920 C1 @ 3.8Ghz | ASUS P6T Deluxe | 4870 CFX (Other Main rig for other games)
AMD Phenom II X4 955 @ 3.6Ghz | ASUS CrossHair III 790FX | ATI 3870 X2 (Extra LAN computer)
Q9550 @ 3.6Ghz | Foxconn BlackOps | 4790 CFX (Wife's computer)

HTPC
AMD 4050e | ASUS M4A78-EM | ASUS Daimond ATI Wonder (HD 3600 and 600 Wonder Tuner)
AMD 5200+ | ECS Black | GTS 250 | Hauppauge 1600

You needed another i7 computer just for non-physics games, even though the one the one for physics can also play non physics games? That sounds like a good reason to spend over 1k.

 

[obsidian86]

was this before amd acquired ati?

for some reason it sounds like an oxymoron... =(

yeah before amd took over ati i lost 7 nforce boards in 18 months but i had a few nvidia cards then a 7900 gt and a 8800 gt sli setup after that

 

[warmon6]

For me, scene im not an experienced overclocker like most of you guys are, i tend to practice on older computer. If i mess up on an old computer, oh well. I wouldn't mess up my primary high powered computer.

 

[sportsfanboy]

I tinker with them all, however the older they get the more aggressive the overclock.

Mainly because I don't care about the aging parts as much.

 

[randomizer]

Overclocking is a bore nowadays. I miss the Golden Bridges of the K7 Athlons.

 

[Bluescreendeath]

Overclocking is a bore nowadays. I miss the Golden Bridges of the K7 Athlons.

? huh ?

 

[masterasia]

You needed another i7 computer just for non-physics games, even though the one the one for physics can also play non physics games? That sounds like a good reason to spend over 1k.

Actually, that's gonna be my Gulftown | GTX 3XX rig next year.

 

[Bluescreendeath]

Actually, that's gonna be my Gulftown | GTX 3XX rig next year.

Feel free to divert extra $$$ my way...

 

[randomizer]

? huh ?

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/overclocking-amd,208.html

 

[cybrcatter]

Overclocking is a bore nowadays. I miss the Golden Bridges of the K7 Athlons.

Oh man, my bud and I fried the 2nd one we tried mod His folks thought they broke it and bought him a new PC!

I think the Opteron 175, and E6750 were some of my favorites though, since you could get such a big bang for your buck when you OCed 'em. I still have my E6750 2.66GHz running @3.9Ghz in my current rig. I haven't found a reason to change it yet.

 

[AMW1011]

Overclocking is a bore nowadays. I miss the Golden Bridges of the K7 Athlons.

Oh man, my bud and I fried the 2nd one we tried mod His folks thought they broke it and bought him a new PC!

I think the Opteron 175, and E6750 were some of my favorites though, since you could get such a big bang for your buck when you OCed 'em. I still have my E6750 2.66GHz running @3.9Ghz in my current rig. I haven't found a reason to change it yet.

The Phenom II 955/i5 750 are the deals of today. I just bought the i5 750 to replace my E6750. I've overclocked a few E6750s and I never got one stable at 3.8 GHz, 3.7 GHz was always easy. Then again I never go over the spec sheet voltage which is v1.5 for the E6750. I had my E6750 @ 3.6 GHz easy on a P35 but then I bought this damn nforce board and 3.2 GHz is a chore on it.