overclock processors?

[TFL]bclaytz

erm a bit off topic (dont shoot me Tank0

) how do you overclock processors?

[TFL]Tank0

* gets shotgun

kidding

a decent question deserves a own thread , i will split it

[TFL]Temmu

i am not a 100% sure on this one mate.... someone else with more expierence should tell ya.... but in the past i have not seen the difference of an overclocked processor.....
its all about the ram!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hideki

though i never got into oc much, honestly, not a single oc in last 5 years, but if u're looking for any practical gain, then i dont think oc would make much difference in real life. recent cpu are fast enough for anything and usually not the bottleneck in ur apps, unless all u do is encode porns after porns throughout the night...

if u're just someone who feels w00t by having higher clock than ur buddie's machine, then, google will give u millions of pages about oc.

[TFL]bclaytz

hmm if it doesnt make any difference i wont bother, thanks anyways :-D

Hideki

it depends on what purpose u're going to do it...

if you're expecting ur desktop to feel smoother, i guess there are other ways of doing that, like turning off stupid animation on windows graphic setting makes it feel much snappier, or get a window theme engine to alter the entire windows desktop experience that is similar to mac or linux to make app launch and file handling better for u or something.

if u're using for intensive cpu usage like encoding, i guess it has a room for that to oc, as in 10 hour encoding might become 10% faster, but oc makes ur cpu go beyond the highest clock that is guaranteed to be on the safe side, so, ur cpu could have a shorter life span, though these days a fast cpu is just a few hundred bucks for a replacement and there's more chance u would replace ur comp before a cpu is dead.

as for gaming, i dont have much idea, but really... its the gpu that needs to be fast (and mem like pointed out on another thread) and the trouble to squeeze out the extra 5fps with oc'ing cpu isnt really worth the effort imo.

there are serious geeks out there who use fridges (or even worse, some nitrogen liquid...) to cool down the overclocked cpu to reach to some insane clock speed... (5ghz? iirc...) but thats really beyond ur point i think...
For anyone who want to waste his/her next 5min [a stupid vid]

and u mean cpu about oc right? and what cpu? if older cpu, u might give a try to make ur machine move slightly better as it could be bottleneck.

[TFL]BigBANGtheory

Overclocking
To cut a long story short overclocking is where you run one or more computer components beyond their rated spec for higher system performance.

Lets take a classic example, the AMD 64 3000+ (Venice Core) CPU doesn't run at 3GHz clock speed it actually runs at 1.8GHz. Its called a 3000+ for marketing reasons because it has basically the same performance as an Intel Pentium IV running at 3GHz. Now these AMD CPU's will actually run at 2.4GHz without too much trouble so long as your motherboard & memory can handle the speed increase. At 2.4GHz your 'overclocked CPU' runs like a 3800+

You can apply this principle to Graphics cards, system memory & bus channels to boost performance too.

Why Overclock?
There are two main reasons....

1) Best performance vs. cost, rather than paying for say a 3800+ CPU you can buy a cheaper component and overclock it to reach the same level of performance at a lower cost.

2) Best performance money can buy, if you want the fastest possible system you buy the best components and overclock them to create a system faster than anything you can officially buy.

Against Overclocking
System instability, danger of damage or shorter life expectency to components if you push the limitations of your system too far.

How do you overclock?
The subject is very large, but basically for CPU OC you use the BIOS of your motherboard to increase the bus speed(s) of your system above the default value. Not all motherboard & BIOS support these types of options.

For the Graphics card you use the software drivers to increase the clock speed of the GPU & video memory.

If you intend to OC you should read up on the subject first, it is quite normal to overclock too far and have to reset everything so you need to be confident about doing that.

Hideki

a solid answer by bbt as always.

[TFL]bclaytz

yeah i was talkin about my cpu, got 2.2Ghz but from lookin at minimum requirements for new games i need more than that... i have an Intel Chipset Family or something, so i dont think its a proper graphics card as such, as im on a laptop.

[TFL]BigBANGtheory

yes you will probably need to upgrade sometime this year bclaytz, if I were you leave your laptop for serious stuff and build yourself a pure gaming rig.

[TFL]Zanarkand

Overclocking is good for old XP range.

I have a X850XT radeon with a 3200XP proc , The bottleneck atm is my XP proc.

If I OC by 50mhz I get +100 on 3dmark05

[TFL]bclaytz

lol gaming rid = money, and im like scrooge when it comes to spending money. is there anyway i can get a new graphics card for my laptop? or does depend on whether my laptop is compatibile or not?

[TFL]Tank0

there probably is but considering the age of your laptop it would be very difficult or very expensie and commonly spoken it is cheaper to get a new game rig then to spend alot of cash upgrading one part

overclocking laptop will solve one thing but then you have to look at your ram and if your motherboard can handle that . and if all that wasn't enough you need to keep track off the remaining time you can use your harddisk (3 - 8 years ).

new games = large
you can solve the low diskspace with an external hard disk but when your primary boot hard disk crashes the laptop won't start ( i personally have witnessed clients of mine coming in with a crashed hd on their laptop and after consulting the firm it was obvious that replacing some hard disks is more expensive then buying a complete new system ; i remember clearly his support contract was just finished so he had to pay full price )

laptop should be bought and sold in 3 years to get some cash back from the investment . buy them new treat them well , sell them to a friend or relative who is just starting comps and doesn't need a state of the art laptop for gaming or coding

[TFL]bclaytz

my laptop isnt that old though, only had it for a year so i dont need to worry about HD just yet i dont think :-D its a Dell Inspiron 630m, so would that be able to get gfx card upgrades? how do i check whether my motherboard could handle an overclock? i think my ram is good enough atm, got 1mb.

[TFL]BigBANGtheory

It is highly unlikely that:

1- You can overclock your laptop

2- Replace your laptop's GPU

Though technically feasible Dell probably won't even sell you the parts. I'm afraid replace is your only upgrade path for gaming.

[TFL]bclaytz

thanks for all the info guys :-D looks like i better start savin for a new system... im trying to decide whether to get a desktop next time, or another laptop

[TFL]BigBANGtheory

The trick with PC's is to jump on the technology band wagon which gives you an upgrade path so that you can extend the life of your system rather than replace the whole thing.

Monitors, Hard disks, keyboards, mice, power supplies, cases you can generally keep.

Motherboards & RAM should last you 1 - 2 upgrade cycles

CPU & GPU will last 2 -3 years if you bought high spec, less time if you buy average spec.

For most gamers the best choice is to try and hit a sweet spot between cost & performance since ultimately your new PC will be a sloth in 2-3years time. Laptops are worst I'm afraid as they offer little or no upgrade options and start much further down the performance scale meaning they are out-of-date faster.

Actually the XBox360 & PS3 from a hardware point of view are exceptionally good value. Its a pity more PC games aren't availible on them, if that day comes I think you will see a mass migration of PC gamers fed up with paying £500 - £1000 every few years on their hardware.

Hideki

its rather a complicated issue, game is what matters to what kind of pc u get, for anything else, literally any pc u like would do the job, unless u're 3d modeler or animater or some such designer.

i can think of these cases, but just my opinion without knowning ur budget or room structure or ur favourite book or ur fav type of girls...

1) you're a serious gamer and not going to miss the next w00t games thats coming out all the time from day 1 they're in stores -> just give up and get the best desktop, although i do suggest u split the game comp and ur daily use comp, so ur daily comp can be a laptop that can connect to ur bigger display at home and detach for mobile use so u dont have to maintain apps and data on 2 comps, while not needing to change all the hardware from time to time to run ur game and let winxp moan about how activation is grumbling and all and avoid messing up the os and data with hardware changes on ur daily use comp. so, game rig, only does games... these days, display can connect 2 machines at once, though dvi and vga. but if u dont take ur comp outside, a single fancy desktop does the whole job.

2) u play many games but not from the day it comes out -> tough laptop + external kvm but ur mobility is the poo, but thats the compromise against having only 1 comp for all ur need.

3) u dont play fps hungry games much -> decent laptop + external kvm, so u can take it mobile in and out happily.

4) u simply gave up on games and felt like living in the real world -> take a girl for a date

i think my suggetions are wrong in ur case, but i dont know how much money u/ur dad wants to shell out or ur dog's name and all the info that might help...

[Edit]
ok i obviously skipped reading ur responses...

i suggest u get desktop for reasons stated by other people, and keep ur laptop for other useful daily use with ur serious data for that without having the need to risk them with hardware updates and all. but apparently this is not the most cost effective way, but as u already own a laptop, a desktop is it for game geek

[TFL]Tank0

desktop

as others mentioned keep the laptop for school and such , keep it clean
ie no pirated stuff , pron or other soft like jokes or funny vids so you can connect to networks in school and uni without risking getting in trouble with da man .

the first one is an investment but you can always recycle the printer , keyboard , mouse , hard disks , soundcard if you buy another desktop in a few years .

make sure you have quality parts , i ve tried the cheap parts but support for them is gone in a few years and you end up with a piece of metal without drivers to run it .

i would recommend getting a ASUS motherboard since they are very good and always one step ahead of the industry ( you ll find ports and others stuff as default on those boards way before the industry picks up on it )

besides the choice of processor ( i won't go into amd vs intel discussion here ) the most important pieces are your RAM and GPU ( see other thread )

many people spend extra bucks to get the latest processor but find out the brilliant speed hits a bottleneck in their RAM .
i would advise to spend some extra cash on KINGSTON RAM . it is more expensive but if you can start with dual RAM that has faster then average speed the trafficjam is reduced alot .start with 1GB and upgrade a few years later

to keep up with the speed you should also make sure you have fast harddisks (7200 RPM is strict minimum these days)

save now
spend extra cash on quality parts
let someone macgyver you a rig from those parts
2 years later upgrade
2 years later recycle the parts i mentioned
sell the rest to someone in need of a cheap comp who doenst game
( your gamewreck will make some casual computeruser's day )

[TFL]bclaytz

yeah im thinking about getting a desktop too, as my laptop is still more than good enough to last me a few more years, just not for gaming. Also from what i remember when i first looked at getting a pc (i chose a laptop instead) desktops are also better value for money ie get more power for your cash.

Thanks for all the info/opinions :-D after college this year il be workin through summer for money for uni, im sure i could save some of that for a new gaming rig.

Hideki

oh, just dont waste ur money on something like your banner shows :D these things can suck money out fast