does overclocking really pay off

[Buchon]

Watch out guys.

No one wants a wave of newbies burning theirs PCs.

[l3uLLDoZeR]

Flyby your current CPU is known to be a good overclocker and the performance might be worth it. I learned tons from HardForum and those guys really know what they are talking about. The I920 will require a little more work to overclock than say the new I5/7 2500k and 2600k. Those new ones with ONE CLICK in the bios you're at 4-4.2ghz..and a p67 or z68 motherboard. They made it simple for noobs..pros can still get them up to 5ghz manually with air cooling.
You will have to go into the bios and manually change clock speeds and maybe voltage on your setup. You could probably get 3.5-3.8ghz outta that 920 with little effort. If you use the stock intel cpu cooler you need to upgrade so you dont over heat the chip. This is basic but its probably worth the little effort involved!

[Flyby]

Thanks for the added replies, all. I've been out of the PC-building game for a while, but I know the i920 will reach at least 3.6 with air cooling and a good quality CPU cooler. It's a bit more work, as DoZeR says, but seems fairly do-able. I've though to sell it and buy an i2500K, just to more comfortably hit higher clocks. Plus, even when overclocking the 2500K, the power draw is substantially lower than the 920, not to mention that you can singularly focus on just overclocking the CPU. Apparently CLoD doesn't support or need hyperthreading either, and the 2500K doesn't have that feature. Too bad no crystal ball for what the future holds for gaming requirements, but if HT were to be a requirement, there's always the 2600K lurking. As I mentioned, the 920 has never been used, so maybe I'll find a buyer on the tech forums elsewhere.
thanks again!
Flyby out

[l3uLLDoZeR]

You know whats up flyby...the 2500k is the best choice, low power and higher overclock. It's kinda something you have to choose which route to go.

Be warned microcenter sells the I7 960 for $199, thats gonna push the value of your "new" 920 down. Unless you plan on running more than 2 graphics cards the 2500k is the way to go!

[MadTommy]

This is a post i made on the DSC forum...

I'd thought i'd share some info for anyone interested or doubting the performance a modest overclock can give you.

I'm running a modest overclock, a dual core E8400. Default it runs at 3Ghz, 18 months ago i overclocked it to 3.6Ghz. Very stable, no overheating, no fancy cooling.

A few days ago my BIOS reset itself without myself noticing, and set it back to factory default. (removed the overclock). This coincided with the latest Warthog patch release. Installed the patch and was getting terrible performance. My fps had reduced by 50%. Naturally i initially thought it was the patch. I reduced graphics setting but it made no difference. I was now getting 15 fps dropping to 5 every now and again, when i had been always been between 25 - 60 fps.

I noticed my overclock had been removed.. reinstated it through my BIOS save setting feature and my fps increased by about 70%!!! I went from getting 15 to 45fps on the exact same mission! From a 0.6 Ghz increase!!

My cpu is my bottelneck but i was amazed, i had, to be honest, never realise what a boost it was giving me in A10c.

My rig for reference.
E8400 stock 3Ghz - overclocked to 3.6 Ghz.
GTX 480 (1.5GB)
4 GB Ram (1066)
x-fi extreme music
SSD HD

All game settings on High except Water & Traffic on Medium.

Getting overclocking people!!!

[Urufu_Shinjiro]

One of the best places to lurk and learn about overclocking is at www.overclock.net.

[Flyby]

I last visited the site in July of last year. I'd forgotten about it! A great resource for sure.
Flyby out

[Osprey]

I bought my i5 2500K with the express desire to OC it. Haven't done it yet tho'

[RE77ACTION]

Originally Posted by Buchon

Watch out guys.

No one wants a wave of newbies burning theirs PCs.

I think that Intel and AMD wouldn't mind...