does overclocking really pay off

[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

[Codex]

Well I used to "overcook"


Even with manufactures now engineering their hardware to perform at “overcooked” specs, they still won’t provide a warrantee if you do over clock them. Plus, I personally hate the smell of burning plastic in the house and the sight of smoke coming from by PC. I won’t do that again … LOL


I now religiously pay for the best performance rather than try and make a lower spec’d component perform at a higher specs.

[louisv]

I overclocked my quad core from 2.66 to 3.2 GHz and fps in FSX was boosted by the same proportions.

If the graphics card is the bottleneck, like in most non-sim games, it will not happen until you change the card.

Know your bottlenecks...

[AndyJWest]

Hopefully, I'll be able to find out for myself when the custom build from Scan I've ordered finally arrives: an i7/950 system, overclocked to 3.80GHz from 3.06GHz. If it doesn't make any noticeable difference, I'll probably turn the overclocking off. No point in toasting the system for a few FPS, and this beast is going to use quite enough power anyway.

(Incidentally, if anyone else is thinking of ordering a system from Scan, don't take their estimated delivery times too seriously - they seem to work on Oleg time, and '10 working days' seems to equal a month. I'd have been prepared to accept this anyway if they'd been more realistic, but it is irritating to have to be given overoptimistic estimates time and again.)

[Urufu_Shinjiro]

Originally Posted by Codex

Well I used to "overcook"


Even with manufactures now engineering their hardware to perform at “overcooked” specs, they still won’t provide a warrantee if you do over clock them. Plus, I personally hate the smell of burning plastic in the house and the sight of smoke coming from by PC. I won’t do that again … LOL


I now religiously pay for the best performance rather than try and make a lower spec’d component perform at a higher specs.

I hope you don't take this the wrong way, as I'm honestly curious, how in the world do you fry a system while overclocking? I've been overclocking since the AMD Thoroughbred days and never myself or known anyone personally who has fried anything. What happened? What did you do, and did you find out where it went wrong?

[Osprey]

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