Overclocking Hardware… Is It Worth It?

Sledgehammer70

Probably the coolest thing to do in the high end internet world is to overclock the crap out of your new hardware. But there is one question that is semi never asked… Why? Why is it we spend thousands of dollars on a brand spanking new state of the art systems and feel it isn’t good enough and we have to get more out of it? Is it because we are trying to justify the expense of the rig? Are we trying to impress our friends? Or are you doing it because everyone else is? Following the gravy train as some might put it.

If you are new to the PC online world, almost every hardware tech site has a dedicated section for oc’ing your precious PC. Also there is a ton of PC guru’s that are worshipped around the world such as the ever famous Shamino who seems to customize and tweak anything that comes his way. So without even thinking twice about it you become enveloped around a few images of massively tweaked hardware that you yourself own and now want to tweak yourself. But once again why do we do this? Is it to get that extra 30 points in Futuremark’s 3DMark 06? Or is it just to show off online what the heck you did to get some sort of self recognition.

I myself have slowly been messing with settings in my mobo on a few of my AMD Athlon setups. And maybe have pushed my CPU from 2.4 to 2.8 and haven’t really seen or notice increase in my PC’s performance. Sure the numbers in the custom programs say my comp performs better. But is it really? Is that 15% boost noticeable enough for the eye to even notice? I mean are these amounts of cash spent justifiable for the amount of performance we get? I say NO!

I would also like to point out that in the last 3 years of the PC business oc’ing has created such a following there are 1000’s of companies making millions of dollars that just sell water cooling parts and Phase change setup along with custom copper coolers. I see this entire oc’ing fad being worth it for them as they are getting cash for it. But us the end user buying these parts what do we get out of it? We get an empty bank account and a computer that can make a can of soda freeze in 20 sec’s.

I have recently been following the tech sites to see what types of performance is possible with certain type’s of oc’ing parts, and to be honest I have been dabbling myself just to see what would happen. I mean I have a handful of what is called high end parts sitting in my office. From AMD’s FX and X2 series CPU’s to Nvidia 7 series graphic cards, and with the cost of these monsters I just haven’t been able to take a plunge and speed more cash just to cool them and get more performance out of them. But I am starting to peak to see if it is worth it...

The main point of this post is to ask the community is overclocking worth it?

GHoosdum

Faster folding is a good thing.

In other words, my opinion is: hell yes it's worth it!

shwaip

my 1700+ @ 2.2 says yes. It's allowed me to avoid upgrading for a while now. I moved to a 2500+ at the same speed (more cache) and moved the 1700+ to a web/file server, but it's totally worth it.

deicist

Sledge: I think part of the reason you don't think it's worth it is precisely because you have such high end systems. When you have a system that doesn't break a sweat running anything anyway you're not likely to notice that overclocking makes your system run ludicrously fast rather than just ridiculously fast, especially if you're only interested in tanglible performance rather than benchmarks. If you have a mid range system, the benefits of overclocking become more apparent as a system which might struggle to run the latest games gains a few fps and those games become playable. IMO the only people who overclock high end systems are those more interested in the sheer geeky pleasure of knowing their system is running faster rather than those looking for any tangible benefit

Sledgehammer70

I understand that point of view but I also look at it in my Athlon XP 2800 and my Athlon 64 3200+ not just my high end stuff.

Qeldroma

Sledge,

I'll vote here in a week or two. I'm after an answer here myself and reserve my "dollars and sense" judgement until then, but ....

You should be aware that this may not be something necessarily measured in "dollars and sense". It can also be the sport, competition, even the science of it as well that will keep people pressing the envelope- despite the cost. Friendships also develope among those with the common interest. The simple gratification of it may be well worth the price to that person- even though he/she has $$$$ in gear and keeps the power service people employed.

You may be more like me. I have a family to finish, other bills to pay and don't see a lot of sense in spending a thousand to squeeze out another percent in folding point production (personally, i'd get another rig). My adventure into OCing will be watching the power meter pretty closely- but I will keep my appreciation for those who like the sport and the science.

Jimborae

My Opteron 146 cost me £100, it runs faster than an Opteron 154 which costs £630 so to me it's very worth it!

lemonlime

Yep, I agree with Jim, it is a great way to get more for your money

Sledgehammer70

So could the same be said with high end parts? Ocing them also would boost performance by a percentage right! but the problem is at the time its all you can get for your money!

madmat

It's totally worth it when you can buy a sub $200 CPU and make it perform as well as one costing three times as much. So I spend $100 more on an uber overclockable mobo, I've still saved $300, w00t! That's a tank of gas and a six pack!

Same goes for graphics cards, why spend $500+ for a GPU when you can get its little brother for half the price and tweak it up to within 5%-10% of the performance of the high dollar part? Lord knows I'm certainly not made of money...maybe if I win the lottery or something but until then I'll O/C my parts until I'm scared to go any further, drink a couple of shots of scotch and go at it harder.

Sledgehammer70

But isn't the same true for the higher end parts? you can clock them to levels unreachable by the lower cost items...

madmat

Not necessarily. The highend parts are usually close to the end of their headroom (at the time they're released) so the amount of O/C you pull out of them is usually less percentage wise. I'd rather get a 50% O/C out of a $200 part than a 3% or 8% O/C out of an $800 part.

Sledgehammer70

I can OC my FX 57 higher than my 4000+ on Air cooling

madmat

When was your FX 57 bought? First thing when it was a new product or after the FX 60 came out?

That's my point, when a new uber CPU comes out they generally have limited headroom but as the chipmakers work out bugs the speeds go up. Case in point, an X2 4800+ I built in early Dec. has zero headroom to O/C yet it was nearly $900 but the X2 3800+ will reach the same speed as the 4800+ and costs a third the price (or less) but now that the FX 60 is out I've been seeing guys getting 4800+'s that OC to close to 3.0 on water and yes, before you ask, this 4800+ was on water with a quality WC setup.

Sledgehammer70

The FX 57 was bought just before the FX 60's were released I got a good deal for $300 off from my retailer... but it is a newer revision chip aswell as my 4000+ was bought long after they were released...

madmat

Still, what are the percentages that you're getting on each chip? 40% on the 4000+ and 15% to 20% on the FX 57? If so you see where I'm going with this. I'm not going to get a $300 break on a highend part so that's not feasible for my wallet. For the money spent I'd rather O/C to the level of the uber chip for the bargan basement price.

Sledgehammer70

I know what your saying but I'm just also making my point that both low end and high end chips can be pushed an extra 10 yards...

The FX 57 is 35% on 2.8GHz
The 4000+ is 46% on 2.4GHz

So the number just about even out!

madmat

Toss that 4000+ on a watercooled rig and pump it past 50% and the price difference will pay for the WC setup...

Thrax

I buy parts binned as cheaper models and overclock them to the premiere models that retal for $700 plus. I saved thousands, and received the same performance as people who didn't.

It's simple economics. Whether or not I can afford the top-end is irrelevant; if I can buy cheaper and receive the same benefit, why would I waste my money? It's an ignorant practise to do so.

Leonardo

Sledge, do know what Thrax means when he speaks of "binned" part. Intel or AMD usually will run the same line for the ABC X2 series or P 9YZ series. It's pretty simple - some of the ABC X2 will be binned at higher ratings, some at lower ratings. Some of the binning is determined by how well the part performs, some of the binning is simply determined by the availability the manufacturer wants for a specific part. Simply put, neither Intel nor AMD want too many of their fastest CPUs available because the market prices on those parts will fall is supply is too great. Quite often a lower marked part is indeed just as fast as its higher marked counterpart. It has just been 'binned' lower to round out the manufacturer's market offerings. Sometimes that lower binned part is lower performer and marked low for good reason. Typically though, the longer a CPU has been in production, and as the fab's yields improve, the more uniformly high the production is on all the parts that come of the line, meaning most of them are capable of operation at the higher range.

jradmin

I've got a 4000+ oc'd to 2.6 on air and it runs great. The main difference between the 4000+ and the 57 is the memory controllers. FX57's can handle memory...I wouldn't say alot...but fairly better then a 4000+ and part of that is reflected in the heavy price tag. There really isn't much if any difference between the 55 and the 4000+ though, which is what my 4000+ is running at right now.

OC'ing is a great way to get the best preformance out of all your parts. My main rig ran me around $3500 and runs as fast as a machine twice its price because of OC'ing.

I honestly think its a shame for anyone to have expensive parts and not OC'em. It's kind of like having a job but not really liking going to work. If your going to have the parts then use them! "Treasure the life of the part!" as Shamino says. Thats probably one of the most true statements I've heard in a long time =)

To me, building a computer is like bringing a life into the world. You would want your child to get the best education and have the best advantages at life. Why not your computer if its going to be a large time/money/responsibility investment like a child is?

dab420

Overclocking has been the difference for me all along. I can't afford to buy the higher-end model anything. I have to scrimp and save for each of my purchases, and I will often spend a week or more researching a part before buying it.

I could never afford an FX-55. But if my $100 Venice gets me there or close to it, why would i want one? Seriously, this thing screams, and if i pop it at 1.7 V or something, not a tear will be shed as I can still afford to grab a new one.

The new video cards on the market sure are attractive, but at a $500-$1000+ pricetag for the new stuff, again I'm left behind. Yet, what is this? I have a brand new 6800Gs, which cost all of $250, and plays the new games, at beautiful eye candy settings! why? Overclocking I say!!

Then we get to my ram.. it ain't platinum, it doens't have any crazy LED's on it, and it didn't cost over $300. But it is 2GB, and it does do 250 FSB nicely. I'm happy with this, wouldn't you be?

So here, with my carefully selected parts, I have a machine that is considered decent amonst my bretheren, and even revered locally as most of the people I know have either 5 year old compaqs or future shop bundles sitting on thier desks.

To those of you that can afford to throw caution to the wind, I say overclock those parts and squeeze every last ounce of performance you can out of it. I simply cannot afford not to.

Sledgehammer70

Seems like everyone loves OC'ing is their no one out there that share the same concern! I figured more of you would like it to be cheaper!

deicist

Sledgehammer70 wrote:

Seems like everyone loves OC'ing is their no one out there that share the same concern! I figured more of you would like it to be cheaper!

Overclocking is cheaper than the alternative if you do it right. My opty 170 (£230) runs as fast, if not faster than an fx-60 (£700+) on air cooling. My X1900XT (£340) runs as fast, if not faster than a X1900XTX (£400). So that's over £500 of performace I haven't paid for.... of course when you start buying phase change cooling setups and freezing your ethernet port with dry ice to make it run faster some of that saving disappears, but if you're sensible about it you can get 'free' performance from your PC.

skankinred

Yea, I'm starting to wonder if phase changing was worth it. I could paid $1200 for an fx-62 which would last 4 years. 4 years of electricity for vapochill...way over $1200.

Thrax

deicist wrote:

Overclocking is cheaper than the alternative if you do it right. My opty 170 (£230) runs as fast, if not faster than an fx-60 (£700+) on air cooling. My X1900XT (£340) runs as fast, if not faster than a X1900XTX (£400). So that's over £500 of performace I haven't paid for.... of course when you start buying phase change cooling setups and freezing your ethernet port with dry ice to make it run faster some of that saving disappears, but if you're sensible about it you can get 'free' performance from your PC.

Bingo.

airbornflght

yeh, when I buy a processor, i dont look at the clock speed of a certain line too hard, i mainly look at the cache. But yeh, I think overclocking is a [strike]sickness [/strike] hobby that many people get into, there motives may be different, some for bragging rights, some to improve there ego, and others to save money. MY motives are that I like doing it. Just to see how far I can push the chip and exploiting all that I can out of a chip. Not to mention persay, getting the performance of a $600 processor out of a $200 one. and you could also push your chip harder to avoid upgrading for a while.

madmat

Sledgehammer70 wrote:

Seems like everyone loves OC'ing is their no one out there that share the same concern! I figured more of you would like it to be cheaper!

That's just the point Sledge, in the grand scheme of things overclocking IS cheaper. As I said back in my original post, yes you might pay more for the ultra O/C mobo but after achieving your O/C and getting it stable the money you've saved on the performance increase has more than paid for itself.

If you take your time and do good research on the gfx card you buy you can usually be able to save money there too. Finding a 700GT or X1900 that O/Cs to screaming levels will save you when that performance is factored against the premium you might pay for that part. Say you spend $50 or $100 more for the 7900GT that out O/Cs the others and gives you nearly the same performance of the GTX, well, that's a no brainer, the GTX would run you $200 to $300 more so that extra money on the GT is an investment.

Overclocking is all about saving money and having fun doing it. Yes it might cost more than just a vanilla PC with those same raw specs but after factoring the added performance the O/C nets you the relative value of the PC goes up.

RWB

Depends on the application IMHO... I've overclocked systems in which a game I played looked great, but was not smooth.... after overclocking it'll be smooth as butter but may crash from time to time.

My current system I OC'd quite a bit... well maybe not quite a bit but a decent bit and it didn't help gameplay at all... 400MHz on a dual core AthlonX2 3800+ should go a far ways but doesn't feel so.

If I can't feel the change, it ain't worth it. I could OC my X2 to 2.6GHz with it crashing from time to time, but at 2.4GHz I am still OC'd and it doesn't ever crash.... ever. Yet no difference so I ask myself from time to time about why I even OC..... the only answer I have is becuase I can. It's kinda like asking why would you not choose to allow a small 1mm addition to the length of your pen0r..... it's not that big of a change, but some might think its dumb to not allow it :P

Crypto

I always used to love tuning cars. Make them run faster, smoother, more fuel efficient or just to beat that BMW away from the lights.

I'm getting too old to crawl around under cars now getting cold, wet and greasy, now I poke about in a PC. I get the same buzz. It's a bit like beating the manufacturers at their own game.
Mind you, I don't spend much extra cash on it, that defeats the object.

muddocktor

Crypto wrote:

I always used to love tuning cars. Make them run faster, smoother, more fuel efficient or just to beat that BMW away from the lights.

I'm getting too old to crawl around under cars now getting cold, wet and greasy, now I poke about in a PC. I get the same buzz. It's a bit like beating the manufacturers at their own game.
Mind you, I don't spend much extra cash on it, that defeats the object.

Bingo, that's another great reason to overclock. I've always loved to make things perform better than spec and it is fun and challenging to overclock my systerms. Plus, there is the cost factor. Take my desktop Pentium M system; it is a P-M 730, whcih is a 1.6 GHz processor. I now have it running a tad over 2.8 GHz, for a 1.2 GHz speed increase. I paid less than $130 on eBay for the processor and there isn't a P-M proc made that even approaches that speed from Intel stock. And this is with a $30 Zalman 7700 for cooling, not some exotic high end phase change setup.

As far as upgrading the cooling on my processors that are overclocked, well I would be doing that anyways even if they were running at stock speeds. Since all my machines fold 24/7/365 and stay at 100% load unless they are uploading results, I consider it prudent to put high end air cooling on my machines. I learned this from way back in the day of my first AMD Tbird system, which was a quantum leap in heat production compared to the P2 or P3 or K6 procs.