So I pushed my 1.8 Ghz to 3.51 Ghz... 3.6 Ghz now...

[Beancooker]

Not like this hasn't been done and documented many times, but I am happy to say that I have pushed my 1.8 Ghz Intel E2160 to 3.51 Ghz and it's stable. If you have ever overclocked before, you know how long something like this can take. The vCore is set at 1.55 in the BIOS, however CPUz shows 1.512 volts being used. I haven't topped 67ºC under load, and hope that I don't. It was REALLY picky about the FSB settings, and didn't want to accept any even number settings. 389 was okay, but 388 wasn't. I had the same issue all the way from 335 and up. In the end it worked, and I am really happy.

[krazydriver]

lol, nice.

Not accepting even numbers.. that's a little strange would be cool to find out why it's doing that.Temps are decent, i like keeping my stuff alot cooler ~50C max. What kinda heatsink you using?

At the moment only overclocked thing in my comp is the video card. XFX 7900gs, 525mhz factory ~680 now. Still runs cool with the zalman heatsink.

[240Knightrider]

Yeah your kinda hot...would highly recommend liquid cooling if you feel your heatsink is sufficient!!!

Good job none the less!

[Beancooker]

Using the thermaltake V 1. It does okay, but wanted to keep it a little cooler. What sucks, is that with this motherboard, and case, there is very little room to get it all to fit. That's why I had to go with the V1. No other cooler would fit. I looked into water cooling today, but looks as if space may be an issue with that. I might just save some OC profiles. When I need to do something that requires a lot of CPU, set it to 3.5Ghz. When doing daily tasks, set it at 3.0Ghz.

[jkerr240]

overclocked? whats this iv heard it used before, and from what im gathering is your speeding up the processor beyond its limits, but how do you do that?

[krazydriver]

the process of overclocking is raising the speed of the processor or memory faster then the speeds it's marketed for.

What your doing is pushing it TO it's limits, because if you push it past it's limits your computer just gets really unstable, freeze ups/BSOD/etc

Here's a full guide from Tom's hardware that explains how overclocking works, and how to do it... in better words then i could.http://www.tomshardware.com/19...guide

btw... the article is from 97. The principles of overclocking are the same, just the processors and stuff he talks about are VERY dated. Some of the technical items have changed alot, especially the statements about AMD/IBM and others being very heat sensitive CPUs.

[brizanden]

^ AMDs still do run cooler and are more tempermentale to heat then intels

[Beancooker]

Well, it's now at 3.6 and 26 hours Prime95 stable.

***EDIT***Case was changed to an Antec 900, and the Thermaltec V1 heatsink went back, and the Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme took it's place.

[szh]

Well, it's now at 3.6 and 26 hours Prime95 stable.

Impressive! What are you using for heat sinking (did I miss an earlier post or something)?

Z

[AZhitman]

From a layman's viewpoint, what will this do for you?

What is the purpose of overclocking?

[szh]

From a layman's viewpoint, what will this do for you?

What is the purpose of overclocking?

Basically, significant performance improvement at a lower cost.

You buy a 1.8GHz processor and get the performance of a 3.6GHz processor without paying the premium price (usually more cost ratio than the difference in simple speed ratios) of the higher-rated cpu and memory, etc.

For some situations (program mostly resident in memory, etc.) like gaming, etc., this is a good outcome.

However, side effects include instability, more stress on internal parts (greater heat), etc.

You should only do this with care and if you really need to, or for the "I climbed the mountain because it was there! - Mallory" (this is not an exact quote, by the way) kind of achievement.

Z

[brizanden]

^in laymans terms this dude just got a 3.6ghz cpu (which would run u a grand right now) for 75 bucks.

[AZhitman]

I guess I'm not comprehending the VISIBLE benefit.

"Performance improvement" in a car makes sense... but what does it mean in PC terms?

And, for someone like me who uses a PC 99% of the time for web work, what good would it do me?

[brizanden]

^loads of things the faster cpu the more streams it can read through. so just for instance if you had excel, ie, itunes, and a movie player up it might start bogging down and acting sluggish. now this programs arent demanding, but for a gamer running a game, itunes, a team speak network, and others gets pretty demanding on hardware. This demand is what causes ur computer to do weird things. Like if u try to close a window and open my computer it may take forever(also has to do wih your hd seek rate, but ignore that for now), or other things like even having ur comp lock up from running to many procceses. Basically its like overboring an engine or turning up boost. U take a good thing and push it to its limit. And like engines if u crank it up too much and work on things like cooling at the same time u can cook a cpu and it basically became a dam expensive piece of shiny stuff.

Hope tht kinda helps. it gets really complex and if u read up on computers or were into the techy side it would be easier to understand like anything else if u have previous knowlege. And your right for most normal pc users they dont need crazt hardware, but nice hardware will always make a comp run much smoother if u take the proper precautions

[AZhitman]

OK, so pageload times (if I have multiple tabs in FF open) will improve as well? or is that a function of some other spec?

[240Knightrider]

He just got 350Horspower for the price of 175hp..

[240Knightrider]

OK, so pageload times (if I have multiple tabs in FF open) will improve as well? or is that a function of some other spec?

That depends on your current setup. With page load times you have to consider many things, like spyware scanners, firewalls and connection speed also.

But to answer your question yes a faster processor will improve tab load times, also upgrading your memory IF you do not already have enough.

As long as proper cooling is taking place (and proper settings) it would still last a good life.

Beancooker:After relooking at his numbers though, his cooling is very good for what it is, im assuming however that its pretty much just sitting there with nothing to do. What is your high temp when your running an anti-virus or something similair. When i first said it was a little high I was thinking it was at 85

[szh]

OK, so pageload times (if I have multiple tabs in FF open) will improve as well? or is that a function of some other spec?

That would depend on your Internet access speed more than the processor speed. If the Net access is slow, then speeding up the processor is relaticely pointless if all you plan to do is surf the web with your PC. You would be better off getting a higher speed connection to the Internet and paying for that.

Z

[szh]

And, for someone like me who uses a PC 99% of the time for web work, what good would it do me?

Depending on how fast your current connection to the web is, this kind of CPU over-clocking probably would do nothing for you.

Z

[szh]

im assuming however that its pretty much just sitting there with nothing to do.

I think he said/implied that he had run Prime95 for 26 hours ... so, not exactly idle.

When i first said it was a little high I was thinking it was at 85

Exactly my reason for asking what cooling he was using!

Z

[Beancooker]

Dang, I missed a lot yesterday...

At 100% full load (prime95 and FOH) it was getting up to 49ºC.

Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme is the heatsink, with a 120mm Antec fan. It also sits in an Antec 900 case which provides great airflow.

As long as the business behind my house is closed, and their server is offline and not hogging the neighborhood's bandwidth, pageloads are WICKED FAST!

Greg, go to http://www.speedtest.net/ and test the speed you are running. Post it back here. If you have a great connection, a better processor will do wonders. My older Gateway (which is only 2 years old) sitting side by side with "teh Monster" loads pages about 1/2 as fast. If I have Media Player running on both, Monster loads them almost 4 times as fast.

The Gateway is running a AMD dual core 3800.

[240Knightrider]

I think he said/implied that he had run Prime95 for 26 hours ... so, not exactly idle.

Exactly my reason for asking what cooling he was using!

Z

Little testy with your reply...but my comments were not directed at you. They were directed at bean. And at 35degrees celcius its not crazy to believe its at idle.. it was more of a thought and a statement when I said that. My CPU cores are at 25-27 degrees celcius at idle.

Also, I already know Gregs internet connection is cable, no way he would run a forum without it. Therefore my statements still stand.

Beancooker: 49 still isnt bad at all, mad probs for your success with it man.

[szh]

Little testy with your reply...but my comments were not directed at you.

Oh, sorry, I was not upset at all ... I was mostly agreeing with you - at least, I thought that is how I said it! Tough to show the tone of voice in written text.

Also, I already know Gregs internet connection is cable, no way he would run a forum without it. Therefore my statements still stand.

Okay. Not much disagreement on your comments there either, but I think that the perceptible difference between 1.8GHz and 3.6GHz for web-surfing will be not that high - even for cable-speed surfing, I would think. For slower-speed access to the Internet, the processor speed would be not relevent.

For example, my house access is via relatively slow 768kbps SDSL ... so, even my son's ancient Celeron laptop, with 256MBytes of memory, does fine when web-surfing. And, of course, on disk or memory intensive stuff, his 2.8GHz desktop and my wife's Apple MacBook pro with a 2.2GHz dual-core are much, much faster than that old laptop!

I suspect (and I am speaking without really knowing what he has, etc.) Greg would probably be way better off increasing things like RAM first ... for example, if the computer has 1GBytes, increasing it to 2GBytes. Or, if it is a desktop, changing any 7200 rpm drive to 10,000 or 15,000! Or changing the graphics card for a high-performance one that off-loads the processor.

Etc., etc., etc.

Again, without knowing specifics, it is tough to say anything more than that really.

Z

[Beancooker]

240; Z isn't testy, he about the coolest guy I've met on the netz. Like he said, it's hard to type your tone of voice.

Beancooker: 49 still isnt bad at all, mad probs for your success with it man.

Did you mean props?

24º-25ºC at idle.

Honestly, I just got really lucky. The wafer that my proc was cut from was definitely better than average. I built the exact same PC for my bro, after he saw what I could do with mine, and his would only overclock stable to 3.2, so a lot of it was luck.

[240Knightrider]

haha yeah i meant props.

My mistake, I apologize sz. I totally misread your post.Although I agree processor speed at normal internet viewing wont increase load times on a regular bases. But Gregs question was with multiple tabs open. Which would inrease the amount of memory usage depending on the tabs he has open, I feel processor speed would make a difference once surfing the web. Because even though you can download super fast, your computer has to process the data. Which you know that already.

Take for example netflix, to watch on the instant viewing it takes about 40-60% CPU usage while downloading and Playing the data, now if Greg has that open and has nico, im sure you get my drift.

[szh]

My mistake, I apologize sz. I totally misread your post.

No worries ... I was not upset.

All valid points in the rest of your post too.

Z

[240Knightrider]

well oops...I changed my logo, and forgot to update the link...now I have a website banner in my sig.

edit: now im here thinking why the hell did i make a post about it...

[Gundam1s]

Congrats man, 100% over clock ftw lol

[PoorManQ45]

To OP: What power supply are you using? I've seen that discrepancy in voltage between bios and actual readings sometimes be caused by a power supply that uses cheap regulators.

I'm surprised noone gave the simple example to Greg. Programs will load faster and respond faster(assuming internet connection isn't a factor).

So, opening firefox or IE will initially be faster.

The time from when you press the power button until when you're at the desktop and ready to go will decrease.