Here's a question for you guys

B

B_Rich

New Member
It's about overclocking.

I've got an AMD Phenom II x4 965 running at 3.4gHz (stock speed, and stock cooler, which keeps me at a steady 40-42 when under load, I've maxed out at 50 degrees when I had a big render in AutoCAD) and I'm considering overclocking it. I'm overclocking my Nvidia GTX 465 with great success, I figure why not my processor and get some more performance out of the machine?

Now, my question is:

When one overclocks a processor, while maintaining healthy temperatures (40 degrees C or so), does it increase the strain on the processor and decrease the life/reliability of it?

What I'm trying to say, is that even though an overclocked processor is staying at the same temperature, will it be less reliable than the same processor that is at the same temperature, at a slower clock speed?

I can relate this question to the horsepower of a car engine. A 900hp car spinning at 4,000 RPM probably won't be as reliable as a 200hp car spinning at 4,000 RPM, ya know?

Hopefully I'm explaining this well enough. What's everyone's thoughts?
 
the length of life lost due to overclocking won't matter really since you'll upgrade before its death. if you really want to push it, maybe going for 4 ghz, it would be a good idea to get an aftermarket cooler.
 
Mmmmmm...... 4gHz.......

Yeah I wouldn't mind getting an aftermarket cooler at all to pull those kind of numbers..... wonder how much of a performance increase I'll see? I went from a 1.6 single core in a laptop to this 3.4gHz quad core, so it's already a pretty darn good bump, but that little thing called greed.....

I do have to ask a noobish question, what kind of things will I start to see if I end up pushing the processor too hard? Or will temperature pretty much be the only thing?

Thanks everyone.
 
the bsod wouldn't affect your operating system at all. all you would do is go into your bios and clock your cpu back a little bit until you get 100% stability. i would recommend reading up and making sure you are comfortable with overclocking a cpu before attempting to do anything though.
 
As Joh said read up theres plenty of Overclocking instructions out there... Just start slow and increase slowly testing for stability... When you CPU begins to crash (bsod/restarts etc) then bump up the voltage a tad and watch the temps and continue as before... You'll eventually reach a point where voltage wont increase you clock any more... So then test the hell outta this (like 12 hours PRIME) and if its stable and the temps are good then your all set.
 
In general, heat and voltage kills. As long as you dont run it 70c day in and day out or up the voltage to the extreme for the highest possible overclock. It will be in a Antique Museum before it dies. Other then the occasional dud processor.
 
Ok. Well I guess I've got some reading to do. No big, I like learning new things.

Thanks for the help guys.
 
I understand your car analogy. The reason you cant compare a car engine and a processor, the processor has no moving parts.
 
My rule of thumb, (for Intel processors), is about a 20% OC for daily use. Q9650 stock @ 3.0 to 3.6 OC. I can achieve 3.5 at stock voltages and can run 3.6 at only a slight voltage bump of .04 V. That's about one half of my max OC of 4.2. I've known others that run a 24/7 OC of 35-40% then wonder why their processor dies within a year. Now I have no experience with AMD processors, but for daily use I'd run somewhere below one half of your max OC and watch those temps.
 
once you push it too hard, it starts getting unstable, which can lead to things like bsods. yes, i agree with it.
 
I picked up a Corsair W50(?) for the Phenom 965 and I'm stable at 4.0gHz @ 1.5v. I honestly don't notice a huge difference at 4.0 compared to 3.4, except for the benchmarks of course. So I think I may just run it at 3.4gHz and have a really cold processor haha.
 
I have the same Cpu as Op and considered Over-clocking as well, would a water cooling system be a smart move, I live in Texas and the Air-conditioning in my room doesnt always work so well. Although water cooling systems sort of make me feel uneasy (having water run through my baby)
 
You think only overclocking while playing games would be ok as far as long term reliability goes? I do other stuff on the computer besides gaming, but that would be a reasonable request of the processor, no?

Thanks for all the help guys.
 
As long as you have good airflow and a cool room, you can OC that chip to 3.8 no prob with good temps on the stock HSF. I can vouch because I did it prior to getting my Cooler Master v8 cpu cooler. I am now at a very stable 3.95. It's definitely a skill to get her to stay stable over 4 ghz on air. Lol. But from 3.8 to 3.95, there wasn't a huge change in performance. I got more by upgrading my GPU from a 5770 to a 5870. My windows experience for my CPU was 7.3 @3.8ghz. it now sits at 7.5 @ 3.95ghz. I would definitely upgrade the HSF though. At least go with a Cooler Master 101 or something that's inexpensive. That one goes for about $15.
 
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