New overclocker, Advice appreciated

[johan.vermaak]

I'm going to be building a new PC from scratch this weekend or so. I
am planning on buying an AMD Opteron 165 with an Asus A8N-SLI
motherboard. I have never overclocked a cpu, memory, or gpu. I would
like advice on anything and everything anyone would happen to know
about. Is the A8N-SLI a good motherboard for overclocking? I chose it
because its only $110, and I built a system a month or so ago with an
A8N-SLI Deluxe and it went flawlessly, but no over clocking. Also, is
the 165 going to work and act just like a Athlon 64? I have read an
article or two on it and its overclocking abilities. Also, do I
overclock using a piece of software, or through the bios? If software,
what is the best, free software available? Any Info would be much
appreciated.

JSV

 

[Curmudgeon]

Well, declaring anyone who doesn't agree with you to be "stupid" is a
good way to draw them out, all right.

Interesting statement. Not very constructive but.....
It appears as though you're trying to instigate another of your
discussions/arguments/flame wars/see how great I am bullshit sessions.
All I see in the Dave's post is some very sensible advice. Just ask
those whose systems have turned to toast because of over-clocking
they'll most like concur that his advice is solid and valuable.

 

[Dave]

I'm going to be building a new PC from scratch this weekend or so. I
am planning on buying an AMD Opteron 165 with an Asus A8N-SLI
motherboard. I have never overclocked a cpu, memory, or gpu. I would
like advice on anything and everything anyone would happen to know
about. Is the A8N-SLI a good motherboard for overclocking? I chose it
because its only $110, and I built a system a month or so ago with an
A8N-SLI Deluxe and it went flawlessly, but no over clocking. Also, is
the 165 going to work and act just like a Athlon 64? I have read an
article or two on it and its overclocking abilities. Also, do I
overclock using a piece of software, or through the bios? If software,
what is the best, free software available? Any Info would be much
appreciated.

JSV

I'll give you the best advice anybody could ever give you. Don't overclock.
Many people will flame me for saying that, but when your system is massively
unstable when NOT overclocked, and you are wondering why, you can thank all
the idiots who advised you that overclocking was a good idea. -Dave

 

[H. Seldon]

(e-mail address removed) rattled our cages with this on Monday 3/13/2006

I'm going to be building a new PC from scratch this weekend or so. I
am planning on buying an AMD Opteron 165 with an Asus A8N-SLI
motherboard. I have never overclocked a cpu, memory, or gpu. I would
like advice on anything and everything anyone would happen to know
about. Is the A8N-SLI a good motherboard for overclocking? I chose it
because its only $110, and I built a system a month or so ago with an
A8N-SLI Deluxe and it went flawlessly, but no over clocking. Also, is
the 165 going to work and act just like a Athlon 64? I have read an
article or two on it and its overclocking abilities. Also, do I
overclock using a piece of software, or through the bios? If software,
what is the best, free software available? Any Info would be much
appreciated.

JSV

Dave is absolutely correct. You want faster? Invest in a higher end
motherboard populated with the appropriate CPU(s) etc.. Trying to put
10 pounds of crap in a 5 pound bag just doesn't make sense and begs for
trouble.

--
_____________________________________________________________

That's all,


"Just because you're not paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get
you"

< Colin Sautar >

 

[Shinnokxz]

I'm going to be building a new PC from scratch this weekend or so. I
am planning on buying an AMD Opteron 165 with an Asus A8N-SLI
motherboard. I have never overclocked a cpu, memory, or gpu. I would
like advice on anything and everything anyone would happen to know
about. Is the A8N-SLI a good motherboard for overclocking? I chose it
because its only $110, and I built a system a month or so ago with an
A8N-SLI Deluxe and it went flawlessly, but no over clocking. Also, is
the 165 going to work and act just like a Athlon 64? I have read an
article or two on it and its overclocking abilities. Also, do I
overclock using a piece of software, or through the bios? If software,
what is the best, free software available? Any Info would be much
appreciated.

JSV

I suggest following the advice of the previous posters if you cherish
your budget at all. If money isn't a problem, overclocking still
requires caution especially if you do not know the basics (like you
saying what program you use). It also could open up a bag of problems
that won't otherwise happen that can be increasingly difficult to
troubleshoot. Not to mention the fact that overblocking voide the
warranty of all hardware involved, which is enough to keep me away from it.

Don't be confused, not all custom PC builders overclock. Just the ones
that do it always are the louder ones so it seems like we all do it

 

[Dave]

I suggest following the advice of the previous posters if you cherish your

budget at all. If money isn't a problem, overclocking still requires
caution especially if you do not know the basics (like you saying what
program you use). It also could open up a bag of problems that won't
otherwise happen that can be increasingly difficult to troubleshoot. Not
to mention the fact that overblocking voide the warranty of all hardware
involved, which is enough to keep me away from it.

Don't be confused, not all custom PC builders overclock. Just the ones
that do it always are the louder ones so it seems like we all do it

The more you know about computers, the more likely you are NOT to overclock.
I'm one of the teeny tiny percentage of computer builders with ALL the
knowledge necessary to overclock a computer successfully and safely. I
won't overclock, period. Overclocking is a situation where a little bit of
knowledge can be very dangerous. You think you know what you are doing, so
you tweak a few settings here and there. What you don't realize is that
you've just shortened the useful lifespan of all your components. You might
get away with it if you build a whole new computer every year or so (because
you don't need your individual components to last very long). But if you
are re-building that often, you have NOTHING to gain by overclocking.

Thinking of overclocking? Just don't do it. Now watch all the overclockers
come out of the woodwork and say, "But my system is 5% faster and it's been
stable for years". Yup, even the stupid get lucky sometimes. -Dave

 

[Shinnokxz]

Thinking of overclocking? Just don't do it. Now watch all the overclockers
come out of the woodwork and say, "But my system is 5% faster and it's been
stable for years". Yup, even the stupid get lucky sometimes. -Dave

Ta! I admit I don't know the complete ins and outs of overclocking,
however I have seen performance sheets and I do not feel that 3%
performance gain or the extra 3.4 FPS do not justify what you are doing
to your hardware in the long run.

 

[JAD]

In the day when you were trying to squeeze 12mhz out of an 10mhz 8088, and
were doing micro soldering and all kinds of crazy stuff to accomplish a
stable POST, (forget the booting into dos), It was a challenge. Now its a
bios switch and I giant cooler to keep the already hot running CPUs cooled.
Like everyone has posted, don't do it, simply is not going to get any thing
or any body excited, except benchmark software.

 

[Shinnokxz]

Also, I'd like to note that I ran across an article of an overclocker
that had actually reported negative results; which according to him
happens more frequently than most 'hardcore leet' overclockers tend to
have you believe.

In this case he both overclocking AMD XP 3200+s and some GeForce 5950
Ultras and while running 3DMark03 and other lameduck three-minute
benchmark programs fetched him slight performance increases over stock
clockings (2% gain in framerate or something), he found that during
realistic high-performance sessions (I think in this case he was playing
CS: Source Beta for hours at a time), he was seeing degradation in this
performance 'increase' over time due to the abnormal clockings acting
fuzzy with the chipsets, not to mention the obvious heat issues that can
arise (and did, because he was still using stock heatsinks and fans).

Just an interesting note.

 

[David Maynard]

The more you know about computers, the more likely you are NOT to overclock.
I'm one of the teeny tiny percentage of computer builders with ALL the
knowledge necessary to overclock a computer successfully and safely. I
won't overclock, period. Overclocking is a situation where a little bit of
knowledge can be very dangerous. You think you know what you are doing, so
you tweak a few settings here and there. What you don't realize is that
you've just shortened the useful lifespan of all your components. You might
get away with it if you build a whole new computer every year or so (because
you don't need your individual components to last very long). But if you
are re-building that often, you have NOTHING to gain by overclocking.

Thinking of overclocking? Just don't do it. Now watch all the overclockers
come out of the woodwork and say, "But my system is 5% faster and it's been
stable for years". Yup, even the stupid get lucky sometimes. -Dave

Well, declaring anyone who doesn't agree with you to be "stupid" is a good
way to draw them out, all right.

 

[Johnny Hageyama]

I'm going to be building a new PC from scratch this weekend or so. I
am planning on buying an AMD Opteron 165 with an Asus A8N-SLI
motherboard. I have never overclocked a cpu, memory, or gpu. I would
like advice on anything and everything anyone would happen to know
about.

There are numerous www.overclockers.* web sites that can help you, but
wait until your system has run 100% reliably for a few weeks without
any overclocking because overclocking never improves stability, and

The recommendation to not overclock at all is a good one since speed
can't be improved a great deal, unlike in the days when it was possible
to double or even triple their normal speeds without extraordinary
measures. But if you do overclock, check the temperatures of
everything, not only the CPU and GPU but also the MOSFETs, coils, and
capacitors on the motherboard.

 

[Starfleet]

Also, I'd like to note that I ran across an article of an overclocker
that had actually reported negative results; which according to him
happens more frequently than most 'hardcore leet' overclockers tend to
have you believe.

In this case he both overclocking AMD XP 3200+s and some GeForce 5950
Ultras and while running 3DMark03 and other lameduck three-minute
benchmark programs fetched him slight performance increases over stock
clockings (2% gain in framerate or something), he found that during
realistic high-performance sessions (I think in this case he was playing
CS: Source Beta for hours at a time), he was seeing degradation in this
performance 'increase' over time due to the abnormal clockings acting
fuzzy with the chipsets, not to mention the obvious heat issues that can
arise (and did, because he was still using stock heatsinks and fans).

Just an interesting note.

Yes, if a cpu gets too hot from overclocking they will throttle back
their speed. I've seen the benchmarks and there is little to be gained
from overclocking a cpu. In today's games it's more important to have a
good fast video card. I used to OC but I don't bother anymore.

 

[dawg]

Oh man,you guys are really out there. Overcloking's fine if you know what
you're doing. And you won't have your rig long enough to see any bad
effects,if any. I've had my A64 2800+ overclocked to 2.25ghz since I got it
a year ago. No problems at all.I'll probably upgrade in 6 months or so.
If I had run into problems it wouldn't be overclocked.
Now,I never count on being able to run anything faster than it's specced to
run.But never even trying is ridiculous.

 

[Bob]

I'm going to be building a new PC from scratch this weekend or
so. I
am planning on buying an AMD Opteron 165 with an Asus A8N-SLI

[snip]

I'll give you the best advice anybody could ever give you. Don't
overclock. Many people will flame me for saying that, but when
your system is massively unstable when NOT overclocked, and you
are wondering why, you can thank all the idiots who advised you
that overclocking was a good idea. -Dave

I've got a ASUS A8N-E, AMD 4200 (not finished building yet) but I
read that you can set the bios to auto O/C. Meaning that as their
is more demand on the system the system will overclock itself to
meet that need and then decrease the o/c as the system needs less.
It also automatically turns the fans on/off to maintain a set
tempture.

 

[johan.vermaak]

I think all of you misunderstood my questions and queries. Thanks for
all the concern, and its cool that you think it's stupid, I realize
most of the concerns and precautions of over clocking, and I'm not
going to go all out, all I plan on doing is some minor overclocking. I
wasn't asking if I should or shouldn't, I was asking what was the best
motherboard, or if the A8N-SLI is fine, and how. Either software or
through BIOS, and what version of bios. Thanks for all the info. I was
just considering bumping the 165 from 1.8 ghz to like 2.1 or so. As it
is, its pretty much a 3500+ X2, but it has a better Level 2 cache, it's
the same core as the FX-60, but that runs at 2.6 and the 165 is @ 1.8.
Is overclocking it that much that big of a deal? What is the
difference in overclocking and just buying the next step up in speed of
the same processor? I realize the heat issues and stuff, but why are
the next step up in processor able to use the same stock cooler then?

 

[johan.vermaak]

Thats interesting, Bob, thanks for pointing that out to me. I am not
needing an SLI motherboard, infact would probably prefer not having
one, but I just chose it because of previous experience with building
with them. I haven't heard anything on the stability of the A8N-E.
I'll be sure to check that out, thanks.

 

[nos1eep]

It is further alleged that on or about Mon, 13 Mar 2006 22:00:43
-0700, in alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt, the queezy keyboard of
Shinnokxz <[email protected]> spewed the following:

|Dave wrote:
|
|> Thinking of overclocking? Just don't do it. Now watch all the overclockers
|> come out of the woodwork and say, "But my system is 5% faster and it's been
|> stable for years". Yup, even the stupid get lucky sometimes. -Dave
|
|Ta! I admit I don't know the complete ins and outs of overclocking,
|however I have seen performance sheets and I do not feel that 3%
|performance gain or the extra 3.4 FPS do not justify what you are doing
|to your hardware in the long run.

Pussy/

 

[Charlie Wilkes]

I'm going to be building a new PC from scratch this weekend or so. I
am planning on buying an AMD Opteron 165 with an Asus A8N-SLI
motherboard. I have never overclocked a cpu, memory, or gpu. I would
like advice on anything and everything anyone would happen to know
about. Is the A8N-SLI a good motherboard for overclocking? I chose it
because its only $110, and I built a system a month or so ago with an
A8N-SLI Deluxe and it went flawlessly, but no over clocking. Also, is
the 165 going to work and act just like a Athlon 64? I have read an
article or two on it and its overclocking abilities. Also, do I
overclock using a piece of software, or through the bios? If software,
what is the best, free software available? Any Info would be much
appreciated.

JSV

It's easy. You don't need special software, but you do need a
philosophical attitude that it's consumer hardware, and if you ruin
it, no one dies.

I have never had a desktop machine that I didn't eventually overclock.
It used to be done with a comple of jumper switches on the board, and
now it is done through the BIOS. For all the machines I've ever
owned, it was never a big technical challenge or anything to crow
about... merely a way to get better performance, which I have always
done, not on benchmarks but in regular, daily use.

However, I have no doubt the people who advise against it are right.
I look at it as being somewhat like drunk driving. If you get behind
the wheel when you're legally drunk, but still capable of walking, you
can drive home and not have a problem, 49 times ouf of 50, let's say.
But you might also get arrested or kill someone.

In the case of overclocking, you only fry your machine.

That is my defense of overclocking.

I have put up some notes about my new system at:

www.geocities.com/wilkes_charlie/new_system.htm

All comments welcome.

Charlie

 

[David Maynard]

Interesting statement. Not very constructive but.....

It's just as constructive as the statement it was in reply to.

It appears as though you're trying to instigate another of your
discussions/arguments/flame wars/see how great I am bullshit sessions.
All I see in the Dave's post is some very sensible advice.

It certainly sounds sensible if you accepts the premises given.

Just ask
those whose systems have turned to toast because of over-clocking
they'll most like concur that his advice is solid and valuable.

You can always find people who screw up 'whatever' but I don't need to ask
how difficult or easy it is as I've overclocked for years. I've never lost
a processor to it and I'm beginning to have serious doubts I'll live long
enough to personally observe any of them die of old age.

I do agree that one shouldn't just willy nilly tinker if they don't know
what they're doing but that goes for just about anything.

 

[John Doe]

johan.vermaak gmail.com wrote:

<snip>

I concur with the regular opinions here. If you persist, you might
get more feedback in one of the (alt.comp.hardware.overclocking)
groups on USENET.

Overclocking is a shot in the dark. I prefer to buy components that
the manufacturer sets to run at their optimal speed. There are
meaningful, funner, and more substantial ways to improve
performance.

Good luck.