Do you overclock / undervolt? Please add to stats!

The forum for non-component-related silent pc discussions.

Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee

Do you overclock?

No, never
15
13%
No, but I did (when I thought it still mattered)
10
9%
No, I undervolt / underclock
18
16%
Yes, and like it too
69
62%
 
Total votes: 112

snutten
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Do you overclock / undervolt? Please add to stats!

Post by snutten » Thu Oct 28, 2004 4:18 pm

Isn't it funny that at SPCR we find both overvolterers and undervolterers fiddling with their CPU's to optimize performance?
Say what you want about overclocking, but from a silent point of view it's plain folly unless the cooling system is truly state of the art. Correct me if you think I'm wrong, but I think today the race for something just a little faster is no longer on for the majority of users. A new computer no longer feels old after a year. Instead, today people want their computer to be nice looking, smaller, with less cables, easy to use, silent and above all stable. Overclocking is contraproductive on all accounts here.

Then why is it that not only overclockbeyondinsanity.com, but even SPCR is filled with these enthusiastic modders? Discussions often drift off into flow rates, active northbridge coolers, memory timings, bigger pumps and longer penises.

I think some do it because they just love to tinker away with their computer. Be it o/c, neon lighting or silencing. The more the better. I'm one of them so I'm familiar with that itchy feeling when something could perhaps maybe if I'm lucky be improved on.

Another reason probably is the same as with men and their cars. For overclocking isn't your average girls hobby. Neither is silencing, (or most weird hobbies for that matter) but a quieter computer is appreciated by most. What I'm trying to say is: the reasons for doing it are most likely not rational but emotional. Getting a kick out of more GHz.


Give me your thoughts on the subject!



Related, about watercooling
Last edited by snutten on Thu Nov 04, 2004 5:14 am, edited 3 times in total.

Edward Ng
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Post by Edward Ng » Thu Oct 28, 2004 4:26 pm

You know my feelings from that linked thread, and now you have my vote in your poll.

mathias
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Post by mathias » Thu Oct 28, 2004 4:47 pm

I have my video card overclocked, from 275 to 350mhz, with a 150g zalman flower (the whinny stock fan could do the same). I also have my ram timings tightened, that gets about the speed boost of upping my CPU frequency 50mhz(which I think already requieres a voltage bump) without the heat increase.

If I get a mobile athlon to replace my regular 2000+, I'll probably try running it at 1.475-1.55v (or 1.375 to 1.55 if it's 1.35 at default), and try a faster bus speed.

JazzJackRabbit
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Post by JazzJackRabbit » Thu Oct 28, 2004 5:42 pm

The last time I overclocked was Pentium times, P133>P150. After that I always ran at the stock speeds, although I did turn on memory optimizations on my Asus 865PE board. Right now I'm thinking into building an undervolted/undeclocked A-XP-M system with only one fan, but I'm waiting till zalman's fanless PSU and seagate 7200.8 come out, until then I don't want to buy anything...

So as you see there is no option for me to choose from, so I did not vote... :)

mrzed
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Post by mrzed » Thu Oct 28, 2004 6:34 pm

I overvolt and overclock (gasp!).

The other side of the story is that I am running an XP1700+ at 1840Mhz - a modest 25% increase. I overvolt from 1.55 to 1.6 as well. With all that, I can cool it easily with a SLK900 and 5v 80mm. I do it purely out of cheapness. I will likely keep doing it as long as it makes sense.

If I was running a current high-end CPU, noise vs. speed might be an issue, but the nice thing about being a tightwad is, it's far easier to silence.

sthayashi
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Post by sthayashi » Thu Oct 28, 2004 8:15 pm

Since I like keeping my computer on 24-7, I underclock and undervolt to reduce power and subsequently, my bills. It's only significant though compared to the dual processing beast. My underclocked system draws 1/5th the power of my dual processing machine.

Of course, since the most intensive task I do these days is encode Oggs, it's not like I'm really missing out on the performance.

tay
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Post by tay » Thu Oct 28, 2004 10:28 pm

Overclock somewhat with a decent level of quietness on the cheap.

meglamaniac
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Post by meglamaniac » Fri Oct 29, 2004 12:04 am

I answered yes.
However, there are some conditions to that.
Silence always comes first, so I'll get everything as quiet as I want it and then start upping speeds. Never will I up them far enough to require speeding the fans up though - this obviously means running the processor hotter than some, and ducting it to the fan at the back to avoid the PSU spinning up.

However, with processors rated to high temps these days, I can still get a few extra mhz out of it.

Box
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Post by Box » Fri Oct 29, 2004 12:28 am

Nope, I never overclock. And if I could undervolt (underclock) I would. But my motherboard doesn't allow me to so...

Mats
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Post by Mats » Fri Oct 29, 2004 12:39 am

I undervolt my AXP 2500+ to 1.375 V. I used to have 2442 MHz @ 1.65 V but it didn't give me anything else than more heat and noise. The most heavy programs I run are games, so CPU speed really doesn't matter that much, but RAM and GPU does. I can play Far Cry at 1100 or 2442 MHz but I almost can't tell the difference.

Since I'm a hardware guy I'm having a hard time stopping my self from upgrading to A64 or PM. I really don't need it so it would be a waste of money. :)

haral
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Post by haral » Fri Oct 29, 2004 7:05 am

Mats wrote:I undervolt my AXP 2500+ to 1.375 V. I used to have 2442 MHz @ 1.65 V but it didn't give me anything else than more heat and noise. The most heavy programs I run are games, so CPU speed really doesn't matter that much, but RAM and GPU does. I can play Far Cry at 1100 or 2442 MHz but I almost can't tell the difference.

Since I'm a hardware guy I'm having a hard time stopping my self from upgrading to A64 or PM. I really don't need it so it would be a waste of money. :)
Far Cry @ 1100 MHz? Don't believe you. Or it's runnign but it isn't smooth and beatiful. ;)

And I am an overclocker. Currently AMD barton [email protected] GHz and 1.8 volts. This is a veru lousy processor. Needs a lot of juice to overclock.

chylld
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Post by chylld » Fri Oct 29, 2004 8:15 am

give it more juice haral :) i'm pumping 2.06v through mine ([email protected])

but yeh, my comment on overclocking: as i do a lot of media-intensive work, i need all the processor speed i can get. watercooling affords me silence + max overclock at the same time. doesn't get much better than that :)

haral
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Post by haral » Fri Oct 29, 2004 9:20 am

I'm using air and zalman 7000 so it's kind of its limits now. :) Because I think that it would not be wise to bump up the voltage more than 0,2 V with aircooling. correct me if I'm wrong.

ecto
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Post by ecto » Fri Oct 29, 2004 10:11 am

Overclocker here. My philosophy is just like meglamaniac's - first comes silence, then comes speed. If you have a quiet computer, and it's possible to run it faster without increasing noise, why not? :) I'm a gamer myself, so I "need" the speed.. and, of course, the challenge of having an overclocked and quiet system is fun!

barleyguy
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Post by barleyguy » Fri Oct 29, 2004 10:13 am

I answered yes, because I'm running an Athlon 64 mobile 2700 at 225x8. which is a minor 200 Mhz overclock. My RAM (Kingmax 22D) is running at 225/450. This works with a Zalman 7000A at 1950 RPM, in an Aria case. Very close to silent.

I also sometimes underclock. I can get 900Mhz (225x4) at 0.9 volts. Since I'm booting at that speed, sometimes I forget to increase the speed and I don't even notice unless I'm running something CPU intensive.

Pjotor
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Post by Pjotor » Fri Oct 29, 2004 12:28 pm

As long as I don't have to crank up the fans, I overclock to my heart's content -- the HDD is still the noisiest thing in the system. If I ever get that AC Ryan Xilencer, I may have to clock the CPU down a bit again. My main goal is as much performance for as little noise as possible, up to a certain (low) noise level.

Mats
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Post by Mats » Fri Oct 29, 2004 5:06 pm

haral wrote:Far Cry @ 1100 MHz? Don't believe you.
Ok (?).

Skylined
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Post by Skylined » Sat Oct 30, 2004 4:07 am

I OC my CPU.

I have a AMD Athlon XP Tbred B 1700+ 1460MHz @ 2100MHz with stock VCore.
Sitting on my AMD is a Thermalright SLK-900A with a 92mm fan rated 30dBA at 12V currently working at 6.5V.

My CPU never went over 45C and my case is extremely silent.
I still have some things to do to make it even more silent than what it is, like adding heatsinks to my HDD and take away the 92mm fan that I put to cool it down, I also have to suspend the HDD.

Yesterday a guy from another forum I'm in came home to get some LEDs I'm selling and I showed him the myth of "burning AMDs!", so I took my HSF away and started playing a DivX.
After 15 minutes my CPU was cooled just by the heatsink, without the help of any fan, not even a case fan, and the max temperature it reached was 45C.

So, having an OCed PC and at the same time a silent PC is totally possible!

I'll speak for myself when it comes to why do I overclock.
I got this CPU two years ago for 70US$, as it is now, it has the same performance, and even better, than a Barton 2600+.
So, for 2 years I haven't thrown a penny to get a new CPU and I have a CPU "up to date". ;)

orionlion82
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Post by orionlion82 » Sat Oct 30, 2004 7:16 pm

I am flexible.
I have found that trying to underclock/undervolt gets me nothing, or raises my temps. (unless i crank the fans, which is not what were after here) running stock with minimum cooling, temps are appropriate at idle, good for surfing/studying...overclocking is good for gaming and high demand stuff... i actually idle at much lower temps, even with minimum cooling... seems counter-intuitive untill you consider-a good analogy would seem to be pulling a double-wide with a VW bug (it will get hot at this load, no doubt) versus pulling a VW bug with a kennworth or mack (load, what load?)
allthough i admit, with a gaming rig, having the noise is part of the deal, not to say it wont drive you to SPCR now and again...my previous silencing binges have have ranged from cumbersome to scary, dangerous to silly, but all in all , I like it flexible.

starcycle
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Post by starcycle » Sat Oct 30, 2004 7:24 pm

i think with the right hardware you can find a happy medium: still get a good overclock without sacrificing too much in the way of quiet. when it comes to processor speed, more is always better :D, so it's too hard to resist overclocking when you can get more speed without raising the noise too much.

Straker
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Post by Straker » Sat Oct 30, 2004 10:46 pm

i don't think overclocking is really anathema to silencing, aside from the obvious (it's hard to silence something that's eating more power than a space heater). i think anyone competent enough to open up their PC and make things quieter in a manner that won't break everything within a week is also generally going to be competent enough to learn how to oc properly. remember most people don't know the number/location of the fans in their computer, nor have they ever actually changed anything in their BIOS.

burcakb
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Post by burcakb » Sat Oct 30, 2004 11:03 pm

Most CPUs will overclock at least 10% without changing anything in your quieting setup. And today, 10% usually amounts to the processor one up on the scale.

snutten
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Post by snutten » Mon Nov 01, 2004 3:04 pm

I'm sensing that the headline for this thread attracts overclockers chiefly. I'll take the liberty of changing it from "On overclocking" to "Do you overclock?"

Bitter Jitter
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Post by Bitter Jitter » Mon Nov 01, 2004 3:33 pm

Thanks to my lovely new Athlon 64 i have joined the underclockers.
Currently i use CrystalCPUID with three speeds.
800Mhz @ 0.975v (Mostly in this state)
1200Mhz @ 1.1v
1800Mhz @ 1.35v

In the lowest p-state i can run the processor with the stock fan off! It is also fine even under full load, if it's locked to 800Mhz.

So why do i run my nice new CPU slower than my old 1.2 Athlon?
Well because silence and power consumption are much lower.

I also run my Radeon 9800pro at 190Mhz using Rivatuner, this drops idle power consumption 20w at the plug!

Why waste power and thus generate heat when your checking email and browsing the internet?

ceraf
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Post by ceraf » Mon Nov 01, 2004 4:12 pm

I usually overclock my Athlon XP 1800 when:
- I'm going to run some cpu-intensive programs
- the room is cold (I need a heater)

The overclock usually ranges from 1.6 GHz to a little over 2 GHz at the stock 1.5v. I wish I could push it to around 2.3 GHz, but I don't really need to and my RAM is limiting my FSB.

I usually rely on CpuIdle to keep idle temps low as possible, since I don't usually do too much on my comp anymore other than Internet and Word Processing.

Noise isn't affected by overclocking at all (for me at least). My old IBM hard drive (yup, it's still miraculously running) is the noisiest thing, which makes high pitch tones. On top of that, some of my not-so-silent fan whirring can be heard. I'm pretty used to it though, just not when I sleep with the computer on.

HaloJones
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Post by HaloJones » Wed Nov 03, 2004 3:38 am

I overclock and over-volt but I also water-cool so I get speed and quiet but a thin wallet.

blinky
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Post by blinky » Wed Nov 03, 2004 10:19 am

I undervolt but overclock :) XP 1700 at 1833MHz with 1.35v, still runs cooler than stock speed/voltage...

Talz
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Post by Talz » Wed Nov 03, 2004 11:09 am

I overclock, 2.4c @ 3.3 GHz, it makes a difference in programs I run and it doesn't make my reserator any noisier.

krooton
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Post by krooton » Wed Nov 03, 2004 12:14 pm

I used to overclock my mobile 2500+ to 2.42Ghz, but this was at 1.725Vcore, 2.8Vdimm and 1.7V on the chipset

This generated too much heat to operate silently, idling at 50ºC

Now running at 2.2Ghz 1.6Vcore, 2.6Vdimm and 1.6V on chipset, alot quieter and idling 42ºC

:)

bondiablo
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Post by bondiablo » Wed Nov 03, 2004 3:13 pm

I overclocked my 2.8 P4 to 3.5 (at stock voltage) partly just to see if i could but i also use tmpgenc (video encoder) quite a bit and it does significantly reduce my encoding time.

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