Overclocking

[Wiggly Amp]

Is it morrally wrong to overclock your pc? Can we be excused for wanting to squeeze every last ounce of power out of our CPU or should we just spend our hard earned wonga on Intels latest overpriced offerings.

I personnally feel no remorse what so ever in taking my PIII 450 to 558, in real money terms thats one hell of a saving when I purchased one Intels very overclockable CPUs

Any comments or suggestions why we should or shoul not overclock our computers? Any overclocking suggestions?

Regards Wiggly Amp

[Skycop]

You have nothing to lose - except possibly programme unreliability and at worst a frazzled processor if you overdo it.

My understanding of this is that processor chips are labelled at the factory depending on their performance on individual test. Due to manufacturing constraints the manufacturer will aim to produce the highest speed processors on the production line but some of them will not be up to the full specification. These processors may be re-labelled and sold as lower speed items. One individual chip may be quite a bit better than another even though they may both share the same speed rating.

Try it and see but don't blame anyone if it fails. (You may need to fit a better fan than the one that came with it as uprating the speed will increase the heat production).

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May the Force be with you - and may Gravity treat you gently..




[This message has been edited by Skycop (edited 09 January 2000).]

[Wiggly Amp]

Skycop

I read somewhere not to long ago, that the big boys produce all cpus equal (cheaper on production line costs) and mark the processors according to market demand. The big boys like to make loads of dosh on the higher rated units but also like to keep thier finger in the pie of the lower end of the market. Running two production lines would inccur more expense which would eat into profits.

You are quite right about the possibility of frying the processor, small steps are recommended when upping the frequency and voltages (especially voltages) of the cpu.

I use an Abit BE6 motherboard (built with the overclocker in mind) which monitors the temp of the cpu via a small thermistor inserted close the processor and its heatsink, very useful little gadget.

Have you overclocked your machine

[Skycop]

No, but I once had a duff AMD233 which I had to under-clock! Fortunately I got it exchanged under warranty. I was warned afterwards that some fraud has been known where low-spec CPUs are "re marked" to a higher spec. Some will not work, where some might just cause only the occasional crash.

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May the Force be with you - and may Gravity treat you gently..

[spannersatcx]

Wiggly amp, I've just installed an Abit BE6-11 with a P11 350. Whats inside yours and have you overclocked, if so what if any improvements have you seen.

[Wiggly Amp]

~Spannersatcx

I`ve got the Abit BE6 with an Intel PIII 450 overclocked to 558Mhz. You can notice the difference when using flight sims when overclocked. Bench marking also shows quite a big difference, you would expect this kind of a difference when comparing an Intel PIII450 and a PIII550. High frame rates to be had with FS98 & combat FS even with all scenery options switched on.

If you would like to know any more details about my machine give me a shout, I`m quite local to your workplace.

You should be able to take your machine to 434Mhz with out much trouble. However be warned there is always the possibility of over doing it, most Intel processors will recover even after being taken over the edge. We can discuss this further if you wish.

Regards

Wiggly Amp

[Nightrider]

Hope you mean 534 WW.....otherwise I would ask for my money back....
Anyway, I have overclocked plenty of machines and up to 80 MHz there was never ever any problem. The PI-200MMX worked fine as a 266 as well....
My PIII-500 clocks at 688....BUUUUTTTT I have put a second fan which shuffles air into the cabinet ;)

[Avro'ansome]

How do you 'overclock' your CPU ? http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/confused.gif
I have an AMD K6-2 450mhz, and would love to squeeze a few more mhz out of it.

[clownfish]

Have a look at your motherboard...it may say words like 'cpu speed=multiplier x bus clock speed'. Near that area you should find some jumpers with your motherboard currently set at 4.5. Slide that jumber over to 5.0 and bingo - you got yourself a 500.

Now I've seen this done with a K6-2-300 with ordinary results (the processor didn't fry but the programs did!), and personally I don't recommend it.

[Wiggly Amp]

Have a look in the Guides section at www.sysopt.com, (http://www.sysopt.com,) full of useful titbits.

Regards

Wiggly Amp

[Whooaahh]

My opinion on this matter, and juft for the record I'm a authorised "Intel Product Integrator" so I do have a certain amount of perspective on this subject.

Intel manufacture a single product range, beit Pentium's, Pentium II's or Pentium III's, etc.

These come off the line, and are then tested at the highest rating possible. If they pass, they are rated at that speed. If they fail, they go to the next rating test down, etc. until it passes.

Over-Clocking is guaranteed to reduce your processor's MTBF and will inevitably have you claiming foul to your supplier. You may not like the results.

Taking it into an aviation perspective, I for one, wouldn't be happy if an engineer hadn't done the maintenance he should and stated "the manufacturer want us to change this part so they can make more money. There's no harm in leaving it there for say another 1000 hours".

Safety is the aviation industries #1 concern, reliability ( or MTBF ) is the computer industries.

Don't clock your processor, it will fail.

Whooaahh!!!

[Skycop]

Further to my original post; I read my MOB manual (QDI, jumper emulation in BIOS setup). My board has an auto setup facility which configures the processor. I briefly tried over-riding this to over-clock my P233 to 266. It did work, but I changed it back as there is advice in the manual that the associated MOB chipset will not be reliable in these circumstances. So, beware, it may do more damage than just overstretch the main processor ;)

[spannersatcx]

Whooaahh, I think the comparison you make is not really relevant. If there were 450 people flying on MY pc then no I wouldn't be looking to overclock it so they could get there faster. But that is not really the point here. However as Intel prices are so high and our pay is so low I can't afford to keep changing my processor every couple of months. I tend to upgrade my processor every 2 years, on the years in between it's the graphics card. I know I take it upon myself and void any warranties, not sure you'd know if my 350 was running at 433, the only thing that'll get hurt is my wallet. What you're actually saying is that we are being sold is a P450 that didn't make theyb grade so is only rated a 350 "These come off the line, and are then tested at the highest rating possible. If they pass, they are rated at that speed. If they fail, they go to the next rating test down, etc. until it passes." I wonder what would happen to Boeing if they said well it was a &$& but as we can't get 2 engines to work we'll only rate it as a 737. Or Airbus 340 to 330.

[Narada]

I wouldn't even imagine overclocking a processor or exceeding the specs in any safety related system.

But as spannersatcx says, I overclock my home PC which does my surfing and gaming and SETI@HOMEing and what not. (And I do run a Celeron 366 at 458MHz every day.) Most PCs live well within the chip specs - when was the last time your home computer's CPU ever saw the 0 degree or 70 degrees C ambient temp. the CPU is usually rated for (ok, approximately that - I haven't seen the specs lately, but that's usually the commercial temp. range, as opposed to the military temp. range avionics generally uses of about minus 40 to plus 125 deg C)? Most people are happy if the overclocking worked at ambient temperatures of between say 15 and 35 deg C because their house never exceeds that tempurature. If the MTBF is lower by a few hours, so what - I can throw away a $60 chip in 4 years instead of 6 - by that time, it is almost obsolete anyway.

[See www.overclockers.com (http://www.overclockers.com) or any of the USENET overclocking newsgroups for interesting information on overclocking.]