When getting the most out of their PCs, overclocking your rig is usually considered the way to go. I have a few questions,
1. What CPU cooling methods do you doods recommend?, would an aftermarket fan be enough?, or would I have to learn about watercooling?
2. Anything special I'd need to OC the GPU without melting it? Would I need to rebuild it with a watercooling system?, or would keeping the fans at full blast be enough?
3. As I would rather not tamper with the BIOS unless needed, any OC programs you doods recommend? (preferably for both the CPU and GPU).
In order to answer your question honestly I'd have to ask you a question. How soon do you want to replace your computer? Cooling will only prolong the inevitable when it comes to overclocking. Heat kills components. If you pump more power through them they'll wear out quicker even if your providing adequate cooling. It's a better idea to buy something with enough overhead in capability that you don't need to overclock. Most motherboard manufacturers and video card manufacturers have their own chip set control programs. I wouldn't use anything outside of those. Using settings that the manufacturer hasn't tested can lead to bricked components without the need to kill them with overheating. If you must overclock though I'd go for water cooling most of the systems available now are very capable. It is likely for a little more money you could get a beefier system going that wouldn't require overclocking.
GPU overclocking is done with sofware. CPU overclocking is done from the bios. There's no real way around that. It requires both an overclockable cpu and a good chipset.
As for watercooling vs air, well, I prefer air. Well, at least for the cpu. Less of a hassle and top of the line big air coolers perform really well when stacked up against aio water solutions. Custom water loops can really shine in tight SLI setups though.
A mild OC can be done on air for quite a long time before it goes pop. I ran a 2600k at 4.8 for four years I think, and it's still going strong.
My latest build is a 6700k @ 4.4 currently, cooled by a corsair H115i AIO unit. Very quiet, very cool, very good looking! Personally, after years of having a hurricane in the corner of the room, I'm enjoying the near-silence that a radiator and two Maglev fans brings.
Cost-wise, the H115i is about double that of a decent air cooler, but you can't put a price on awesome!!
Here's the thing, how much extra power are you going to get out of your system by overclocking it?
Probably 15-20%.
Components that are made for overclocking cost extra. For the price of those components you can get components that are not made for overclocking, but which are 15-20% more powerful at their base performance and therefore you can get the same performance as you would out of an overclock for roughly the same price without actually having to go through the time and effort to overclock your system.
I did the math on this when I was building my new computer a year ago and overclocking really wasn't worth the effort for the minuscule amount of money that I would have saved by doing it (and would have cost me much more in the long run had I done it incorrectly, which I probably would have since I'm a huge noob).
Don't need to water cool, but if you want to dabble there are AI (All in One) units which don't require you making anything water tight. the latest Kraken by NZXT look amazing too
I have my CPU overclocked from 3.4 to 3.7 GHz. And my GPU...not sure but only a tiny bit really. And at least the cpu has been going for 2 years+ now on air cooling. I only get at most a 5~10% increase in performance out of it though. So it comes down to do you think it's worth it to only get a minimal performance boost?
If not, water cooling is your only option. As with that you can get pretty decent overclocking done.
No reason to be scared of doing some mild over clocking.
CPU is done through the bios- no way around it.
Your GPU has a multitude of programs you can use. I prefer EVGA Precision but a lot of people like MSI Afterburner as well.
Just up or clock speeds and memory speeds in small increments and run a benchmark/stress test. If your drivers fail or the pc has a fit you know you've gone too far. Back your way down a decent increment and enjoy the free power boost.
Water cooling looks cool but isn't stricly necessary unless you're really pushing things. I've had a 4670k @ 4ghz (up from 3.2) for a few years and haven't had a single issue with an Evo cooler.
I would say that unless you know your stuff, don't.
Your computer will take a hit to its longevity. That is in itself not anything serious as you you will most likely replace it before it breaks down anyway. No, the unwanted component is the second one.
Your computer will start to freeze/BSOD randomly. This part is much more frustrating. If you like to play games, especially online games, this will be aggravating and tiresome.
Only if the purpose of your computer is to overclock does it make sense to overclock. Try this handy test to see if you should overclock.
1. Do you get a weird boner by stresstesting your memory at a new timing? If no, then skip overclocking.
2. Do you touch yourself when you run 3dsmark? If not, then skip overclocking.
When getting the most out of their PCs, overclocking your rig is usually considered the way to go. I have a few questions,
1. What CPU cooling methods do you doods recommend?, would an aftermarket fan be enough?, or would I have to learn about watercooling?
2. Anything special I'd need to OC the GPU without melting it? Would I need to rebuild it with a watercooling system?, or would keeping the fans at full blast be enough?
3. As I would rather not tamper with the BIOS unless needed, any OC programs you doods recommend? (preferably for both the CPU and GPU).
1. The stock cooler will suffice for mild overclocking, although it may be a bit loud. Most aftermarket air coolers will suffice for moderate overlocking - find one that is somewhat cheap and easy to mount (like a cooler master hyper 212 evo or something). Actual water cooling is overkill for a 'normal' overclocker, and the pre-built liquid loops ('all-in-ones') generally perform about as well as a good (cheaper) air cooler.
2. Don't mess with the voltage unless you know what you're doing. Small changes have big impact, and you can damage your components this way. Don't worry about replacing the cooler of your graphics card - they're all good enough nowadays (although some are better - quieter - than others). Let your system worry about the fan curves. Read a guide before you start messing around with the settings, so you'll know what they all mean.
3. With regards to your CPU - overclocking through BIOS/UEFI is recommended, but some (most?) motherboard manufacturers supply overclocking software that lets you avoid it, albeit your options are more limited. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, though, since it means you're less likely to unintentionally break something then. So check with your motherboard manufacturer, would be my tip. As for the graphics card, check with your graphics card manufacturer. They all have their own software for this, although I personally prefer MSI's Afterburner.
In general - don't worry about shortening the life of your components through heat, wear and tear and stuff like that. Barring accidents or manufacturing errors, they will last you far, far longer than you want them to anyway - assuming you're not the type to hang on to a single system for more than a decade, in which case overclocking won't do much good in any event. The only things that can go wrong with your overclocking are that you:
1) fry your components in the process (through increasing the voltage too far), in which case you definitely don't have to worry about long-term damage, since everything's broken already
or
2) that you take the clock speeds too far and get an unstable system (generating blue screens of death or driver crashes under stress), in which case you just have to lower the clock speeds to more reasonable levels.
You made a great post in other respects, but here I'm not sure what you're on about. Sure there is. Here, for instance:
Fallow said:
I would say that unless you know your stuff, don't.
Your computer will take a hit to its longevity. That is in itself not anything serious as you you will most likely replace it before it breaks down anyway. No, the unwanted component is the second one.
Your computer will start to freeze/BSOD randomly. This part is much more frustrating. If you like to play games, especially online games, this will be aggravating and tiresome.
Only if the purpose of your computer is to overclock does it make sense to overclock. Try this handy test to see if you should overclock.
1. Do you get a weird boner by stresstesting your memory at a new timing? If no, then skip overclocking.
2. Do you touch yourself when you run 3dsmark? If not, then skip overclocking.
I get what you're saying, but I also think you're making out overclocking to be a bigger deal than it is. As JUMBO PALACE so eloquently put it, mild overclocking is nothing to be afraid of. Just stick to upping the clock speeds, rather than the voltage, if you're insecure about what you're doing - then the worst that could happen is that your system won't boot, and you'll have to clear CMOS. If you don't want to bother finding the threshold for the freezes, BSODs or driver crashes, then don't up the clock speeds very much. Just give them a little nudge, and you'll be fine. Sure, it won't be that much of a gain, but it's absolutely free of cost.
The manufacturers don't push the clock speeds as high as they can possibly go, because not all chips are created equal, and they need to be sure that most of what comes out of the assembly line is functional. This nearly always leaves some margin for increasing the clock speeds of any individual chip that ends up in your computer, and if you're lucky it even leaves a proverbial bucketload of margin (due to the so-called "binning" [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_binning] process).
Edit: Interesting, I wasn't aware of that program. My only experience with my machine is OC'ing the CPU through the bios, so I guess I spoke out of turn on that one. Appreciate the tip and the kind words!
I get what you're saying, but I also think you're making out overclocking to be a bigger deal than it is. As JUMBO PALACE so eloquently put it, mild overclocking is nothing to be afraid of. Just stick to upping the clock speeds, rather than the voltage, if you're insecure about what you're doing - then the worst that could happen is that your system won't boot, and you'll have to clear CMOS. If you don't want to bother finding the threshold for the freezes, BSODs or driver crashes, then don't up the clock speeds very much. Just give them a little nudge, and you'll be fine. Sure, it won't be that much of a gain, but it's absolutely free of cost.
That is fair and accurate. The reasoning for my (non-)recommendation is exactly what you've said - a minor overclock is safe, but it doesn't do much of anything.
In order to see practical results, you would most likely (unless you've picked an excellent overclock CPU that the manufacturer has for some reason downclocked) need to do something a little more serious than playing with the clock.
If all you want is to learn and try new things, go ahead. But if you actually want practical real-life results that matter for your computer (outside of 0.3 seconds improvement to Everest or Prime95), there is a price to pay in durability and stability.
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