Vista - overclocking ???

hi all
can anyone tell me if its a good idea to overclock my CPU and graphics cards
i have a q6600 and 2 -8600 gtx 512mb in sli graphics cards installed
is it worth me trying to over clock them and what improvement will i see???
and is it easy to do ??
thanks for your help and time

Some may argue yes, while other will argu no (like myself).



Sure there is nothing wrong with overclocking - except :

• it's not easy
• you may not see much improvments, so the risk is not worth it
• it may void your warranty
• if you do it wrong, you buy new component/s, because you could totally kill you equipment, including your motherboard
• you will generally reduce the overall lifespan of your CPU / GPU

So no - overclocking is not a good idea.

thanks i will not bother doing it i thought it was easy cheers for your help

OTOH, it also depends on *why* you want to OC - what is your purpose in achieving an OC?

For me it is getting more out of my hardware - without taxing it. I have been reading long and hard, and I purposefully bought equipment that will yield decent over clocking with a minimal of effort. I have spend literally the last couple of days reading about it and I have successfully overclocked my CPU and memory by 25% each (C2Q 6600 @ 3.0 GHz and RAM at 500 MHz, Linked / synced FSB 1333.

Thus far it is definitely running hotter (CPU, all cores by 10C, which means more heat generation which means more heat in my room - and it is just about summer here, with temps in the 90s F for the last 3 days and counting)....but my performance is much better already.

I am going to take my memory a bit farther, and see if it can get it to operate at the rated 1000 MHz it is supposed to, and see if that will help me get a better WEI score but also see if this memory I bought is really worth it or not....

My motherboard and RAM both have lifetime warranties, so I am pretty sure that eVGA / OCZ will RMA anything that goes bad if I don't go insane and blow it up manually.

But drom is right - it is not easy, and you have to be *very* careful on what you're doing or else you'll blow something up, or fry something, or start seeing random lockups.

Plus, it consumes more power and generates more heat (which then adds to your power consumption in other ways, such as room cooling), so unless you can afford it, don't bother.

All I ask is WHY,

With that kind of system spec why would you.....
It will be fast enough for any game of programs. I doubt you would see any gains by over clocking CPU or your video cards.

If you're asking me, my answer is to get more out of my hardware and also to learn the process....

Hmm.. As to above as Dzom said.. yes and no..

Overclocking your GPU will most likely lower the life span.. but only a little bit.. if it's a small overclock you should be ok.. Also there is no such thing as a 8600 GTX.. could you find out what cards you actually have?? I'm guessin 8600 GTS.. or 8800 GTX.. let me kno.

and as for the Q6600.. the Quad cores run great, nothing slows them down, or nothing slows mine down.. and they are beasts. But Overclocking is fun, you get good results, and it's interesting to learn how it all works and effects everything.. I have the Q6700 and it's OC'd to 3.33GHz I had it stable at 3.5GHz no problem but like John said above, makes more heat and 3.5 was a little more heat than I wanted.. so back down to 3.33GHz I went.

Will OC'n ruin your CPU.. yes and no, depends on how you do it.. First off, What motherboard do you have, as that will help us in deciding how easy an OC would be. Also Overclocking CAN lower the CPU's lifespan, but generally they are built to last longer than YOU are.. so if your careful, you'll be fine. the only thing that will kill your CPU is heat.. if you have sufficient cooling, you can OC that thing to 3.8GHz.. but thats a slow and dangerous thing to get done.

The general rule in OC'n is keep the temps low and you'll be ok. Also if you mess with the Voltage and crank up the volts for an OC, thats when you ruin your CPU. but Small to no Voltage change and a small increase is completely safe.. like mine, I'm at 3.9 with only a .50 voltage increase... and thats safe..

So it's completely up to you.. First off what Mobo do you have, and what graphics card do you really have..???

i do OC my kit for the same reason johngalt does, i know i could get more out of them and they are underclocked by the manufacturer to get what they deem as the most stable clock frequency but i don't push them to far as forking out for new kit is not that cheap if you do OC then read up about first and do it slowly no major jumps it's really easy once you do the research into it and i'm sure loads of people here can help too

You'd see a performance gain clocking your cpu to near the 3GHz range; however, in order to do so requires specialized hardware: a third party heatsink capable of dissipating the extra heat you're going to generate. Once you get your cpu to around that speed, you'll have removed any possible cpu bottleneck to the games you're running. At that point, it's all about the gpu.

As gunther pointed out, we're not really sure what video card you have? If you have 8800's in SLI, then don't bother overclocking. If you have 8600's in SLI, then you might see some performance increases in by clocking the cards; however, like a lot of guys here, I am leary of OC'ing my gpu's... because they're so expensive and because they don't offer the same kind of control you have when clocking your cpu. I would suggest when upgrading your video card(s), instead of getting two lesser cards, get 1 stronger beefy card.