Vista - overclocking noob questions

currently, im running my proc at 3.6Hz with 1.456V. are there any negative side affects of "overvolting" the CPU like that? short and long term. plz post! =)

You bet. short term reliability, BSOD's, etc. Long term for every 1% increase un performance you loose 1% of the componenets life span. They are designed to run at a certain voltage not more. As one of the ppl who debugs crash files here about half are related to overclocking, undervolting, etc

Ken J

thx man. one question, whats undervolting?

The opposite of overvolting

"Undervolting" is when you supply less voltage than the manufacturers specs for any chip to run at stock speeds.

The two biggest chip killers are excess voltage and heat (in that order)

Every CPU has a 'maximum safe voltage value' before degradation occurs. Exceding the max 'safe' voltage is a quick way to kill your chip. However if you keep within those values, you can be 'relatively safe' when o/cing.

It depends on how long you plan to keep your current hardware. Most Overclockers tend to replace there h/ware more often than others.

Overclocking is part science, part art and part luck

are you telling us that you overclocked and overvolted your cpu with absolutely no knowlage of overclocking? are you having a laugh????


If you knew anything about overclocking you wouldnt be asking that question , stop it now

how did you do it? third party app? your bios?

Higher voltages = higher temps , too much voltage = fried CPU

what did you use to test the stability of your overclock? what temperatures did your cores get up too?

yea, i OC'ed without much knowledge. i just knew that the higher the multiplier goes, the higher the voltage needs to be.

as for programs, i used CPU-Z, AMD Overdrive (to monitor my temps), and Prime95 (i heard its used to test stability)

as far as stability goes, i had to go back to 3.4GHz on 1.4V.
3.6GHz was apparently too much for the CPU and it crashed in the first few minutes of Prime95 =(

dude i'm jealous.... i want one of those cpu's... haha

nah.... get intel. overclocked AMDs are the equivalent to stock intels. thats how good they are.

who told you that? look at the overclock in my sig , thats at stock voltage



how do you know it was too much for the cpu? it could have been your ram , your fsb , your northbridge..............do some more research i demand it!!

really though mate your gonna fry that cpu if your not carefull

at least you got prime 95 , remember 8 hours blended tests maximum stress , then you'll know its stable

you didnt mention yor load temps , and what cooling are you using? your not still on the stock HS and fan are you

Well... 8hrs is a good indication - 24hrs is better - even then it's not a 100% guarantee

(I have turned the air blue several times after P95 crashes/workers stopping at 9hrs+ )

Seriously though, do as Archie says and research this more.