Have any of you overclockers out there, after making the necessary modifications to overclock your machine and then firing up your favorite game, said "Oh my God! Look how damn fast the framerates are now! Cranking up the clock speed sure was worth the bother!"

:hmm:

I have done it.
It's a hobby for the greaser of the new millenium.

I personaly dont think it is worth the effort. I know people who have gotten these silly cooling devices that cost them almost as much as the CPU did.

But, some people will swear up and down how worthwhile it is to overclock your machine and nothing will change their minds.
And thats fine. I admit a certain satisfaction is derived from "stickin it to the man" and making the products they sell perform out of spec.. to BEND IT TO MY WILLLL!!!!!

but CPU's are plenty fast enough for me, so I just dont feel the need to void the waranty just to squeeze a couple extra frames out of unreal tournament, when im already getting frame rates faster than the refresh rate on my monitor.

Actualy yes I have seen the increase of frame rates, and a decrease in lag when I overclock hardware.

Right now I'm buidling a system specificaly for overclocking almoste every bit of hardware, form CPU, to RAM to Video Card, however the ATI 9600XT that I'm getting auto overclocks, or rather finds a "sweatspot" between clockspeed, and tempurature.

What I meant was just the CPU. I've never heard of somebody overclocking RAM or a video card. Actually, RAM doesn't have a clock I'm aware of (are you refering to the bus?).

What I meant was just the CPU. I've never heard of somebody overclocking RAM or a video card. Actually, RAM doesn't have a clock I'm aware of (are you refering to the bus?).

Any time you up the clock speed of a CPU you will see an improvement in the computers performance, assuming you have enough system memory to handle the additional data.

By overclocking RAM, I meant simply increasing the rate at which is transfers data.

When overclocking any peice of hardwere, you aren't making it do anything it wasn't designed to do, you just taking it out of it's "safe" zone. Where under normal cooling, the componant would start to overheat, and eventualy self destruct. Overclockers, use items that cool more efficiantly. It could be something as simple as using a heatsinc tha transfers heat away from the componants faster, to a fan that spins at a higher RPM, or any combination there of. Over all it's not that expencive to do, unless your taking it to an extream.

JAT...yes, he's talking about bus. People often 'overclock' the ram, by making it run at a higher FSB.

Video card overclocks are also quite common nowadays, even on laptops...

When overclocking any peice of hardwere, you aren't making it do anything it wasn't designed to do, you just taking it out of it's "safe" zone.

Actually, overclocking can indeed make hardware do something it was not designed to do. CPU's are designed to wait until all information at any particular state of doing something has propagated through all the gates, registers, etc. that it should. Underclocking guarantees this, but overclocking can result in logic or arithmetic errors as a result of not waiting long enough for all info to propagate through the gates, registers, etc.

Actually, overclocking can indeed make hardware do something it was not designed to do. CPU's are designed to wait until all information at any particular state of doing something has propagated through all the gates, registers, etc. that it should. Underclocking guarantees this, but overclocking can result in logic or arithmetic errors as a result of not waiting long enough for all info to propagate through the gates, registers, etc.
I don't think thats entirely true. Your actualy forcing the processor to push the data through all those points faster. I can't actualy tell the processor to not wait for it to do that. It's inharant in the architector of the processor.

Overclocking-
To run a microprocessor faster than the speed for which it has been tested and approved. Overclocking is a popular technique for eking out a little more performance from a system. In many cases, you can force your CPU to run faster than it was intended simply by setting a jumper on the motherboard. Overclocking does come with some risks, however, such as over-heating, so you should become familiar with all the pros and cons before you attempt it.
linky (http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/O/overclock.html)

you might also like this link (http://www.pcguide.com/opt/oc/index.htm)
It's rather old, but still informative.

overclocking is becoming more and more less cost effeicent. Now people just do it to brag. The CPU overclocking is just not what it used to be. Video and ram overclocking are still in their prime I feel. I love o'c my video card to handle these new games coming out.

I have done it in the past, there was a game my old Athlon 750 was not up for and would run fairly slow. After doing some cooling mods, removing the plastic case off the chip (Slot A athlon) i managed to make it run at over 900Mhz with no problems. I could get it stable 1ghz but it ran a bit to warm. But the increase from 750 - 900 made the game entirely playable and allowed me to put off building a new computer for another year and a half. My current machine is fast enough though so i wont over clock it till i am in need of some extra power.

Dr.

I don't think thats entirely true.
It was when I studied computer science in college.

There's nothing wrong with OCing if you know what you're doing.
I've saved roughly about $700 by overclocking. My system is 100% stable too.:shrug:

It was when I studied computer science in college.
Nothing I've read points to that. I'm not even sure if it's possible to tell a processor to not wait for all the data to get through all the check points. It's not like I have a softwere app that controls the the processor. When over clocking the processor, you do one or both of two things, you either increase the bus, are you increase the system clock, which is controled by the mother board. In doing so instead of each cycle taking 3 ns, it now takes 2 ns, or something simular to that.

I however could very well be wrong, and if someone would point me to sources of contradictory information, I would happily correct my knowladge.