Do you overclock your computer? Tell us about it

[Erik_Twice]

Overclocking is becoming very common among PC users compared to some years ago. Every card, board and disc now includes instructions to do so and being able to save some € down the line when your computer starts getting old instead of buying new stuff is always appealing.

So, anyone overclocking? Tell us about it!

[Niode]

Q6600 @ 3.6GHz stable. (stock 2.4GHz)
Radeon HD4870 @ 850MHz core and 1200MHz

[s1mplehumar]

Primary build as follows:

CPU = i7 920 D0 @ 3.8Ghz (stable), running on air atm

GPU = Sapphire Radeon 4870 1GBx2 in Crossfire @ 820/1000

Memory = G.Skill Ripjaws 1600Mhz 2x4 GB

I'll be putting together a water setup in the spring.

[Pulsar_t]

I usually overclock the GPU to get a few extra frames per second. I find no point in overclocking the processor itself since most apps don't require the extra oomph. Typical scenarios I can think of that would benefit from extra cycles

Rendering
Archiving
Video processing

Since I don't routinely do any of those I don't overclock.

[Niode]

I usually overclock the GPU to get a few extra frames per second. I find no point in overclocking the processor itself since most apps don't require the extra oomph. Typical scenarios I can think of that would benefit from extra cycles

Rendering
Archiving
Video processing

Since I don't routinely do any of those I don't overclock.

Gaming benefits from it too. It's not just the GPU that is doing all the work. Things like AI and physics all need to be done on the CPU (unless you have a physx compatible game and physx card). You WILL see an improvement in performance if you overclock your CPU.

[BoringSupreez]

How do you do this? And is it really dangerous for your PC? I've heard it is.

[Erik_Twice]

How do you do this? And is it really dangerous for your PC? I've heard it is.

Basically, you get more voltage in than your normally would, so you get higher speeds. This also increases the heat produced so you must cool it down better than a non-overclocked component.

Is it dangerous? Nah. You only need to know what you are doing, it's not made for casuals.

[Hatta]

I got an E5300 which was supposed to be easy to overclock. Never could get it stable though. I spent about 2 weeks, tweaking, rebooting, running tests, over and over. It's probably my RAM that doesn't like being run any faster. In any case, it was a huge waste of time and the default speed for even a cheap processor like this is plenty fast enough.

[Ziggy]

Awesome! Some one to talk about the 920 with!

CPU = i7 920 D0 @ 3.8Ghz (stable), running on air atm

Awesome. I have a 920 as well, not overclocked though. I never felt the need, this CPU is nucking futs! I figure years down the road, I'll pick up one of those 6 core i7's when they're cheap. Hell maybe by then, they'll have even more insane i7's out.

You got the stock heatsink fan on there, or after market? I had the stock for about a year, then swapped in the Cooler Master V8. It's pretty ridiculous lol.

Memory = G.Skill Ripjaws 1600Mhz 2x4 GB

No triple channel? I've got a 3x2GB setup right now.

I'll be putting together a water setup in the spring.

Ah, cool. If I was gonna overclock, I'd go with a water cooling setup too.

[Niode]

How do you do this? And is it really dangerous for your PC? I've heard it is.

Depends on motherboard. A decent motherboard will have options to allow you to tweak your FSB (front side bus) altering the frequency of that alters the clock of the CPU. There's tricks to it, like lowering your multiplier but raising your FSB can sometimes yield more stable results or lowering your FSB and raising the multiplier. Increasing voltage can help achieve higher overclocks at the cost of reliability and heat.
It's not particularly dangerous for the CPU as long as you pick a CPU that is well known for overclocking. For example I chose my Q6600 G0 stepping specifically because it was well known to overclock and stays relatively cool whilst doing so. Generally you don't want to overclock your CPU if you're using a stock HeatSink/Fan. They aren't designed to cope with the excess heat that overclocking generates. I have a Titan-Fenrir upgraded with the gold fan (it has more fins) from the latest edition and couldn't be happier. It was super cheap too (less than £30. £35 if you include the fan upgrade).
However you have to factor in RAM as well. Cheap low quality ram and unmatched pairs will lead to a non-existant overclock. You need to make sure you're buying RAM that can handle being overclocked, and you're buying them in matched pairs so the CAS timings match. Most (if not all modern) motherboards can deal with CAS timings that are different (after all it's just the time it takes to issue a command and get a response), but when you add in an overclock that leads to an unstable system, not to mention less than satisfactory performance.
Also, you don't need water cooling to overclock. A lot of people seem to have this misconception. Or that you need some crazy phase changing cooling system or hack a fridge apart and have lots of spare freon. As long as you are conscious of your airflow and make sure you have adequate space in your chassis for a beafy HSF then you can overclock (as long as you have the relevant components to do it).