# does overclocking reduces your hardware's life span?



## raident30 (Jun 8, 2009)

does overclocking reduces your hardware's life span? just a thought...


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## MPR (Aug 28, 2010)

Even properly-done overclocking will somewhat decrease the physical life of an electronic component. However, physical lifespan is often much longer than practical usefulness. My main concern with overclocking is warranty -- "fry" your processor or RAM by overclocking it during the warranty period, even if it was defective in the first place, and it's up to you to replace it. That said, overclocking can often extend the useful life of an out-of-warranty processor. When the warranty ran out on my AMD 3700+ I overclocked it to FX-55 specs and extended it's gaming usefulness for another two years. Games sort of drive the enthusiast computer market -- the system could have probably run basic office applications until _I _died.


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## raident30 (Jun 8, 2009)

so sir what can you say about overclocking a 7months old phenom ii x2 555 black edition.. its still a virgin and havent been overclocked...


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

OC'ing does shorten the life expectancy of hardware but by an indeterminable margin.
OC'ing successfully is primarily dependent on the quality of the hardware being used.
Is your CPU lacking in desired performance?


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## MPR (Aug 28, 2010)

The black editions are made for overclocking, even so the AMD warranty essentially says, "Even if we make the devices for overclocking and provide the overclocking software, if you do so you will void the warranty."

Like Tyree said, is there a specific reason for overclocking (say to meet the minimum specs of an application)? There may be other ways to increase system performance without voiding a component warranty.

Your dual-core 3.2 GHz processor is quite sufficient to run most of the games that are out there today. If you want increased gaming performance I'd look at installing 4 GB RAM (if you don't already have this amount) and upgrading your video card to at least the level of a Radeon 5770 or equivalent.


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## Johnny1982 (Oct 15, 2010)

Overclocking puts added strain on your system's Power supply, so that is the first thing that must be taken into account and replace if it is a no-name branded model or low quality. Another factor is the aftermarket cooling required to get the best results, water-cooling is not always necessary as there are very good air-coolers that work very well and you'd want to try and keep your CPU under 60c under load, then your overclock should be ok. 

My last two rigs were both overclocked and the first one I purchased the wrong motherboard that has NO overclocking options and after using the CPU (E2160) for about a year went all out and got a decent motherboard and overclocked the CPU by 50% no problem with a Zalman CNPS7000c Al-Cu Cooler. That CPU is now in my dad's PC with no problems whatsoever.


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

yes it does however as said above it depends on the quality of your hardware.

My system has been overclocked to 4GHz for years but I do have the best make of power supply you can get, I also have very good cooling and I also take care of my system by regularly making sure it is dust free amongst other things.


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## Johnny1982 (Oct 15, 2010)

greenbrucelee said:


> yes it does however as said above it depends on the quality of your hardware.
> 
> My system has been overclocked to 4GHz for years but I do have the best make of power supply you can get, I also have very good cooling and I also take care of my system by regularly making sure it is dust free amongst other things.


Yip my I3-550 is also overclocked to 4,10ghz with a decent PSU and Cooling. That makes all the difference to a successful overclock.


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## raident30 (Jun 8, 2009)

my goal for overclocking is to keep my system for bottlenecking... because im upgrading my gts450 to gtx560(not OC nor ti).... i've already overclocked it to 3.8ghz from 3.2... you think thats enough to keep my system from bottlenecking? or should i raise it more to like 4.2ghz or more? btw my cooler is coolermaster hyper 212...


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## Johnny1982 (Oct 15, 2010)

raident30 said:


> my goal for overclocking is to keep my system for bottlenecking... because im upgrading my gts450 to gtx560(not OC nor ti).... i've already overclocked it to 3.8ghz from 3.2... you think thats enough to keep my system from bottlenecking? or should i raise it more to like 4.2ghz or more? btw my cooler is coolermaster hyper 212...


I've got the Cooler Master Hyper 212+ not sure if you're got the PLUS version or the regular version. It works great and at 4,10ghz at 100% OCCT load my CPU does not go over 60c. I recently also bought the Asus GTX560Ti Direct CuII Graphics Card and currently have it overclocked when gaming at 950/1100/1900 (core, mem, shader). It runs games perfectly at 1920x1200 at high to very high settings, even Metro2033. 

Just make sure to set your PCI-E freq to default @ 100mhz and your RAM independently to it's rated speed or closest to it.


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## raident30 (Jun 8, 2009)

Johnny1982 said:


> I've got the Cooler Master Hyper 212+ not sure if you're got the PLUS version or the regular version. It works great and at 4,10ghz at 100% OCCT load my CPU does not go over 60c. I recently also bought the Asus GTX560Ti Direct CuII Graphics Card and currently have it overclocked when gaming at 950/1100/1900 (core, mem, shader). It runs games perfectly at 1920x1200 at high to very high settings, even Metro2033.
> 
> Just make sure to set your PCI-E freq to default @ 100mhz and your RAM independently to it's rated speed or closest to it.


sir sorry i didnt get what you said about the ram to its rated speed... can you elaborate pls?


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## Johnny1982 (Oct 15, 2010)

raident30 said:


> sir sorry i didnt get what you said about the ram to its rated speed... can you elaborate pls?


If your RAM modules are 1333mhz set your Ram multiplier as close to that as possible. My Ram for instance is DDR3-1333mhz, but because of the overclock I have to set it at 1368mhz to get to the nearest of my ram standard, otherwise I have to set it much lower and make it too slow. Hope this explains it.:grin:


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## raident30 (Jun 8, 2009)

Johnny1982 said:


> If your RAM modules are 1333mhz set your Ram multiplier as close to that as possible. My Ram for instance is DDR3-1333mhz, but because of the overclock I have to set it at 1368mhz to get to the nearest of my ram standard, otherwise I have to set it much lower and make it too slow. Hope this explains it.:grin:












where do i change it sir? FBS/DRAM ratio? do i lower it or increase it?


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## Johnny1982 (Oct 15, 2010)

That would be the FSB/DRAM Ratio option, but yours looks like it is already correct and does not need adjustment that is if this pic was taken when the PC was overclocked already.


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## raident30 (Jun 8, 2009)

sir, if i overclock again or declock do i need to adjust the dram frequency again?


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

the ram speeds should be as close to its rated speed as possible. This is how you overclock properly:-

Set overclocking to manual (if your bios has this option).
Set the ram voltage to what the manufacturer states i.e 2v
rais the fsb by 10MHz save & boot into windows. If everythink is ok raise the fsb again by 10MHz again and boot into windows again.
Once you have raised the fsb by 60Mhz boot into windows an test for one hour with OCCT or prime95 whilst monitoring the temps You don't want to go over 60 degrees c.

Repeat the above until you get an overclock you are happy with then test with prime 95 for 7 hours whilst monitoring the temps.

You can do optional things such as raising or lowering the north bridge and southbridge voltages and also manually setting the ram speed too.

Heres the settings for my e8400 3GHz overclocked to 4GHz

ram set to 2v
ram speed manually set to 4-4-4-12
northbridge and southbridge at lowest voltages
cpu voltage at 1.218v
fsb set to 443
ram set to 1064Mhz (1066 rated speed).

My temps never get above 52 degrees or 58 degrees when its winter and all the heating is on. But those temps are only when testing with prime 95 or OCCT. during gaming my temps never get above 48


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## raident30 (Jun 8, 2009)

greenbrucelee said:


> the ram speeds should be as close to its rated speed as possible. This is how you overclock properly:-
> 
> Set overclocking to manual (if your bios has this option).
> Set the ram voltage to what the manufacturer states i.e 2v
> ...


are you on stock cooler when you were overclocking your cpu sir?


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

raident30 said:


> are you on stock cooler when you were overclocking your cpu sir?


no I use a tuniq tower 120 as my cooler. You should never overclock with a stock cooler.


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## MPR (Aug 28, 2010)

If you have a phenom II don't discount the AMD overclocking program. I've been playing around with the ET6 program and have found that it does a pretty good job. If nothing else, it sure saves you a lot of time if your goal is just to get a stable overclock. Of course, if your goal is to _learn _about overclocking and to just have fun seeing what is the maximum speed you can tweak out of your system then overclock through the bios.

Also, you might want to look into unlocking the cores of your 555. If you are lucky and actually have two locked stable cores you can essentially turn your 555 dual core into a 965 quad core with a core unlock and a very modest overclock. It's up to you whether or not you want to try this, Several people have had full success in unlocking cores but others have not.


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## raident30 (Jun 8, 2009)

MPR said:


> If you have a phenom II don't discount the AMD overclocking program. I've been playing around with the ET6 program and have found that it does a pretty good job. If nothing else, it sure saves you a lot of time if your goal is just to get a stable overclock. Of course, if your goal is to _learn _about overclocking and to just have fun seeing what is the maximum speed you can tweak out of your system then overclock through the bios.
> 
> Also, you might want to look into unlocking the cores of your 555. If you are lucky and actually have two locked stable cores you can essentially turn your 555 dual core into a 965 quad core with a core unlock and a very modest overclock. It's up to you whether or not you want to try this, Several people have had full success in unlocking cores but others have not.


i've given up on unlocking because of my BIOS not having the ACC features...


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## Johnny1982 (Oct 15, 2010)

MPR said:


> If you have a phenom II don't discount the AMD overclocking program. I've been playing around with the ET6 program and have found that it does a pretty good job. If nothing else, it sure saves you a lot of time if your goal is just to get a stable overclock. Of course, if your goal is to _learn _about overclocking and to just have fun seeing what is the maximum speed you can tweak out of your system then overclock through the bios.
> 
> Also, you might want to look into unlocking the cores of your 555. If you are lucky and actually have two locked stable cores you can essentially turn your 555 dual core into a 965 quad core with a core unlock and a very modest overclock. It's up to you whether or not you want to try this, Several people have had full success in unlocking cores but others have not.


Overclocking is best done through the BIOS, no matter what program you use, the BIOS will always be the best.


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

what he said ^

those programs only overclock to a certain leve and they dont take into account external issues which can affect overclocking such as ambient temperature, and how good your power supply and cooling is.


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## raident30 (Jun 8, 2009)

my motherboard has an overclocking switch or so it say, its like a switch to raise FBS. i tried using it but it well overclocking fails.. lol


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## Amd_Man (Jan 27, 2009)

You don't overclock the Phenom II Black Edititions using the FSB. They have a unlocked multiplier and all you do is raise the multiplier little by little to you acheive max stability and cooling. You can then use the FSB to tweak abit more out of her, but I don't touch the FSB myself.


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## Johnny1982 (Oct 15, 2010)

Make sure you're using an aftermarket cooler. You will not get a decent overclock with the stock cooler, that could be why your overclock failed.


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## Amd_Man (Jan 27, 2009)

Good point Johnny1982. The Phenom II X2's come with the crappy aluminum heatsink. The Phenom II X4's with the copper tubed heatsinks can overclock well as that's what I'm using.


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## Johnny1982 (Oct 15, 2010)

Amd_Man said:


> Good point Johnny1982. The Phenom II X2's come with the crappy aluminum heatsink. The Phenom II X4's with the copper tubed heatsinks can overclock well as that's what I'm using.


Unfortunately I don't know too much about AMD CPU's. I'm more an Intel guy.


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## raident30 (Jun 8, 2009)

Amd_Man said:


> Good point Johnny1982. The Phenom II X2's come with the crappy aluminum heatsink. The Phenom II X4's with the copper tubed heatsinks can overclock well as that's what I'm using.


So your saying that i can overclock a phenom ii x4 fine with just a stock cooler?


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## brobarapas (Sep 26, 2009)

greenbrucelee said:


> yes it does however as said above it depends on the quality of your hardware.
> 
> My system has been overclocked to 4GHz for years but I do have the best make of power supply you can get, I also have very good cooling and I also take care of my system by regularly making sure it is dust free amongst other things.


Is seasonic the best psu?


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## Johnny1982 (Oct 15, 2010)

brobarapas said:


> Is seasonic the best psu?


They make and manufacture the best PSU's out there. They are responsible for the Corsair AX, TX, HX and VX range as well as the XFX PSU's and of course Seasonic as a brand themselves. I've yet to see a better PSU than the 3 mentioned here, namely Corsair, XFX and Seasonic.


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## brobarapas (Sep 26, 2009)

I am not a gamer by any means so I don't need to o/c...but I do convert alot of movies from avi to vob files,,,would o/c convert these files quicker?


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## Johnny1982 (Oct 15, 2010)

brobarapas said:


> I am not a gamer by any means so I don't need to o/c...but I do convert alot of movies from avi to vob files,,,would o/c convert these files quicker?


I convert .mp4 files to XVID .avi files and I have noticed a bit of an increase in speed of the conversion, as the CPU only works at about 50% of it's power, with my conversion program it is automatically faster.


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## brobarapas (Sep 26, 2009)

what program do you use


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## Johnny1982 (Oct 15, 2010)

brobarapas said:


> what program do you use


WinAVI All in one Converter


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## brobarapas (Sep 26, 2009)

I could never figure out that program,,I use convertxtodvd


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

raident30 said:


> So your saying that i can overclock a phenom ii x4 fine with just a stock cooler?


What Amd_ Man said was


Amd_Man said:


> The Phenom II X2's come with the crappy aluminum heatsink. The Phenom II X4's with the copper tubed heatsinks can overclock well as that's what I'm using.


An aftermarket CPU heatsink fan is the better option for OC'ing to avoid problems.


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

brobarapas said:


> Is seasonic the best psu?


They don't get any better. SeaSonic is the premier supplier for PSU's.


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## brobarapas (Sep 26, 2009)

Tyree said:


> They don't get any better. SeaSonic is the premier supplier for PSU's.


So is seasonic better that corsair?how can you tell?can you please tell me why seasonic is the premier of psu,,


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## Johnny1982 (Oct 15, 2010)

brobarapas said:


> So is seasonic better that corsair?how can you tell?can you please tell me why seasonic is the premier of psu,,


Seasonic manufacture the Corsair AX, TX, HX and I think the VX series of PSU's that's why they are so good. The higher-grade quality of components in the PSU make all the difference.


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## brobarapas (Sep 26, 2009)

I've just read up on this,,,corsair recommend the Hx1050 for o/c,
Corsair Power Supply Units


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## Johnny1982 (Oct 15, 2010)

brobarapas said:


> I've just read up on this,,,corsair recommend the Hx1050 for o/c,
> Corsair Power Supply Units


They are all very good, except the GS and CX models, and the AX range is their very best and you will pay a premium for them. I've got the HX750w with an oc'ed I3-550 @ 4,10ghz and GTX560Ti oc'ed to 950 core, 1100 memory and 1900 shader with no problems whatsoever.


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## brobarapas (Sep 26, 2009)

jonny 1982 I have recently build this what would you o/c this too,,


https://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-CMP...3766967&sr=8-2

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-CMZ...3767008&sr=1-3


https://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-i7-2...3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1316635487&sr=1-3



https://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-CWC...3767135&sr=1-1

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-1155-P...3767190&sr=1-1


https://www.amazon.co.uk/Asus-GeForc...3767228&sr=1-1

https://www.amazon.co.uk/OCZ-Solid-i...3767289&sr=1-2

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Antec-Tower...3767540&sr=1-1


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## brobarapas (Sep 26, 2009)

sorry this is the cpu


https://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-Sand...8NOQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1316635669&sr=8-1


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## Amd_Man (Jan 27, 2009)

Johnny1982 said:


> Unfortunately I don't know too much about AMD CPU's. I'm more an Intel guy.


I'm using the stock X4 heatsink and overclocked to 3.8ghz and my temp as I type this is 34c. The X4's heatsink has a solid copper base with 4 copper heatpipes and they cool fine although the fan is a bit on the loud side, but not too bad. If your going for the max overclock then yes I would use a aftermarket cooler.


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## raident30 (Jun 8, 2009)

Amd_Man said:


> I'm using the stock X4 heatsink and overclocked to 3.8ghz and my temp as I type this is 34c. The X4's heatsink has a solid copper base with 4 copper heatpipes and they cool fine although the fan is a bit on the loud side, but not too bad. If your going for the max overclock then yes I would use a aftermarket cooler.


how much temp do you get?


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## Amd_Man (Jan 27, 2009)

The highest it gets gaming at max settings is 49c. I just ran prime95 for 15 minutes with all 4 cores at 100% and the highest it got was 53c. I did run prime95 awhile ago for hours and it did not go past 55c. My cpu's only at 3.6ghz here though.


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## Johnny1982 (Oct 15, 2010)

Amd_Man said:


> I'm using the stock X4 heatsink and overclocked to 3.8ghz and my temp as I type this is 34c. The X4's heatsink has a solid copper base with 4 copper heatpipes and they cool fine although the fan is a bit on the loud side, but not too bad. If your going for the max overclock then yes I would use a aftermarket cooler.


I've got my I3-550 oc'ed to 4,10ghz (28% overclock) on a CM Hyper 212+ and as I'm typing my CPU temp is 19c, okay it is quite cool now, but in games it goes to about maybe mid 40-50c and 100% OCCT load doesn't go over 60c. Very Happy with this "cheap cooler".


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## MPR (Aug 28, 2010)

I considered getting an aftermarket cooler but my 965 clocked at 4.0 GHz stays at 60 C on Prime 95 with the stock cooler. About the only reason to get an aftermarket cooler might be if you are trying to build a very quiet PC -- the stock cooler is effective but can get a bit loud.


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## gcavan (Aug 13, 2009)

Johnny1982 said:


> Overclocking is best done through the BIOS, no matter what program you use, the BIOS will always be the best.


I cannot agree. 

I have been using EasyTune on this (at left) and other systems for several years now and have never had a problem with it. True, it I'm not out for that absolute maximum OC, but am only looking for an extra little push for certain applications. It is possible to save several OC profiles for each of CPU, memory, graphics and fan speed and call them up in seconds without restarting. I do not need to keep the system OC'd when only doing mundane things such as responding in a forum but have it readily available for a round of Quake4.



greenbrucelee said:


> those programs only overclock to a certain leve and they dont take into account external issues which can affect overclocking such as ambient temperature, and how good your power supply and cooling is.


Other than not having to clear CMOS and start over after a failed OC, how is this any different from using BIOS. ET6 will run in the background and monitor temps, voltages and fans for me though it does not give a min/max as HWMonitor. I may also use it to program the Smart Fan feature such that CPU fan speed scales with the temp. 

I cannot speak for the other manufacturers, but Gigabyte has done a very fine job with EasyTune6 as had Asus with their AI Suite.


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## raident30 (Jun 8, 2009)

Amd_Man said:


> The highest it gets gaming at max settings is 49c. I just ran prime95 for 15 minutes with all 4 cores at 100% and the highest it got was 53c. I did run prime95 awhile ago for hours and it did not go past 55c. My cpu's only at 3.6ghz here though.


whats your ambient temperature there?


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## Amd_Man (Jan 27, 2009)

raident30 said:


> whats your ambient temperature there?


24c year round with AC on in summer and heating in Winter.


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## Amd_Man (Jan 27, 2009)

MPR said:


> I considered getting an aftermarket cooler but my 965 clocked at 4.0 GHz stays at 60 C on Prime 95 with the stock cooler. About the only reason to get an aftermarket cooler might be if you are trying to build a very quiet PC -- the stock cooler is effective but can get a bit loud.


The Phenon II X4 BE's heatsinks are alot better than Intels stock heatsinks.


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## Johnny1982 (Oct 15, 2010)

gcavan said:


> I cannot agree.
> 
> I have been using EasyTune on this (at left) and other systems for several years now and have never had a problem with it. True, it I'm not out for that absolute maximum OC, but am only looking for an extra little push for certain applications. It is possible to save several OC profiles for each of CPU, memory, graphics and fan speed and call them up in seconds without restarting. I do not need to keep the system OC'd when only doing mundane things such as responding in a forum but have it readily available for a round of Quake4.
> 
> ...


The only program I use to overclock is the Asus GPU Tweak specific for DirectCUii Graphics cards with 3 setup profiles that I created, cause evertime I reboot the card defaults back to stock speeds. CPU is all done through the BIOS on mine.


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## raident30 (Jun 8, 2009)

Amd_Man said:


> 24c year round with AC on in summer and heating in Winter.


oh well, the ambient temp here in the philippines is 30c average and my cpu temp on stock cooling has an average of 38c... kinda high for my current dual core...


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

OC'ing the CPU/system should always be done in the Bios. I'm in agreement with gcavan for OC'ing a GPU with the appropriate software.


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## Johnny1982 (Oct 15, 2010)

Tyree said:


> OC'ing the CPU/system should always be done in the Bios. I'm in agreement with gcavan for OC'ing a GPU with the appropriate software.


^^^My thoughts exactly.


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

Tyree said:


> OC'ing the CPU/system should always be done in the Bios. I'm in agreement with gcavan for OC'ing a GPU with the appropriate software.


exactamundo, I have seen too many people try to overclock the cpu/fsb with software through windows and things going terribly wrong.

I never overclock graphics cards so I cant comment on that.


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## Johnny1982 (Oct 15, 2010)

greenbrucelee said:


> I never overclock graphics cards so I cant comment on that.


I too was never a fan of overclocking graphics cards, but when I got my GTX560ti I realised I can actually overclock it quite far. My old HD4870 could only go from 750mhz core to 790mhz core and even at stock speed it ran too hot for my liking.


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

Johnny1982 said:


> I too was never a fan of overclocking graphics cards, but when I got my GTX560ti I realised I can actually overclock it quite far. My old HD4870 could only go from 750mhz core to 790mhz core and even at stock speed it ran too hot for my liking.


I have always bought factory overclocked cards but I hear these days with new motherboards with UEFI bioses that you OC cards aswell as the CPU.


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## Johnny1982 (Oct 15, 2010)

greenbrucelee said:


> I have always bought factory overclocked cards but I hear these days with new motherboards with UEFI bioses that you OC cards aswell as the CPU.


Mine is factory oc'ed from 822mhz to 830mhz (not much) but I can easily take it to 950mhz on the core. I don't think my mobo has that type of BIOS.


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

Johnny1982 said:


> Mine is factory oc'ed from 822mhz to 830mhz (not much) but I can easily take it to 950mhz on the core. I don't think my mobo has that type of BIOS.


no it wont. the UEFI bios is in the newest boards such as the ASUS maximus formula 4 and the gigabyte UD7. I have never used one but the interface is even easier than the original bios interface and overclocking is even easier, you dont have to change loads of settings. Settings are calculated for you when you change the FSB.


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## raident30 (Jun 8, 2009)

its like my msi p33 mobo. The voltages are adjusted automaticaly when i overclock..


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