The Official OC (OverClocking) Thread!

The problem is not entirely the VIA Chipset (though that is a major stumbling block) it's rather that:
1. It's a low-end system, so overclocking options are more limited and risks to hardware more significant
2. It's an old system, so not as good for overclocking, and also will not be as responsive to overclocking as it would have been when new

The PCIe X1950, while very outdated, is still comparable to the lower-midrange of dedicated graphics cards today, so it can still play some modern games without too much issue.

I can't say what Russ' PC cost him, but I think he runs a 9500GT, so he could play Starcraft 2 on high settings, but not maximum. Not without a fair bit of lag anyway.

Pretty shameless, but I'll direct you to the link in my signature
( http://my.afterdawn.com/sammorris/blog_entry.cfm/2255 )
My PC spec doesn't really fit in a normal sig, so I made it a blog post instead

To play Starcraft 2 (I don't know about Lineage, you'll have to look that up), you'll need a reasonably powerful GPU, but because it's an RTS, you can get away with a lower frame rate than other types of games. At max settings using the fairly typical 1680x1050 screen resolution, you'd need:
Guaranteed 10fps: Radeon HD2900 Pro/HD4670/HD5570 or Geforce GT220/8800GS/9600GSO/8800GTS (320/640) - all of which are roughly 70-100% faster than your X1950.
Guaranteed 20fps: Radeon HD4730/HD4830 or Geforce 8800GT/9800GT - all of which are roughly 150% faster than your X1950.
Guaranteed 30fps: Radeon HD4770/HD4850/HD5750 or Geforce GTS250/GTX260 - roughly 250% faster than your X1950. The Radeon HD5750 currently sells for $130-$150
Guaranteed 40fps: Radeon HD4890 or Geforce GTX275/GTX280/GTX285 - roughly 400% faster than your X1950.
Guaranteed 50fps: Radeon HD5830 or Geforce GTX460 - roughly 500% faster than your X1950. The Radeon HD5830 currently sells for $200-$220 and the GTX460 currently sells for $200-$230.
Guaranteed 60fps: Radeon HD5850 or Geforce GTX460 1GB - roughly 600% faster than your X1950. The Radeon HD5850 currently sells for $290-$320 and the GTX460 1GB currently sells for $230-$250.

It takes 60 for a game to perpetually be smooth, but that's pretty overkill for an RTS, which would seem pretty smooth even at 30. It would take regular drops below 20 for an RTS like Starcraft 2 to feel really laggy, but if you were a perpetual player, less than 45fps on a regular occasion would get annoying.

As you see, Starcraft 2 isn't the most demanding of modern games at max settings, but it's not as forgiving as older titles.

 

Mike,
Thanks, I like it a lot. I'm not a gamer, but I understand that with a decent enough video card that it would play most games in high detail quite well.

As far as what it cost me, it's hard to tell as it was bought a piece here and a piece there, shopping sales and specials. You could duplicate it if you can still find the motherboard, for about $1000. It's seen a 7750 Kuma 2.7GHz Dual Core, a 2.6GHz 630 Propus Quad Core, and the current 3.2GHz 955BE/C3. That's the nice thing about it being AM2/AM2+/AM3. It's already been upgraded twice, and I can still put a Phenom II x6 in it, as another upgrade. Being able to use my DDR2 1066MHz Corsair Dominators for all of them was a big plus. I do a lot of video encoding, and it will do most movies with DVDRB/CCE 2 pass in well under 30 minutes. I just did an 8.2GB 1080p rip the other night (Alice In Wonderland), in 27 minutes.

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Thank you to both of you for the great advice and honesty I greatly appreciate it. Just wondering is that Gigabyte mobo recommended earlier good for overclocking? how much juice could I squeeze out of it if I was running a quad core? also which quad cores do you guys think is better Intel's or AMD's?

 

That depends on what you're factoring into the equation. Performance? Intel probably every time. But when you factor in value/dollar, and what you're using the CPU for, E.g. encoding, Amd can look pretty tempting
Just my 2 cents

 

Agree, it's really a case of need/budget. If you can spend however much you like, Intel every time. If you need to be a bit conservative, or don't need that much processing power, AMD Quads are a good deal.

 

Oman7,
He was asking about AMD! For Intel he would need a new motherboard and CPU. He already has an Athlon 64 3600 socket AM2 Dual core now, so all he needs is a new motherboard for $50! The GA-MA74GM-S2 will give Mike all the adjustments needed to overclock (I know, I checked). He can upgrade any time to an AM2+ or an AM3 CPU, up to 140w.

Russ

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130270&cm_re=msi_770-_-13-130-270-_-Product

gonna chime in with that. good overclocker, supports thubans aswell.

 

Mike.
It depends on a lot of things. Intel is the undisputed speed champion, but the price is considerably higher.

The Gigabyte GA-MA74GM-S2 motherboard I linked you can handle any AM2/AM2+/AM3 CPU they make (I checked), including the Phenom II x6, so there's lots of room for reasonably priced upgrades down the road, and it's a good board to learn with. It gives you the following voltage adjustments: DDR2 Memory voltage, Northbridge voltage, Southbridge voltage, CPU NB VID control, and CPU voltage, which is pretty remarkable for a $50 motherboard. It has ACC (Advanced Clock Calibration) when used with an AM3 CPU. That's a lot of value for your Dollar! At stock speed it will run faster than your current motherboard is capable of with your current CPU.

Do yourself a favor and don't get all bent out of shape over sheer speed. Learn first, then gradually build what you want as the technology improves, and build to suit your personal needs.

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Shaff,
Not to be disagreeable, but the Gigabyte GA-MA74GM-S2 I linked Mike, I feel is a better board for $20 less. It has all the adjustments for stable Overclocking, and Mike doesn't have to buy a Video card. The MSI has a Via chip for the sound vs a better Realtek 888 chip in the Gigabyte, and the MSI lacks one of the most important voltage adjustments needed for a stable AMD overclock, the CPU NB VID Voltage. It also supports every CPU AMD makes, from Socket AM2, AM2+, to Socket AM3.

Russ

 

wow. All great answers and I can honestly say I feel right at home with all you tech guys =) (for once I dont feel like a nerd =) I remember playing around with the old school Intel Pearl mobo's when they first came out and I learned a few things about OCing back then. Although I am not a over-clocking expert I try to combine the information I have received from many computer technicians over the years. The problem is many technicians have many different opinions on what is good and what is bad and what you should or should not do. Its funny, one tech guy told me that VIA chipsets were amazing and on this forum I found out that they are not so great so I am slightly confused. Considering computer hardware has made tremendous leaps over the past few years going from 4GB of SD Ram to 16GB of DDR3 or DDR5 or whatever its up to nowadays I have fallen behind a little. However I greatly appreciate all the input from you guys and you all have some amazing rigs. I was checking out some of the specs and all I can say is wow. On another note, I hear a lot of people talking about this ASUS STRIKER board cant remember the model number but if you know what I am talking about is it any good? I believe it is a 775 socket mobo? (so an intel board)

 

by the way I never explained why I want a faster system so I will do so now. I am a gamer. Always have been and always will be. With that said I need a comp that can run StarCraft II, Lineage II, Star Trek Armada I & II, Star Trek Legacy, Star Trek Bridge Commander, and COD 4 & 5 with the most demanding games there being Star Trek Legacy and COD 4 & 5 those three games suck a lot of resources on High Detail. I want to be able to play them on High Detail without any lag. (key words there being "without any lag") what CPU+Mobo+VC+Mem+PS would I need to accomplish that? thanks in advance

 

don't bother for going with an LGA775 system. Its old and out dated. If buying new buy something current.

secondly, i don't know if you will find a working asus striker board, or any nvidia chipset 775 board.

thridly, what budget do you have in mind?, just the tower or monitor/os/keyboard/moouse as well?

 

I will be selling my current PC along with my other spare PC parts so I should have about 600 to 700 Canadian dollars to play with for a new system. I already have a good monitor which I am happy with and already have a keyboard and mouse so I am just looking to either build a new PC or buy a new PC which ever is cheaper and can play all my games

 

Mike,
Let me see. First you get a wheelbarrow, and fill it with money! LOL!! Well, you get the general idea anyway. Then in your previous post, you mentioned the Asus Striker motherboard and put that tic back in my eye again! Let's just say that the Striker was a problematical motherboard, to say the least, and leave it at that.

Seriously though, when it comes to Hard Core gaming, your biggest limitation is going to be money. You've looked at the specs for sammorris's gaming rig, so I'm sure you get the general idea. I'm pretty sure Sam and others will be along presently with some expensive ideas for you!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

lol good point Russ. Okay let me rephrase that. I want to buy or build a system with 600 to 700 Canadian Dollars that will allow me to play my games with decent frame rates. Is that possible? if so what parts would you recommend for that purpose?

 

Mike,
I'll have to refer you to some of our resident gamers, as I have very little experience with gaming these days. I like to watch other people play, but I have no interest at all in playing them. Sorry!

Russ

 

ok no prob Russ thanks for all the great advice. By the way if you want to check out my rig I just made a profile page and uploaded 2 pics of my rig. Just in case you were interested. Its nothing great.

 

Mike,
You will need to put all that text in lines if yiu are going to show it like mine. They only allow so many lines, and it varies from screen resolution to screen resolution. I thought of building something like that back in the socket 939 days.

This is my first AMD build after about 18 years of Intels. Due to a number of problems, this has been an ongoing build for about 16 months now. I ran into a buzz saw of bad AMD 700 Southbridge chips, and did an encore with the 750 chip. It started out life with a GigaByte 785GX motherboard with HD 3000 On board Graphics and a Athlon2 7750BE Dual Core. Finally after being unable to get a replacement motherboard from Newegg, I bought the 790X-UD4P. Like I said I also had SB problems with it too. It about drove me nuts, but I never got mad. I wanted to learn AMDs and see what AMD owners meant by "Real World Performance"! When the Athlon IIx4 630 came out I bought one and installed it in the 790X. Very decent performance for the money. I had to learn how to overclock an AMD for the first time without an unlocked multiplier. I could only manage about 3.55GHz, while others were seeing 3.8 or higher. I hadn't learned enough yet!

When the 955BE came along I was ready for it. I think I read almost everything on the net on Overclocking AMD Phenom IIs, mostly the 955BE. I've fooled around with it quite a bit, but my overall goal was 3.8GHz. I also had it to 4.1GHz stable, but it took more voltage to do it than I was willing to live, over 1.50v. It ran fine at 3.9GHz, but I still had to raise the voltage to over 1.42v, so I looked into the ACC in the setup to see what it does. I think I must have learned something after lots of failures, as I have the ACC turned on and set to all cores -2%, with the core control on Auto. I lost about 1200 MIPS, but gained speed in everything I did. By the numbers 3.8 GHz was about 97% of the performance at 3.9GHz.

Here's the CPU performance at 3.9GHz



Here's one I shot the other day to show bibwill68 at 3.8GHz



Even by the numbers, the performance is still about 97-98% of the 3.9GHz, and darn close to Omegaman7's 965BE at 3.9GHz. The biggest thing I notice is how incredibly smooth it runs. Then I ran DVD Rebuilder/CCE 2 pass on a known Torrent Rip.



This is over 3 minutes faster than it was at 3.9GHz. That may not seem like much until you consider that we are talking under 30 minutes total. No small file either as it's 7.6GB. This 955BE is an Encoding Animal! LOL!! I haven't had an encode of 30 minutes since. I think I have been rewarded for all the work, learning involved. Did I mention I Love My AMD!

Learn to google, and learn all you can. Be patient and don't get frustrated when things don't work like you want them to. Understand that you will have failures, and learn from them. Hey, I was 64 when I started this build, and I'm 66 now. It should be a fun experience for a young guy like you! Good luck with whatever you decide to build and enjoy the experience of what you create.

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Hi Mike, mostly paraphrasing what others have written, but this is my input on this:

Don't bother with a 775 board, they're outdated and the CPUs are expensive. The Striker boards, since you mentioned them, also happen to be about the worst motherboards ever produced. They typically only lasted 6-8 weeks before they had to be replace. Those who kept them for a couple of years went through almost a dozen boards (there are several instances of this going around).

For 600-700 dollars, an AMD is your best bet. It won't be a high-end gaming PC though, and it will struggle to run modern games on high settings fluidly. 800 dollars or so would make that a little easier, though to be able to run games like those you mentioned flawlessly on maximum settings would take 1000-1200 dollars.

 

Great advice guys. I will definitely look into the newest hardware to see what I can afford and what caters to my gaming needs. Thanks =)