Help me decide on overclocking

[starfry]

Hi,

I'm trying to decide on components for my new system and I am uncertain about overclocking and would appreciate some guidance.

I am the sort of person who would have no issues buying components and building a box myself (I have done this countless times) but I would pay for the 965 rather than the 920 and risk blowing it up by overclocking.

However, if it is overclocked by the pros at Scan I may think again... So, I have some questions.

Does overclocking shorten the life of the cpu or any other components ?

Does overclocking increase noise ?

Does overclocking increase the risk of the system failing ?

How much luck is involved here (i.e if two people order the same system would one overclock better than the other, or do they all overclock the same. I expect cpus come from batches of varying quality) ?

Anything else I should consider ?

I am not a gamer but I would like as much grunt as I can get. I plan to run several virtual machines on one big core i7 box to replace several physical boxes I currently have.

Thanks!

[Ph4ZeD]

I think you can expect to get 3.6-3.8GHz on a 965, as far as I know. Scan run Prime95 for 24 hours straight on pre-overclocked rigs to make sure they are stable, and you'll be 100% covered under warranty for that overclock.

[sleepyhead]

Does overclocking shorten the life of the cpu or any other components ?

Not unless you start whacking in great globs of voltage then no. I ran an overclocked AMD CPU for 7 years, most of that was on 24/7.

Does overclocking increase noise ?

Depends on how much heat is generated and how you intend on cooling it. If you use low noise, large fans then it won't really give you an increase in noise as long as the fan and heatsink (or radiator) removes enough heat from the CPU. It also depends on your case cooling as if you have poor airflow in the case, the heat will just sit there and your cpu just gets hotter and hotter.

Does overclocking increase the risk of the system failing ?

As mentioned above, I ran my old setup for years with no problems emanating from the overclock. All errors were user based software problems.

How much luck is involved here (i.e if two people order the same system would one overclock better than the other, or do they all overclock the same. I expect cpus come from batches of varying quality) ?

There is a degree of luck as no two CPUs or motherboard overclock identically. What is being seen is the Core i7 920 cpus seem to reach 3.6Ghz very easily on an air cooled system.

Anything else I should consider ?

I am not a gamer but I would like as much grunt as I can get. I plan to run several virtual machines on one big core i7 box to replace several physical boxes I currently have.

Thanks!

Well if you want several virtual machines at the same time, then lots and lots and lots of ram

[starfry]

I think you can expect to get 3.6-3.8GHz on a 965, as far as I know. Scan run Prime95 for 24 hours straight on pre-overclocked rigs to make sure they are stable, and you'll be 100% covered under warranty for that overclock.

I thought the 965 went over 4Ghz. What's the expected overclock on the 320 ? I guessed around 3.8 ??
I found this page hints at the 320 hitting 4Ghz!!!

Well if you want several virtual machines at the same time, then lots and lots and lots of ram

Hehe yes it will be maxed out with RAM. I think that means 12Gb at the moment.

[yupyupno]

@starfry

i recently bought a 3xs i7 920 system, this came pre overclocked at 3.6ghz, i've managed to get it to 4.1ghz prime stable, temps around 88-90c under load. 45idle

these chips do run hot, so do not worry if they reach 90

under gaming maximum temp was 75c so it is still on the safe side