Any Overclockers Here?

[MrAl]

Hello there,


Anybody here do any CPU overclocking either recently or in the past?

I've read that the AMD Phenom X4 Black chip can be overclocked in some cases from
the stock 3.4GHz to 6.5GHz. That's quite a difference. Also, AMD supplies
a lot of overclocking tools with their motherboards now and there are options
in the bios too.

Comments or experiences?

[Externet]

Hi Al.
If nobody shows up here, try :

http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/

Miguel

[reloadron]

This link is an overall little tutorial on overclocking the processor you mention MrAl. They include mention of the hardware they used.

Personally I don't overclock simply because I have never had a need to. However, a forum I am active in has a section devoted to "Overclocking & Cooling". Therefore I have read somewhat on the subject. Extreme Overclocking as Externet mentions is a good source of information on the subject.

A big obstacle in overclocking is heat removal which generally involves going from a stock HSF (Heat Sink Fan) assembly to a better HSF and eventually moving from air to water cooling systems. Additionally while still using air cooling the case fans need to be improved as once we remove heat from the CPU we need to get it out of the case. Eventually the overclocking enthusiast moves to water cooling and working out the problems that can be associated with it.

Finally the overclocker is dragging home liquid nitrogen.

Ron

[MrAl]

Hi again,


Thanks for the links guys.

I dont usually overclock either but after reading about the new AMD stuff it became
a curiosity for me still more than a necessity. It is interesting though how much some
people have overclocked.
One of the issues i was wrestling with when i was looking at processors was to go
with either a 2.6GHz unit or a 3.0GHz unit and the price was considerably higher for
3.0GHz, and i eventually decided to go with the 2.6 gigger and since then was starting
to wonder just how different that little difference can make, so i overclocked a measly
10 percent and got up to 2.9GHz and now i can experience first hand that there is
so little difference that it's not worth it. I did some speed tests and determined that
Windows itself varies the overall average speed of an application a little anyhow so
the speed varies a little anyway, and even the low end of the timing tests (lower
means faster) has shown that there is so little difference it would make no difference
to the user really. Another way of looking at it is an application that takes 20 minutes
to run (i have to do some very long electrical simulations sometimes) on 2.6GHz would
take 17 minutes and 20 seconds to run on 3.0GHz, so the difference would be hardly
worth it.
I only did this because i wanted to see firsthand what would change, and for sure
nothing significant changes with that small 10 percent change in speed. I guess the
true overclocker guys (and or gals) try to push up farther, but that's not for me as
i dont think i would want to fuss around with water cooling (he he). I've thought
about it, but that's about it.
Oh yeah one interesting point came from this little experiment, and that is that the
temperature and watts used for the core stayed about the same, almost no difference
there either.

Another thing i found out during these tests was that there is a temperature sensor
inside the hard drive too. I've always known about the mobo and CPU sensors, but
wasnt sure if they ever built one into hard drives which i though would be nice to
have. Sure enough, there is one in the hard drive and it's accessible through a
program (free) known as CPUID Hardware Monitor (turns right up with a search) and
so now i can monitor the HD temp too, which i've wanted to do for a long time. I used
to stick a 8 dollar temperature probe into the case and mounted right on the HD case
but now i dont have to do that
What i have to wonder now is how they are accessing that temperature sensor through
software. They have a developers kit available but they want to charge for that.
It must somehow send commands to the hard drive and receive the results back.

[reloadron]

This is a good explanation of S.M.A.R.T. Technology and how the data is read from a HDD that is equip for SMART. A Google of SMART Hard Drives will bring up plenty of hits. I believe they use the SMBus (System Management Bus) to obtain all the data much as they use it for many of the temperature monitoring and fan speed control programs that are available.

Time to think about going to work.

Ron

[MrAl]

Hi Ron,


Thanks for the link, i didnt even realize there was that much to it these days.
I'll have to read more about this too.

Have a nice day at work.