I used to overclock, but I didn't notice much of a difference. 2 more FPS and slightly higher benchmark speeds aren't worth the added heat and instability, also voiding the warranty on parts (although, I think Intel is much more lenient of this than in the past)

That being said, with the OC potential of the new Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge stuff, overclocking is a pretty easy and worthwhile thing to do. I've seen guys do a 1Ghz overclock on air and still be well within safe temperatures. I guess it really just depends on if you want to invest in a good case and, more importantly, a good heatsink to go along with your CPU. It's not uncommon for guys to buy a $250 CPU, and then spend $300-$400 on a heatsink or water cooling rig to overclock it.

For what I do, a stock I5-2500k is fine for now, but in a year or two, don't think I won't invest in one of those ALC units to overclock the shit out of it. Because at that point, anything I can do to prolong having to rebuild my box is worth it.

@JoeBigfoot said:

@RIDEBIRD said:

@JoeBigfoot: Sure, but an overclocked CPU normally lasts a good 10+ years anyway. It's not going to instadie within a year. 80c is less then optimal of course, but it won't kill it. Especially not an Ivy Bridge, seeing as they run hot as fuck.

overclocking a CPU older than 3 years old should not have an impact on its lifespan, however anything post 32nm is gonna take a serious hit due to BTI (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_bias_temperature_instability). I'm not sure but I'd wager the FinFETs inside the Ivy Bridge would be even worse as the gate of the transistor wraps around and degradation due to temperature occurs at the gate oxide interface. Bone up your transistors, you bone up your on-chip SRAM you bin your processor

@Ravenlight said:

@Sackmanjones said:

I meant to put how could it negatively affect it

Since the people over at tomshardware are more eloquent, I'll answer with a quote and an image from this thread.

You want more air going out of you case than into it while maintaining the least turbulent direction(s) {i.e. pull air in front/side -> push air out back/top}

It's kind've a long read, but if you're interested, this seems relevant if you're interested in learning more about airflow.

That's actually a little wrong. They're correct on the idea of low turbulence but you actually want a higher level of intake than outtake. Reason being that you want to maintain positive pressure inside the case to prevent dust build up and also keep the ambient temperature as low as possible. Heat dissipation is less effective in a vacuum which is why negative pressure can have an impact on thermals.

Before there was a lot of benefit to overclocking especially CPUs, nowadays they are no longer the bottleneck they used to be, most of the time, so overclocking your CPU is kind of moot. (unless you are using something really old)

And overclocking your GPUs i would rather not do on principle that is probaby the most fallible component in the first place, produces most heat and is quite temperature dependent, so I would always rather get a better card then push the GPU.

@Ravenlight said:

@Sackmanjones said:

I meant to put how could it negatively affect it

Since the people over at tomshardware are more eloquent, I'll answer with a quote and an image from this thread.

You want more air going out of you case than into it while maintaining the least turbulent direction(s) {i.e. pull air in front/side -> push air out back/top}

It's kind've a long read, but if you're interested, this seems relevant if you're interested in learning more about airflow.

That's actually a little wrong. They're correct on the idea of low turbulence but you actually want a higher level of intake than outtake. Reason being that you want to maintain positive pressure inside the case to prevent dust build up and also keep the ambient temperature as low as possible. Heat dissipation is less effective in a vacuum which is why negative pressure can have an impact on thermals.

@Korwin

@Ravenlight said:

@Sackmanjones said:

I meant to put how could it negatively affect it

Since the people over at tomshardware are more eloquent, I'll answer with a quote and an image from this thread.

You want more air going out of you case than into it while maintaining the least turbulent direction(s) {i.e. pull air in front/side -> push air out back/top}

It's kind've a long read, but if you're interested, this seems relevant if you're interested in learning more about airflow.

That's actually a little wrong. They're correct on the idea of low turbulence but you actually want a higher level of intake than outtake. Reason being that you want to maintain positive pressure inside the case to prevent dust build up and also keep the ambient temperature as low as possible. Heat dissipation is less effective in a vacuum which is why negative pressure can have an impact on thermals.

Hmm interesting stuff. Well I already put my 3rd fan in and it seems to have solved the main issue of my graphics card getting pretty hot. Idk maybe 76c isn't too bad for a 7950. Anyway I've gone from an average of 74 to 76 on crysis 2 to a steady 72 or 71. It also cools at a much faster rate so I'll probably just keep it there

In my experience owning and building computers, overclocking is really more of an enthusiast hobby than actually useful.

Its more about personal challenge and saying "I bet I can do this." The improvements you are likely to see without doing SERIOUS OC'ing, requiring serious cooling and monitoring, are going to be incremental at best.

You'll never use a computer for its full functional life without upgrading anyway, so what does it matter if you reduce that slightly by getting more out of your components?

Currently my CPU is unlocked and slightly overclocked- as it stands I effectively bought a 3.2GHz quad core processor 3 years ago for £60, which is madness.

It's free extra performance. It'd be stupid not to do it.

Thats a decent card. I would wait until your not happy with the performance until you OC it.

@Sackmanjones said:

I was also gonna ask if I should manually set my video card fans. I don't think it's ever gone above 50% and I'm not overxlocking but I was just curious what you guys thought.

I've never messed with my card fan speed before. My gut reaction is to leave it alone because your temps are already fine, but if somebody else has has some insight to share, I'm curious, too.

@Sackmanjones said:

I was also gonna ask if I should manually set my video card fans. I don't think it's ever gone above 50% and I'm not overxlocking but I was just curious what you guys thought.

I've never messed with my card fan speed before. My gut reaction is to leave it alone because your temps are already fine, but if somebody else has has some insight to share, I'm curious, too.

@Sackmanjones:

As long as you're not breaking 100-degrees Celsius under a full load (IE: Running Crysis at max settings) you should be okay. Idle temperature will vary depending on the ambient temperature of the room but as long as you're not idling in the 70-80C range, you should be okay.

The tomshardware forums continue to be one of my favorite resources for hardware questions like this. If you're into reading more, this thread is still relevant, despite referring to the previous generation of ATI cards.

I usually only do slight-overclocks to my stuff. I don't want to risk any damage to my PC, but i do enjoy the extra 5 or so FPS it gives. For example, my i5-2500k is only overclocked from 3.3ghz to 3.7ghz. The 2500k can be pushed far beyond 4.0ghz before going unstable.

@Sackmanjones:

Yeah the only way you're really going to damage your GPU is if you're consistently pushing temps of over 100C. IIRC, ATI cards are rated at a maximum of like 106C or something, but only a madman wouldn't add an extra fan or better cooler at that point.

Ensuring your case stays mostly dust-free will go a long way toward keeping those temps down in the long run, too.

GLHB!

I overclocked once, but my MB could not handle it. I melted some capacitors around the CPU.