Who uses OC Programs and Who uses the BIOS??

[Antec-User]

OK.. I'm starting to get suspicious of some people who hit these crazy numbers.

First of all, I'm not trying to start anything..

I see some of the programs as cheating because booting and loading windows is a lot for a system to do.. Cranking the clock up at idle is something else. -Like revving a car up in neutral. Benchmark clocks are one thing though, I can say I've hit 4g with this now, but it was nowhere NEAR stable... I've been trying to hit 4g for a while now, pssh I'd be happy with a bootable and somewhat stable 3.9g. I decided to try out the advanced version of AMD overdrive and I got to 4.002g no problem but the computer didn't like it and BSOD'd about a minute later.

Anyway.. I disabled that clock and went back into my BIOS and set everything back up again, but this time with less voltage to the NB and lowered the NB Mult to 10, raised the HT link speed to 1.2g... Here I am sitting comfortably @ 3.6g with no real issues.. Now granted 3.6g can be achieved on air, but I've also read that the board has more to do with OCing than the chip does... Which almost goes with out saying.. I'm on a 790gx NB board. Not TOP DOG, but not a slacker either..


-=Who here is using a program and who is using the BIOS??? I'll throw a poll up there just for haha's.

 

[yzmxer608]

I use AMD Overdrive. I would OC through the BIOS if I could but the BIOS for my board sucks for overclocking.

 

[Antec-User]

^ oh, you're good do0d.. 3.9 is a reasonable number and come to think of it I never even considered boards that have little OCing options. I like LINx because it shows stability..

 

[yzmxer608]

Yeah, LinX is a lot better than Prime95 for stability. Now that I've used LinX and have seen what it can do, I will definitely use that for stress testing over Prime.

One thing that OCing through programs "cheats" on is having the clock in a working OS environment already. Unlike through the BIOS that has to start the OS then you are able to do whatever. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing I really don't know. The advantage is you can start testing the clock right away instead of waiting for the system to boot up, but the disadvantage is that it's not changing anything in the BIOS, so none of the settings are saved, or are actually truly saying what is happening.

 

[Luke]

bios...i got to 4.2on air today, stable, but the temps were wau to high, just about max...right now im stable 3.6 with load max temps at about 80-83. anything over 3.6 it seems i get to high of temps, mid to high 80's, some times even 90s. Think i might have some v's higher then necessary,

 

[yzmxer608]

Woah, mid 80's, that's pretty crazy. I don't feel comfortable with anything over 55 really, but I think the PII's have a lower max temp, don't they?

 

[Luke]

^by what i have read, the max really you want a core i7 for daily use is 85ish, right now i am at that for 3.6. I would really like it to be under 80c though, but i need to tweak the voltages a bit to get it any lower. But in game the temps never get that high, only when stress testing.

 

[yzmxer608]

What are you using for cooling?

Tried some more oc'ing tonight. Haven't been able to get anything above 4GHz stable in LinX . I would really like to do watercooling on my system, would be fun modding a 360 or 480 rad on this cm690 .

 

[hikaricloud]

I've always used BIOS. 4.116ghz or so was my highest with BIOS and current hardware.

Only recently did I try using an "OC program". Now I've hit 4.216ghz using K10stat for SuperPI, but if you think it's cheating, think again...it takes some serious luck to get a SuperPI done without error, open up cpu-z, screencap, open paint, paste and save before it crashes. WAY difficult. 4.216 is so unstable it dies anywhere from 5 to 30 seconds after I hit it. Depending on my luck. Not to mention just to make sure I have enough voltage to run it in the first place I have to boot with a higher voltage than needed for a lower OC...which makes my computer not happy.

 

[Burn]

BIOS for 24/7 settings and testing potential 24/7 settings... Program for SuperPi suicide runs

What are you using for cooling?

Tried some more oc'ing tonight. Haven't been able to get anything above 4GHz stable in LinX . I would really like to do watercooling on my system, would be fun modding a 360 or 480 rad on this cm690 .

What do you use your computer for? The world isn't going to end just because you aren't LinX stable. For a 24/7 stable OC, I do not use a program like LinX or Prime, unless what my computer does 24/7 involves heavy CPU usage. I do not think "Stable" should be defined as passing LinX or Prime, rather being able to run your selected settings without crashing or locking up for what you use your computer for.

Just my opinion...

interesting read (for me at least)
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=238966