Another Computer Build Thread
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 34,381
Total Cats: 7,504
From: Chicago. (The less-murder part.)
I've never understood overclocking. It's like buying a car with a puny little 1'6 engine and then spending a bunch of time and money turbocharging it.
Oh, wait...
Oh, wait...
Reply
1
1
Well I mean if you're smart you buy a 1G DSM and spend next to no money and get another 100hp out of it, reliably. Thats how you do it properly. My overclock that I run all the time cost zero dollar over the normal setup and took under an hour of tweaking an another couple hours of stress testing to make sure it was bullet proof.
Reply
0
0
Joined: Oct 2011
Posts: 5,717
Total Cats: 830
From: Detroit (the part with no rules or laws)
Right now, I've got about a half-dozen hard drives in regular service spread across several machines. A couple of Hitachis, one WD Green, two Seagates (can't remember which fish), and maybe aother WD somewhere?
Of these, only the newest (the 4TB Seagate) is less than about 3-4 years old, and all are in mostly continuous service.
For any hard drive manufacturer, it's possible to point to some specific generation of some specific model and say "look, these drives were pieces of ****, therefore I'll never buy from X manufacturer." Does anybody remember the IBM Deathstar? And yet aside from the 75GXP, IBM/HGST have some of the highest ratings on the planet for consumer-grade HD reliability.
Same goes for WD, Seagate, Connor, Maxtor, Control Data, Burroughs, pretty much any company that has ever manufactured a hard drive. You simply can't take past performance as an indicator of future reliability.
The last time I hard an actual hard-drive failure was around 2009, and it was a 1.8" Toshiba drive in my old Vaio laptop. which lived a rough life. Prior to that, I literally cannot remember the last time I lost data in a hard drive failure. It was sometime in the 90s.
Actually, I don't care one whit about AMD vs. Intel CPUs. I care about the motherboard. If Intel manufactured a motherboard that would accept an AMD CPU, I'd be fine with that. Heck, if AMD themselves manufactured a motherboard for their own CPUs, I'm sure it would probably be fine, too.
What's not fine are poorly-designed motherboards made with cheap components by third-party manufacturers that suffer from poor driver support, glitchy BIOSes, less-than-optimal design in terms of power regulation and trace routing for high-speed lines, and will probably suffer minor, trivial component failures which take them completely out of service in less than 10 years.
Of these, only the newest (the 4TB Seagate) is less than about 3-4 years old, and all are in mostly continuous service.
For any hard drive manufacturer, it's possible to point to some specific generation of some specific model and say "look, these drives were pieces of ****, therefore I'll never buy from X manufacturer." Does anybody remember the IBM Deathstar? And yet aside from the 75GXP, IBM/HGST have some of the highest ratings on the planet for consumer-grade HD reliability.
Same goes for WD, Seagate, Connor, Maxtor, Control Data, Burroughs, pretty much any company that has ever manufactured a hard drive. You simply can't take past performance as an indicator of future reliability.
The last time I hard an actual hard-drive failure was around 2009, and it was a 1.8" Toshiba drive in my old Vaio laptop. which lived a rough life. Prior to that, I literally cannot remember the last time I lost data in a hard drive failure. It was sometime in the 90s.
Actually, I don't care one whit about AMD vs. Intel CPUs. I care about the motherboard. If Intel manufactured a motherboard that would accept an AMD CPU, I'd be fine with that. Heck, if AMD themselves manufactured a motherboard for their own CPUs, I'm sure it would probably be fine, too.
What's not fine are poorly-designed motherboards made with cheap components by third-party manufacturers that suffer from poor driver support, glitchy BIOSes, less-than-optimal design in terms of power regulation and trace routing for high-speed lines, and will probably suffer minor, trivial component failures which take them completely out of service in less than 10 years.
I can respect your opinion on motherboards though. In fact i feel the same way. I had the old (first gen?) Asus "rampage" motherboard, and it was a pile. I think they got them figured out after a while though.
As far as overclocking an AMD processor, from my own experience it goes pretty easy until you need to start raising voltage. If the BIOS allows it even. If you can that's when i would see a good temperature increase. Rightly so i suppose.
Reply
0
0
Touche
Touche
Of course, I bought a 1.8 and don't really get overclocking either but...still, funny stuff.
Reply
0
0
You can buy a $250 CPU at 3.2ghz, spend 50 bucks on a cooler and overclock it to 4.0ghz, or you can spend $500 on an identical CPU factory overclocked to 4.0ghz.
With an unlocked multiplier its super simple, but I still usually overclock FSB because there is performance to be had there.
With an unlocked multiplier its super simple, but I still usually overclock FSB because there is performance to be had there.
Reply
0
0
Joined: Oct 2011
Posts: 5,717
Total Cats: 830
From: Detroit (the part with no rules or laws)
You can buy a $250 CPU at 3.2ghz, spend 50 bucks on a cooler and overclock it to 4.0ghz, or you can spend $500 on an identical CPU factory overclocked to 4.0ghz.
With an unlocked multiplier its super simple, but I still usually overclock FSB because there is performance to be had there.
With an unlocked multiplier its super simple, but I still usually overclock FSB because there is performance to be had there.
What BIOS?
Reply
0
0
Sometimes no money has to be spent. I had an Asus Radeon hd 7850 that came stock clocked at 860mhz. That thing ran reliably at 1150mhz without even changing the fan profile settings. That offered a huge performance increase, about 20-30 more fps. Later I got greedy and wanted more so I put an AIO water cooler on it, and can only get it to 1200mhz. Obviously the effort and money probably wasn't worth the extra 50mhz, but it sure was fun seeing how far it would go. I used that card for about 6 months, threw the stock cooler back on it and sold it for $10.00 less than I paid for it.
Reply
0
0
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 34,381
Total Cats: 7,504
From: Chicago. (The less-murder part.)
Me neither.
I just make surer that whatever I am working on is plugged in (the power cord is connected to the wall, thus establishing a ground connection) but switched off. I then make sure to establish contact with an unpainted metal surface of the machine before touching anything else.
At work, we actually have a couple of special IEC power cords expressly for this purpose. They have only the ground pin connected, but not the hot or neutral pins.
I just make surer that whatever I am working on is plugged in (the power cord is connected to the wall, thus establishing a ground connection) but switched off. I then make sure to establish contact with an unpainted metal surface of the machine before touching anything else.
At work, we actually have a couple of special IEC power cords expressly for this purpose. They have only the ground pin connected, but not the hot or neutral pins.
Reply
0
0
Joined: Oct 2011
Posts: 5,717
Total Cats: 830
From: Detroit (the part with no rules or laws)
Usually i'll try to discharge myself before reaching in and grabbing parts. I don't use an antistatic strap though, that's to much for me.
Reply
0
0
Junior Member
Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 459
Total Cats: 31
From: Jax Fl
Though I own an anti static wrist strap I dont often use it when servicing my computers. I do make a strong effort to hold on to a bare metal part of the case for a few moments before touching any PCBs after shuffling around on carpet though. I recently put together a gaming rig for my 13 year old cousins first computer and I bought him a anti static wristband to include with it. I think they are a good idea for those who are not used to working with ESD sensitive components.
My current rig is an AMD 8320 overclocked from 3.5 to 4.7 with very little voltage increase and a 220 FSB, it's cooled by a corsair H110 closed loop water kit. Very pleased with its performance.
My current rig is an AMD 8320 overclocked from 3.5 to 4.7 with very little voltage increase and a 220 FSB, it's cooled by a corsair H110 closed loop water kit. Very pleased with its performance.
Reply
0
0
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 34,381
Total Cats: 7,504
From: Chicago. (The less-murder part.)
On the factory floor, the assemblers wear wrist and heel straps, walk on conductive mats, use anti-static hand lotion, are forbidden from wearing certain fabrics, etc.
In the lab, we know how to not **** up. We do have conductive mats on the work benches and the fancy $800 ESD-safe soldering irons, but that's about it. Smart people who know the difference between good **** and bad **** simply develop safe working habits, such as always grounding one's self before picking up a component, and then touching the leads of said component to the mat before bringing it into contact with the board, etc.
You can do the same at home by simply treating the chassis of the computer as a reference ground, and exercising common sense. Eg: don't wear gloves made from rabbit fur and juggle amber pins immediately prior to installing a CPU.
Reply
0
0
