How dangerous is overclocking?

martin5454 · 1 Mar 2009 at 11:48

I know this must have been posted before but I couldn't find it, How dangerous is overclocking? Can you safely oc a system or does it effect the life of you components?

GJ02 · 1 Mar 2009 at 11:54

if i can do it martin, a monkey can do it
as long as you read the stickys in the overclocking and cooling forum ( above ) you cant go wrong

Grimley · 1 Mar 2009 at 11:59

Should be OK as long as you have decent cooling in the PC case & a good quality power supply.

reflux · 1 Mar 2009 at 12:00

It's dangerous, but it depends how hard you push your parts. An AMD Phenom II, overclocked to 6.5ghz under a mixture of liquid nitrogen and helium at AMD's press event recently, isn't going to live a long and healthy life in the real world, but a Q6600 overclocked to 3.5ghz for example will easily outlast the practical real world use.

The sort of consumer-level overclocks that most of us perform here will lower the life of our parts, but the general consensus is that we don't care if they don't work in 10 years time

Microwave · 1 Mar 2009 at 12:01

You can't answer a question like that. It's all so relative.

philip j fry · 1 Mar 2009 at 12:05

Overclocking is safe enough as long as you watch your temps and voltage's of what you are overclocking. but then you may come across a dodgy component thats just does'nt like it full stop so is a bit luck of the draw in that respect.
Have always overclocked my pc's and (touch wood ) have never killed anything yet.

martin5454 · 1 Mar 2009 at 12:46

Ok thanks for the info

WJA96 · 1 Mar 2009 at 14:33

I've always said to people - "if you can't afford to replace it when it blows up, don't overclock it" and I stick by that. I've trashed some kit, but more of it survived and some of it even survived volt-modding

CaptainRAVE · 1 Mar 2009 at 14:40

Just do it slowly, check here that you have the right equipment and it will all be ok. However, like others have said, it depends on so many factors.

jolie77 · 1 Mar 2009 at 16:58

Plenty of people no what they are doing on here so take the time to ask as many ?`s as you need !! the great thing about this forum is there is all ways some one willing to help !! Please take your time thou !!

jolie77 · 1 Mar 2009 at 16:59

Just to add there is a guide at the top of the page as well read through it all first !! best of luck !!

Tetras · 1 Mar 2009 at 17:11

Can you safely oc a system or does it effect the life of you components

Obviously raising heat and voltage will reduce lifespan but if you are sensible they will still last way beyond their useful life.

Overclocks that aren't purely for benching usually have a point of diminishing returns where to go beyond doesn't make sense.

jolie77 · 1 Mar 2009 at 17:22

Yer make sure you keep your eye on temps mate and buy the best CPU cooler is very important !!