Potentially the silliest question in the world

Buggaton

Buggaton

Buggaton

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25 Oct 2009
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46
My teachers always taught me to ask my question no matter how stupid.

The not so stupid question:
If i'm interested in buying an i7 which claims to have "D0 Stepping for extreme overclocking" (a term I don't understand ; ; ) would I be better off buying a bundle which already has the chip overclocked at 3.8 or 4gHz or overclocking it myself given that i've no experience at overclocking.

The stupid question:
I don't understand the point of overclocking >.> why doesn't a machine just run at the fastest it can with the temperature being monitored and the chip slowed or sped up if it gets too hot? I'm assuming that's what throttling is but is it reliable? I don't want to fork out £200 for a great CPU that I then accidently melt.
 
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Buggaton said:
I don't understand the point of overclocking
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all cpus in a series run at a standardised speed so they can sell it as a specific model.

the point in overclocking it is to get the most performance out of your system - in the same manner as tuning a cars engine
 
they set the standard stock to a point where the standard cooler that coems with the retail version has good stability 30-50 for my standards. they allow you if you are an enthusiast to unlock this secret feature with bios changes. its a completely optional task but what you may get out of it may save you a lot of money instead of simply buying a new setup. overclocking is better in the longterm
 
Oh. I suppose that makes sense. Thanks

although why would someone fork out £100 more for an i7 and overclock it for 4gHz when you can do that with an i5? I guess that's more of a question about the differences in CPU rather than difference in clock speed...?
 
A1: If you want a well overclocked PC and don't want to go to the hassle of overclocking it yourself - getting the overclocked bundle is a good idea. However, if you are prepared to do a few hours of research and overclock it yourself - you will save some money and gain the basis of a new skill.

A2: All CPUs in a product range (and GPUs generally) are based off the same chip design (eg the internals of an i7 920 chip are the same as those in an i7 975 chip). The only difference is that the i7 975 chips may be slightly better quality chips (based on an intial test) and give them an unlocked multiplier. However, they are all effectively the same.

Intel wants to make more money per chip than the small amount they make for the 920 - so they sell the 975 chips for much more than the 920 and have them clocked higher (3.33GHz compared to 2.66GHz) - importantly, these speeds are supported by intel and are covered by their warranty and can be sufficiently cooled using the respective intel stock heatsinks. People who buy PCs from Dell and HP are not given overclocking options because they want to keep everything above board - and keep the warranties intact (also they get much higher profit margins for the higher cost chips).

Overclocking, however is done with specially designed motherboards with overclocking functions built in (it just so happens that all X58 boards have these as it is the enthusiast grade platform). When overclocked, the CPU produces more heat and requires more power - this demands a better CPU cooler and a motherboard with decent power regulation.

This is all done to give far greater speeds and general performance (as you see, i7 920s running at 50% above stock frequencies are commonplace) all while keeping the CPU cool, stable and safe. However, this doesn't matter to intel - the warranty is officially voided (though difficult for them to prove if a CPU is returned faulty).

So, to answer your question : Why aren't all CPUs automatically clocked to the highest safe speed? : So that intel can make money and so that the warranty is maintained.

I wouldn't say this is particularly unreasonable. Modern CPUs are made with overclocking in mind and generally overclock MUCH faster than stock speeds. Also, CPUs are generally very difficult to kill, so damaging one while overclocking is not a common occurrence.
 
rjkoneill said:
the point in overclocking it is to get the most performance out of your system - in the same manner as tuning a cars engine
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precisely, if i could give my car a 50% boost at no cost believe me i would, people overclock there cpu's for the same reason as rjkoneill said.

i do it for 1) the free performance boost, 2) the thrill of actually doing it, and 3) bragging rights, though mainly the first 2 :D
 
Thing is Intel is allowing chips to automatically overclock.

i5 750 goes from 2.66GHz to 3.2GHz by itself when needed for example. I can only see it becoming more common too. Gives overclocked speed but for most of the time, normal power consumption. Win.
 
Hotwired said:
Thing is Intel is allowing chips to automatically overclock.

i5 750 goes from 2.66GHz to 3.2GHz by itself when needed for example. I can only see it becoming more common too. Gives overclocked speed but for most of the time, normal power consumption. Win.
Click to expand...

This is desirable
 
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