What exactly is a 'good' clock speed?

[jayvee151]

What do you believe is a good clock speed, and what isn't? Does the extra 100mhz really make a noticeable difference in performance?

The reason i am asking is because i don’t know whether to buy a budget cpu cooler, acf7, or spend more (between 3-4 times more!!) on a better cooler, such as the tuniq? - bearing in mind i will be using a q6600.

I have read discussions where people say the arctic cooler freezer 7 pro isnt good on quads, and some where people have 'stable' clock speeds of 3.2ghz, which to mean sounds like a good o'c. However do those of you clocked above this notice much of a difference, particularly when gaming.

Thanks in advance guys.

 

[Ben M]

freezer 7= £17
tuniq tower = £35~

err...

and the arctic freezer 7 is really quite noisy at high fan speeds.

if gaming is your concern then a dual core is better than a quad- only buy a quad if you are actually doing things that will be faster with it (i.e. video encoding etc.)

 

[jayvee151]

u can get it for £9.99 delivered if u look around, saying that the deal only lasts til miday today...

i will be doing things other than gaming, such as video encoding so i do want a quad.

 

[HeX]

TBH past about 3Ghz you won't notice much difference.

 

[Greebo]

Obviously if you get to 3.8Ghz over 3.2Ghz then you notice the difference.

However, 100-200Mhz is hardly noticable and I would rather have a quieter but slower system.

I run my watercooled Q6600 at 3.4Ghz now on a 24/7 basis and just use 3.8Ghz for posting stupid benchmark results.

The difference is that I can have my system silent and cool at 3.4Ghz whereas the 3.8Ghz gets very hot and all fans have to be on full plus the addition of a fan on the northbridge.

So ultimately an Artic Freezer Pro well happily cool a Q6600 for 3.2-3.4Ghz use but not sure about how noisy it would be.

 

[C2Q]

If the ACF7 fan speed is limited (e.g. in BIOS/fan controller) to 85-90% it is almost silent. Quite a few people have their Q6600s at up to 3.6GHz with this fan/heatsink combo.

Mine is at 3.5GHz and I'm very happy with the ACF7. Save yourself a few quid and buy some extra 120mm silent case fans with the change from a Tuniq/TRUE

C2Q

 

[Pneumonic]

Difference will depend on the clock and how loud it is.. I can run @ 3.2 on my TRUE with just a couple of 120mm Yate Loon case fans running @ 600RPM (fans on the TRUE not going) and wont go much above 45/50c gamming..

The ACF7 in the misses rig (running @ 3.2) gets pretty loud (certainly a lot louder than my setup) if shes playing AoC or WoW etc..

The advantage spending more on a TRUE is a) you can chose your own fans which means you can determine the noise level, and b) as they are much better coolers even running at modest clocks of 3.2 / 3.4 ghz your fans dont need to be turbo charged ear drum busters (although they are ofc the best and most fun types of fans )

 

[Tetras]

What do you believe is a good clock speed, and what isn't? Does the extra 100mhz really make a noticeable difference in performance?

Short answer: a good clock speed is the minimum needed to complete the task. If you are talking about games then a Q6600 at stock be more than enough for you to get a decent gaming experience but if you are doing large renders then every 100 Mhz might cut a lot of time from a 5 hour render.

There is also what was mentioned above in a balance of quiet, heat and performance, usually there is a sweet spot but we can't say what is the best clock for your needs.

 

[Pneumonic]

Indeed if you are looking at gamming you wont notice much difference at speeds above 3.2ghz

 

[jayvee151]

thanks for the advice guys, well ive been at work today and didnt manage to catch the sale for the acf7 at £10, so i might get a tuniq. It may cost a lot more (but its better, quieter and sexier!) i think ill go for a clock of about 3.2 - 3.4 and hopefully it will run quiet

cheers guys