I'm probably asking for a beatdown....
 

But...Something that my friends and I have been arguing about is the purpose of water-cooling and over-clocking ones computer. I have been into building my own computers for a decade now, and I just don't understand over-clocking. In my mind I see it like using a u-haul for grocery shopping, like using a hummer to drive kids to school. Its cool, but I don't understand its purpose.
Someone asked me if I water-cooled my system. First off I can't, but if I could I wouldn't. I don't over-clock, and my computer never overheats. They are extremes I don't understand. I.E. my friend insists on using a CRT monitor, he insists that the picture tube is more responsive. He also refuses to use a wireless mouse.
I don't want to confuse water-cooling and over-clocking. You can defiantly have one without the other, but it seems that they often coincide. Ergo, to all the gamers that are probably screaming by now and reading furiously to finish so they can pounce upon me. Is over-clocking and water-cooling coming out of desperate necessity, or from a male egoist response to wanting the best.
I understand wanting the best, I browse the internet, and use aim on a really nice computer, so I was wondering what I could be missing. Why do you guys use it, and what for? Or it is a merely an excess?
Does the performance of the computer greatly change, what kind of damage does it do long term. What are the risks? Please clarify this for me, I would greatly appreciate it. I am simply asking this quite aesthetically, so please respond as epistemologically as possible without biting my head off.
~Thanks

*tries not to bite head off...* *bites it off anyway*


we don't spend all that $ and effort to OC for nothing...

sure it's fun and often more than we need, but more performance is more performance. For gamers, the extra lag that there is on a wireless mouse may be more of pain than the wire of a regular mouse. Water cooling offers 2 benefits to air, it's quieter, and cools better. therefore, people that want better cooling (usually overclockers) or people that want quite (everybody) would like to or do have water cooling. I would get it, but it's too expensive and too much work/risk for me to buy at this point, although recent heat has made my computer hot and loud, equating to me getting quite annoyed.

your friend is a little ignorant about the monitor, or just too picky..

I overclock all day long, but I run on an LCD... as long as you get a good one, they're plenty responsive.... i'm more concerned about eye strain from crt's.. + power consumption.. so, in the end.. if you have the $ for a leet comp and no want or need to OC then don't!

Yeah, what J25 said. I have mine for the overclocking, granted, I can't push the cpu as far as I want to because my video card is also on the line, but I do get a nice balance between the two. My video card is running comfortably at 450/366 while my processor is running comfortably at 2.31. I can play Doom 3 on high settings at 1152x864 and always stay above 30fps, and my video card is only 128MB!

yeah, id say quiet is a big one. for those of us who want the biggest and the best, to support or ego, well.. i would use phase change if i were to brag. about the CRT... i dunno aboput all that, but i love my Multisync to death. i was gonna buy an LCD like 425's tho, cuz my CRT heats my room, lol.

haHA! no HBD here...

Wow, thanks for digging up an old post....This was last replied on the 18th of August...

he and canon do that alot.. oh and for him: your welcome.. :D

and when I have the laptop right next to a crt monitor, and I use the laptop for a few min.. i look at the crt and it's all blurry lol..

Dear ManoftheMusic...

Have you ever thought people use their computers for more than just word processing?


My only question to you is..... Have you ever tried to OC before or will your Dell not let you....

hey now.. the unenlightened in the world think they're cool and better than us because they don't "need" to OC... and michael dell reaps the rewards... but that's their business.. we want to convert people, not alienate them.. The OC world needs followers!

Well, about Dell not letting people overclock, they have motherboards in their systems built by Asus, and not the ones with cheap chipsets either. I've personally seen the room for OC'ing.

Sorry man, but you have got to be looking at some bad CRT's. The most accurate picture is still found on a CRT.

For the most part, I'm in the same boat as you, manofthemusic. I don't need a very fast system, I'm perfectly satisfied with my (fast-for-its-day) Athlon 1.0GHz (my other system uses *gulp* integrated video), because I don't use anything that demands that edge. However, in gaming situations, that millisecond of lag can be the millisecond that you get shot in. All those milliseconds add up from various parts causing enough lag to interfere with a gamer's performance. With overclocking, the electrons move faster causing more damage to electronic components, ripping away at the life of the components. Heat has even more drastic effects on the life, with every 10*C increase of the average temperature of a component, the life of it is cut in half. Water cooling, with a specific heat of about 10 times that of air (meaning the same amount of water as air absorbs 10 times the amount of energy [translates to heat]), can help everyone.

i wouldnt mind watercooling just cause its stinkin cool! j/k. quiet is a great reason for watercooling. the last time i tried overclocking was on my K6-2 400, i got it running at like 420, but anything higher was unstable. it kinda freaked me out, so i set it back to defaults. i run a PIII 750 now, it is fine for me. i do webdesign (fireworks, dreamweaver), surf the net, and the occasional lan party with friends (coutner-strike, UT GOTY, it can even run UT2K4 Demo).

but if i ever get the money, and convince my wife its necessary, i would try some watercooling, then give OCing another shot.

later

if you get the money... get a new comp... forget the water cooling when you're using a p3 750....

and vee_ess you make oc'ing sound as risky as voltage mods...

for most people, the reduced life span doesn't matter becaus ethe part will become obselete before it dies

um. oops

um oops is right...

i spent an extra 50$ on cooling and i saved up about $450 of net savings by overclocking when i first built this comp im using
and now its so quiet too

worth it?
yes if you ask me

i play games much faster, be able to do a lot of things faster

computers are still slow
there are lots of softwares that demand the most out of current generation of hardwares and sometimes even $2000 cannot buy you a really fast comp that can handle almost all the consumer apps flawlessly

so i spend $1500 and then OC to get it to perform like a comp that costs $2000

yea.. nothing like paying $400 for a video card and right off the bat being able to bring it to its knees... :/

Dear Man of the Music,
lets think logically here. You are a Jr. Techie, you have never overclocked, u have 5 posts (woot woot) and u come into a Performance Computer Forum and ask, "Whats so good about overclocking?" Thats like walking into Cubs stadium and saying, "Go Sox!!" or attending the National Republican Committe as a democrat. So naturally all of us are going to be biased towards overclocking, but lets be smart here ok. Lets not just try to argue to get us all pissed off but maybe ask, "How do i overclock?" next time..

lets not be hasty either

gotta welcome new members!

:nod: :wavey:

:lol: not only is he (that guy) not here.. but I don't consider this a "performance" computer forum at all.. I was going to explain myself.. but I think it kinda goes without saying... 6 active members and guy with a 2.4c having the top 3dmark score does not = a "performance forum" .. this is a "pass the time with other bozos" forum.. just look at threads with the most posts..

LOL

we love forum whoring

why since most of the time you can OC without spending extra cash, why not do it

just a bit

exactly.. even though my 6800 gets up to 89 degrees celcius under load.. (which I should probably do something about...)

thats definately too hot dude

you can so cook a meal on that thing,...

pretty much.. hey, it saves me the trip to the kitchen! 8)

nah its not that bad, i got a 6800, 136 is too hott, CPU's will fry alot faster than GPU's

nah its not that bad, i got a 6800, 136 is too hott, CPU's will fry alot faster than GPU's


(and yes for the most part Techware is a computer performance forum)

you double posting slut... i'll call it a performance forum when there are real threads about real performance.. and more performance stuff is reviewed.. this is a joke.. some random water cooler and random amd chip every 6 months and that's all that's related to comps.. oh yea and lousy video cards..

I hate anything over 45C. We just burnt up an Xbox tonight. We were playing the Halo 2 leak and the box just cut off. The PSU burnt out, so we're ordering a new one off Ebay...

45c is paranoid and is nearly impossible on air, especially when OC'ing.. I keep my p4 below 55C and that's probably even unnecessary...

136C would mean a dead GPU...

my CPU is 34C at this moment
using enermax 92mm fan (taken from my enermax PSU) and mounted on thermalright SP-97

so quiet
and so effective
i have 2100+ running at 2.3GHz

thats like.. 3300+ speeds ;)

yeah hehe
except my CPU is a thoroughbred, not a barton
so its its only got 256kb of cache (L2)
not 512kb

oh haha, you must have a pretty hefty fan to cool that sucka

not really
92mm enermax does move some air
but i still consider it a quiet fan

i have a 120mm on the side window that is modded to around 5v thru rheobus

i think the key is good case airflow

my average case temp on mobo is 32c
but of course this is sensor location dependant

not bad..

I support oc, I mean you do what you need to do. I have a 3.6ghz h/t, I went the liquid cooling route and I have pushed it as far as 3.8ghz!, I run stable at 3.74ghz, Im sure if I spent some more time messin around I could push it farther. HEY WHY NOT?, I mean if you can, go for it.

Because youll burn out your CPU in a year and end up paying for a new CPU every year because you OC..

OC is cool, But not for everyone

***********END OF THREAD************
(And yes you asked for a beatdown)

nope... it's not end of thread until pro says it is...


another non-enthusiast comment... if you're even thinking about OC'ing, you're not going to keep the cpu/comp long enough for OCing kililng the age of the chip to matter.... the exception to that is if you are a freak and use crazy V-cores or do voltmods..

I have over clocked several of my past machines and past them on to family who are still using them today w/o issue (now running at stock speeds). I agree with Jason425 on this point, you have to really work a CPU to shorten the life of a Proc.