OC Questions

Hi!

I recently got a new comp that a friend of mine built for me. He thinks I should OC it, but I cant see why I should do it ;p. I already run all current games on highest, so I dont rly see the point. Anyways, heres the specs and say what you think I should do ;p.

GPU: Zotac GTX 480 AMP
CPU: Intel i7 950 @ 3.07GHz
MOBO: Asus Sabertooth x58
Ram: 6g Kingston 1600 Mhz
SDD: Dubble F60 Corsair Discs.
HDD: Sata 750g 7200RPM.
Case: Antec 900.

I don't see why I should OC atm, maybe in the further when I can't play games on highest. But ATM I think im fine... What do you guys think?

Thx!

[DMPCo]

MEMORY
what volts are you running your memory at?
what is the latency of your memory?

CPU
are you running after market cooler?
are you familiar with bios settings and what each one does for cpu?

GPU
get afterburner

honestly if you don't feel the need i would not bother with it in YOUR case then.
if you want to push your pc to the max and learn something at the same time i would
look into some guides on your specific hardware to learn how to oc each piece of hardware.
also don't forget to STRESS TEST CPU, MEMORY and GPU if you overclock. i reccomend at
least a24-36hr burnin.

PROGRAMS
go HERE
a good start for programs you would need to test, monitor and benchmark your oc.

Don't do it man, your comp. is good enought

No need to OC that thing, they run hotter oc'ed and electronic parts don't like heat

No need to OC that thing, they run hotter oc'ed and electronic parts don't like heat

especially that GTX 480. you'll kill it if you overclock it.

If you do it, it's a waste of time and money

[DMPCo]

If you do it, it's a waste of time and money

now that is just funny.
to each their own i suppose

they run hotter oc'ed

true but oc'ing SHOULD ONLY be done when temps can be maintained.
who would do an overclock if they did not have proper cooling?

Someone who doesn't know what he is doing

[DMPCo]

Someone who doesn't know what he is doing

are YOU speaking from experience?

My cousin tryed to do the same and it was a disaster because he didn't has proper cooling

cooling doesn't have everything to do with it. I have a Radeon 6870, which runs at 39C idle, 65C full load. I looked up overclocking it, and found an article where someone overclocked it without any extra cooling whatsoever. I put mine at his overclocked settings, and the temp didn't even go up 1C. Went ingame, it crashed and the computer froze. you REALLY have to know what you're doing.

oh and, I agree with brownman. It's fine the way it is. you don't need to overclock it. To get better framerates, OC'ing the GTX 480 may help, but you would probably fry it since they already run hot as ever. and according to your specs for your motherboard I found at newegg, the best way to get better frames in the future would be to buy another GTX 480 and SLI them together. That will boost your fps considerably, and since that case you have already has 4 fans, I think cooling will be fine. Now if you ever decide to overclock your processor (there's really no need to right now) you would MOST DEFINITELY need an aftermarket CPU cooler like this one. VERY cheap for a cooler, and my friend at college claims his AMD Phenom II x4 955 BE idles at 25C with this cooler. I have the same exact processor as him, and mine is idling right now at 33C on the stock cooler.

[DMPCo]

buy another GTX 480 and SLI them together. That will boost your fps considerably

this made me laugh. thats like saying buy another hard drive and your storage space will increase

and since that case you have already has 4 fans, I think cooling will be fine

lol. WHAT...

well in my experience oc'ing not every part is the same. when you change volts, xpliers, core clocks ect. temps go up.
sometimes you have to change more than one piece of hardware for an oc to work tooo. that is why you stress test before
you start playing around with it. as for your 6870 catalyst has its own oc tool with a test custom clock button to make sure
it won't crash before you jump ingame. your 955 is an easy oc to. change xplier to 18 and you get an easy 3.6 per core oc
and will still b be able to use your stock cooler. by doing some basic reading and ALOT of trial and error
overclocking is alot of fun. this last pc took me a day and half to oc properly and 36 hours of stress testing.
now stock is fine but me personally i do not build a PC to run at stock (just like if i bought a suv i would notrun it at stock
because of the potiental it has ie bigger wider tires so i can climb the dunes). there are some manufacturers that factory oc and
sell hardware for more when all they did was set a couple settings from factory send it on its way. most hardware has wigggle
room for what it can be set at to get improvements. ie like theamd 955. you can pay less but get the speed as if you bought
the 965 by oci'ing it.

edit: 480 cards have a max temp of 105c. and can run under load at 90c with no issues
also how do you know if your temp did not go up on your gpu if it crashed? amd cards (only kind i own)run
at half their gpu clock settings when not in use and if your not using afterburner clcik auto tune in catalyst
to get your oc that won't crash.

Crim is right for the cooler master, it's a good choice