Originally posted by: syconub
do you guys take any precautions when overclocking? ie:extra fans, new case??
Tons. That's why you will never see me fry my system. If it does fry it won't have SFA to do with me screwing up. It will be cause something failed that wasn't supposed to fail, like the CPU fan for example.
Spectacular failurs occur because people have egos the size of Texas and don't take heat seriously enough and do a halfa$$ed job of dealing with it while pushing a computer way passed its limits, usually without the lack of an AGP lock or the board that doesn't have a very solid AGP lock fails and has a cascade effect on the system that fries pretty much everything.
It's funny as hell to watch until it happens to your dream machine.
Some stuff I do include:
-Use a heat sink with as much surface area as possible with the largest fan you can possibly get away with on it. (XP-120 just came out that requires a 120mm fan)
-Use high quality fan with the heat sink that is not only relatively quiet but also an outstanding performer in its class for overclocking. (Enermax SpeedDial is aprox 95CFM @ 2300RPM @ 30dBA that is more than 8 times quieter than other fans of similar performance)
-Use high quality thermal compound (Arctic Silver 5) instead of some cheap pad that comes with a heat sink. (provides far better heat transfer and lower temps.
-Lap the heat sink if required (mirror finish) to allow for maximum contact on the surface of the CPU and heat sink. This results in far better heat transfer and therefore lower temps. (usually 2-5C at most)
-Allowing a "burn-in" period for the computer after everything is installed. This allows the thermal compound you applied (Arctic Silver) to heat up to the required temp (it's even in the manual). After a certain ammount of burn-in time (check manual) you shut the system off for 24 hours to allow for the compound to even itself out as it contracts from being cool. After the system is turned back on you should find the CPU running at slightly cooler temps because of the perfect setting of the thermal compound between the heat sink and the CPU.
-Use a full aluminum computer case. This allows for better heat disipation inside the case and therefore lower case temps because the case acts like a giant heat sink. This would allow you slightly better OCing and overall cooler temps inside the case, not to mention that full aluminum cases are very nice, tho not cheap.
-Make sure the fans inside the case are setup so they aren't conflicting with each other. You need a draft from front to back or back to front but don't ever have fans blowing at each other because it destroys the case temps and will cause heat to remain in the case.
-A case that has a fan at the top is a plus for full tower cases. Hot air rises (remember that from school?) and it is good to have something pushing that out of the case to lower the case temps further.
-If possible try to get the heat generated by the video card (newer ones run at over 70C) out of the case instead of allowing it to be blown back into the case. It is one of the hotest things inside of your computer and shouldn't add to the problem. Another reason why I like ATI. Combined with a VGA Silencer (Google it) you can lower the temp of the video card by 20 C and have the hot air blow directly out of the case instead of being blown into the case, although it steals one of your PCI slots to do it.
-Pick a motherboard that has a known very solid AGP lock. Without it you are flirting with disaster.
-For God sakes pick a very high quality Power Supply. Statistics for system failure due to PSU sits at around 18% while the system is lucky if you spend 5% of the systems cost on the PSU itself. The crap people use for PSUs is idiotic on a stagering scale. People spend $50 on a PSU in a $4000 system (or worse they use the one that comes with the case) and get upset when it blows or everything is fried or something fails that ends up frying everything or there is lots of instability or they are getting piss poor overclocking results. The vast majority of the time its the PSU. So spend $200 on a PSU that will simply refuse to fail and has rock solid current through the rails as opposed to the crap people generally use now. Even the usual brand name PSUs suck when heavily overclocking and a lot of heat is generated in the case. Get a PSU that is heavy enough that if you dropped it on your toes you would know your toes are crushed. Heavier the better quality. Personally I use PC Power and Cooling.
I'm sure there is more but it's 1AM and I'm a little tired to think of more stuff. I'll add more if I think of anything else later.
EDIT: I thought of more things.
-When OCing the CPU don't be retarded and suddenly push the FSB for the CPU to where you want to end up at without changing anything else. Just slowly up the FSB and make sure you up the RAM's FSB as well to match 1:1 ratio or underclock the RAM 5:4 to eliminate it as a possible cause of instability if your overclock for the CPU isn't working.
-Go very slow with adding voltage to both the RAM and especially the CPU and heavily test it out if you think you reached your limit. Once you reached your absolute limit, back it off one notch to where you were before to make sure you will have a rock solid system and be happy with what you end up with. People fry systems cause they are pushing it to the limit and leaving it there, which is just asking for disaster.
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