How do you acquire your good overclocking CPU?

[Hulk]

I've had quite a few overclocked chips over the years and I've never had a great, or possibily even a really good one. Well Ii guess I should also add that I'm not an expert overclocker so I guess there is a chance I've had a good one and didn't know it.

Just to go over a few. My Celeron 300A would do 450 but not the 48x or whatever some of them would do.

My E6400 was stuck at 3.2GHz. Which was a good o/c, but not great.

My 2500k would only do 4.2GHz under 1.4V.

My current 4770k will only do 4.1GHz with total stability while staying at about 1.25V.

Do you guys just happen to get a good overclocker or do you return CPU's until you get a good one?

I always seem to get a bad hand in the silicon lottery.

 

[Gillbot]

I've had quite a few overclocked chips over the years and I've never had a great, or possibily even a really good one. Well Ii guess I should also add that I'm not an expert overclocker so I guess there is a chance I've had a good one and didn't know it.

Just to go over a few. My Celeron 300A would do 450 but not the 48x or whatever some of them would do.

My E6400 was stuck at 3.2GHz. Which was a good o/c, but not great.

My 2500k would only do 4.2GHz under 1.4V.

My current 4770k will only do 4.1GHz with total stability while staying at about 1.25V.

Do you guys just happen to get a good overclocker or do you return CPU's until you get a good one?

I always seem to get a bad hand in the silicon lottery.

I think people that return them are unethical.

As for getting a "dud", I also think many people read inflated stories about overclocks and have unreasonable expectations.

 

[Torn Mind]

I think I have a 3770k that needs no offset bump to do 4.4, but I haven't ran IBT to consume all RAM since I installed the 32-bit version of Windows 7. I got it from Microcenter.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Its RMA fraud to return one due to bad OC. So dont do it.

Its simply a lottery. A best you can buy the Intel Performance Protection Tuning Plan and kill one and get a new in return. Its a one time deal tho.

http://click.intel.com/tuningplan/

But as such, you should simply accept whatever chip you get a live with it.

 

[Puppies04]

Well my first 2500K wouldn't go above 4.8ghz (which wasn't an issue) but my boss wanted a pc built and even though he didn't want it OC'd they had a deal on a 2500K bundle at the time so I swapped my chip and his. I've tested this one up to 5ghz and it runs at 4.2 on quite a bit less voltage which keeps it nice and cool even when it is flat out.

 

[DigDog]

My Celeron 300A would do 450 but not the 48x or whatever some of them would do.
normal
My E6400 was stuck at 3.2GHz. Which was a good o/c, but not great.
pretty good, idk what you were expecting.
My 2500k would only do 4.2GHz under 1.4V.
BAD LUCK
My current 4770k will only do 4.1GHz with total stability while staying at about 1.25V.
BAD LUCK AND TERRIBLE T.I.M.


I always seem to get a bad hand in the silicon lottery.

yep, you have not been very lucky, but you win some, you lose some. don't lose the faith .. and delid.

 

[RaistlinZ]

I've never returned a CPU. Just went with luck.

My 1Ghz AMD Thunderbird ran up to 1.2Ghz, which I think was pretty normal.

My i7-930 overclocked to 4.0Ghz which really good for air cooling.

My current 4770K will run at 4.55Ghz @ 1.250v so I'm certainly happy with that.

 

[Blamblooga]

I think people that return them are unethical.

As for getting a "dud", I also think many people read inflated stories about overclocks and have unreasonable expectations.

Unethical? Hardly. The chips are perfectly functioning when returned, so I don't see how "ethics" come into play.

Its RMA fraud to return one due to bad OC. So dont do it.

Its simply a lottery. A best you can buy the Intel Performance Protection Tuning Plan and kill one and get a new in return. Its a one time deal tho.

http://click.intel.com/tuningplan/

But as such, you should simply accept whatever chip you get a live with it.

So you're advocating ruining a perfectly GOOD chip, just to get another "roll" on the silicon dice? You sir, are a dolt.


Insulting other members, and advocating fraud are both not allowed here. And yes, returning a chip on an RMA if it doesn't overclock as good as you want is unethical, and cost AMD money if there is nothing wrong with the chip.

The insult got you an infraction.
Markfw900
Anandtech Moderator.

 

[TerryMathews]

Its RMA fraud to return one due to bad OC. So dont do it.

Its simply a lottery. A best you can buy the Intel Performance Protection Tuning Plan and kill one and get a new in return. Its a one time deal tho.

http://click.intel.com/tuningplan/

But as such, you should simply accept whatever chip you get a live with it.

Depends on the vendor. Its only fraud if you misrepresent why you're returning it.

Of course you know that.

 

[SPBHM]

usually I had average chips, the only good ones I got were from buying used already knowing the good OC potential.

 

[Puppies04]

Unethical? Hardly. The chips are perfectly functioning when returned, so I don't see how "ethics" come into play.

Because the chip is functioning within the parameters set out by the manufacturer. Returning a chip for this reason costs companies money and by most peoples standards is ethically wrong.

So you're advocating ruining a perfectly GOOD chip, just to get another "roll" on the silicon dice? You sir, are a dolt.

Intel knew what they were getting themselves into when they offered the protection plan. You aren't "tricking" them into giving you another chip. I know it seems weird but that is the way it works.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

You could always buy one, assuming someone had a good clocker they wanted to sell.

 

[BrightCandle]

People sometimes sell CPUs with overclocking details and that might be a way to get hold of a known quantity. Typically it will happen in and around the time when a new architecture is expected but its certainly one way to go about getting a decent overclocking chip. Also bare in mind you will need to pair a good CPU with a decent motherboard, they can impact overclocking enormously so if you aren't getting the right boards that can be responsible, although the D3H is pretty reasonable.

You can also buy, then sell the CPU if its not any good, its near new and with a slight reduction on retail price should shift reasonably easily on whatever second hand website you might be selling it on. That doesn't improve the odds that the second chip will be any better but it gives you a second shot at having something that will overclock reasonably well. You could also bite the bullet and wait a year for the refresh product, buy that (which will often bring some other benefits) and get a second shot at a decent overclocker once the architecture has matured but on the new process node.

But your overclocking expectations may have been set artificially high. It appears that Intel sends out golden chips to review sites. We have seen it with SB-E, with IB-E, with IB etc etc. What typically happens is they send them an engineering sample to test and it turns out that those samples often overclock a lot better than the chips sold in retail. Its not necessarily intentionally dishonest of Intel but when every site you see has a better overclock than you, then you logically conclude that your chip is the issue. The reality is that Intel made it this way to sell the chips, you are being decieved. A great example of this is all the ES 3930k/3960X chips out there doing 4.8Ghz+. Most retail chips do about 4.4Ghz, very few people get 4.8 Ghz. Yet all the review sites were stepping back from 5.0 Ghz...it just doesn't add up to the retail experience at all. The chance that happened by accident is vanishing small.

So Haswell on the review sites I have seen has been coming in around 4.3 - 4.4. You have 4.1. There is every chance that this is relatively normal, I haven't seen enough data points to really say how normal that actually ends up being (I saw another guy a few weeks back stuck at 4.2) as people who don't have good overclockers don't tend to talk about it. Based on Intel's history here its quite likely that last 200-300Mhz is from golden chips. I might be wrong, they might not have pulled a stunt this time and its representative of the average but they have done this quite a few times in recent years that I am quite suspicious.

Also you do know its not just about raising Vcore? There are other voltages that often need raising as well and you should look at an overclocking guide for your CPU to make sure you know those other voltages and what range they should be set at and what the resulting errors are if they aren't right. Just want to make sure you are doing it right as well.

 

[Hulk]

Don't get me wrong, I'm not upset about not getting a great overclocking chip. Of course it's a little disappointing but honestly it's not that big of a deal. As long as I get a chip that works at stock then I received what I paid for. Anything over stock is a bonus. I'm happy with my new 4770k. I am just curious about how other people are doing or have done.

Also I should add that my stability requirements are quite high. I'll run Prime 95, compress video, and just do all the other things I do with my computer, all at the same time. If it doesn't crash it's stable. It's a much higher standard than just running Prime or one app at a time I've noticed. I could probably get 4.2 stable with a little tweaking. And yes, I have changed more than the Vcore and read many Haswell overclocking guides. Tweaked ring voltage, uncore ratio, etc...

One of these days hopefully I'll get one of those golden chips.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

I just throw 100 passes of IBT at a chip. If it passes that, it'll usually hold up to scrutiny under 24hr Prime95 and/or folding runs. If it doesn't hold up under extended runs, at least you'll know that you're pretty dang close.

 

[JimmiG]

As for getting a "dud", I also think many people read inflated stories about overclocks and have unreasonable expectations.

This. You only hear about those 50+ % overclocks because those who achieve that will let the world know they did it. People who only get a 10 - 20% OC won't post about it on overclocking forums.

Ironically, my Haswell is the best chip I've owned for overclocking, though it took a delid to get there. At 4.5 GHz it's 29% above the stock speed and 15% above the max turbo speed. My Athlon X2 2.5 GHz did 2.9 GHz (16%), my Ph-II 955 did 3.6 (12.5%), my Phenom @ 2.3 GHz did 2.5 GHz (+~8.7%), my Athlon64 3500+ wouldn't OC at all and my 900 MHz Athlon did 950 MHz (+5.5%).

 

[ShintaiDK]

This. You only hear about those 50+ % overclocks because those who achieve that will let the world know they did it. People who only get a 10 - 20% OC won't post about it on overclocking forums.

Ironically, my Haswell is the best chip I've owned for overclocking, though it took a delid to get there. At 4.5 GHz it's 29% above the stock speed and 15% above the max turbo speed. My Athlon X2 2.5 GHz did 2.9 GHz (16%), my Ph-II 955 did 3.6 (12.5%), my Phenom @ 2.3 GHz did 2.5 GHz (+~8.7%), my Athlon64 3500+ wouldn't OC at all and my 900 MHz Athlon did 950 MHz (+5.5%).

Yep, thats a pretty good post to summom up reality. When IB came out, it seemed "everyone" got 5Ghz on their SB. But ofcourse they didnt. When Haswell came out, "everyone" with IB had gotten 4.8Ghz. With FX chips, seems like "everyone" gotten 5Ghz too. For GPUs its the exact same. 1300Mhz etc being standard on air and so on. And its nothing more than the vocal niche minority screwing up average joes expectations.

 

[FalseChristian]

I've been running my i5 2500K at 4.5GHz at 1.325v full-load for 3 years now without one single problem. And it's still a powerful gaming CPU to this day! My 2nd best was an Intel Coppermine Celeron (128KB L2 cache, .18m) 566Mhz that I managed to get to 875Mhz for a 54.6% overclock. Others were getting to 950MHz but I never could. That chip only lasted 18 months, though.

 

[blackened23]

People who return CPUs for 100 more MHz? LOL. What a waste of time. I buy one chip and that's it - if it overclocks well, great. If not, oh well. Returning CPUs for a better clock for the most part is RMA fraud, and aside form this it is a waste of time. Who seriously has the time to waste to play the silicon lottery while wasting 2-3 weeks doing continual returns/re-testing for 100-200 more MHz? For 3% more performance? People who do this aren't right in the head. I don't get it..

Whatever, I personally have better things to do with my time. Like actually enjoying my computer. Enjoying life, instead of screwing around the inside of my PC for a couple of hours and pulling my hair out by trying to pinpoint a stable overclock. Wasting time with hours of prime95. Ugh. Overclocking is annoying. I just spend a day every 1-2 years doing this, but I won't RMA chips if I get a bad perceived overclock...it's whatever. Losing 100MHz doesn't remove the enjoyment of using my PC for what it does. But if I get a chip that does get 100-200MHz? Hey great. But i'm not going OCD if it doesn't. Waste of time. Waste of energy. For minimal performance gain. I can't believe people would waste their time energy and effort for something so trivial - spending 2-3 weeks of continual RMA returns and re-ships for something stupid. 3% performance gain. People like this? Messed up in the head with severe OCD. IMO.

The only case I could see is if you're dealing with a retailer that considers a bad overclock to be a defective product. Yeah good luck with that. That's like 0% of retailers. But let's just go with the example...I could see binning chips if you were doing a competition where lots of money was on the line. An overclocking competition. With LN2 and the works. MAYBE it would make sense in that scenario. In every other scenario it's a complete waste of time for something stupid and trivial, without a meaningful performance gain. IMO.

 

[TerryMathews]

People who return CPUs for 100 more MHz? LOL. What a waste of time. I buy one chip and that's it - if it overclocks well, great. If not, oh well. Returning CPUs for a better clock for the most part is RMA fraud, and aside form this it is a waste of time. Who seriously has the time to waste to play the silicon lottery while wasting 2-3 weeks doing continual returns/re-testing for 100-200 more MHz? For 3% more performance? People who do this aren't right in the head. I don't get it..

Whatever, I personally have better things to do with my time. Like actually enjoying my computer. Losing 100MHz doesn't remove the enjoyment of using my PC for what it does. But if I get a chip that does get 100-200MHz? Hey great. But i'm not going OCD if it doesn't. Waste of time. Waste of energy. For minimal performance gain. I can't people would waste their time energy and effort for something so trivial.

Well aren't we feeling judgmental this morning.

Also its not fraud unless they misrepresent why they are returning, but of course you knew that.

 

[blackened23]

Why do retailers accept returns? Defective products. A bad overclock isn't a defective product. Period. By all means go to microcenter and try to return your bad overclocking CPU. And watch laughter ensue at the return counter. Ditto for Fry's. NCIX. Watch laughter ensue at the return counter. While they tell you go screw off. You can get away with it at amazon i'm sure. Because they're ridiculously generous until you abuse returns too much (which they will close your account). But let's say you do it - you're still misrepresenting why you're returning. You're not going to tell them "oh hey my chip overclocks poorly". That doesn't constitute a defect. You will lie to them, which is RMA fraud, which eventually catches up to you because amazon does smart up to RMA and return abuse. They do close accounts for abuse of returns, i've read of several such stories at other boards. But you can get away with it a few times probably, if you lie. But let's get back to whether this is worth it. Does 100MHz give you 50% more performance? Nope.

Does newegg accept returns for bad overclocks? No. They accept returns for faulty CPUs. A bad overclock isn't a faulty product. So if you return your CPU under the claim of being faulty, while it is just a bad overclocker, that is RMA fraud. They will still exchange your CPU of course, but anyone doing this is an idiot wasting their time IMO. They don't even do refunds on most CPUs because idiots are out there doing this nonsense.

That doesn't change the fact that people who bin chips without a financial motivation to do so (eg overclocking competition with money on the line) are messed up in the head. What a waste of time for a 1-3% increase in performance. Is that a productive way to spend two weeks dealing with RMA returns? Is that enjoyable?

 

[BUnit1701]

Well aren't we feeling judgmental this morning.

Also its not fraud unless they misrepresent why they are returning, but of course you knew that.

Please, show us the retailer whos return policy states 'we take back bad overclockers'

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Yeah, I'd like to shop there.

 

[TerryMathews]

Why do retailers accept returns? Defective products. A bad overclock isn't a defective product. Period. By all means go to microcenter and try to return your bad overclocking CPU. And watch laughter ensue at the return counter. Ditto for Fry's. NCIX. Watch laughter ensue at the return counter. While they tell you go screw off. You can get away with it at amazon i'm sure. Because they're ridiculously generous until you abuse returns too much (which they will close your account). But let's say you do it - you're still misrepresenting why you're returning. You're not going to tell them "oh hey my chip overclocks poorly". That doesn't constitute a defect. You will lie to them, which is RMA fraud, which eventually catches up to you because amazon does smart up to RMA and return abuse. They do close accounts for abuse of returns, i've read of several such stories at other boards. But you can get away with it a few times probably, if you lie. But let's get back to whether this is worth it. Does 100MHz give you 50% more performance? Nope.

Does newegg accept returns for bad overclocks? No. They accept returns for faulty CPUs. A bad overclock isn't a faulty product. So if you return your CPU under the claim of being faulty, while it is just a bad overclocker, that is RMA fraud. They will still exchange your CPU of course, but anyone doing this is an idiot wasting their time IMO. They don't even do refunds on most CPUs because idiots are out there doing this nonsense.

That doesn't change the fact that people who bin chips without a financial motivation to do so (eg overclocking competition with money on the line) are messed up in the head. What a waste of time for a 1-3% increase in performance. Is that a productive way to spend two weeks dealing with RMA returns? Is that enjoyable?

Amazon.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

If I buy a CPU or GPU from Amazon, after I've taken out of the box, tested it, voided the warranty with an OC (for the cpu)... If I contact them and say hey, my Haswell/Hawaii doesn't overclock as much as I'd like, can you exchange it so I can try another... They'll send me a pre-paid shipping label?