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Arkaign

Lifer
Oct 27, 2006
20,736
1,379
126
It wouldn't be 5FPS (60FPS to 55FPS) going from IB to SB, that's insanely huge. At the same clocks, it'd be more like 59.6FPS vs. 60.1FPS or something of that nature. As a matter of fact, an average SB overclock of 4.5Ghz-4.8Ghz will make things as fast or faster than most IB overclocks. If your 3570K stalls at 4.2Ghz without excessive volts, but your 2500K hits 4.6Ghz with fairly low volts, you're going to have a faster system with that 2500K.

Also where on earth are you getting your prices?

Micro Center is a retailer. The 2500K is $159, the 3570K is $169 (as of a week or two ago), etc.

mfg = manufacturing. Ivy Bridge manufacturing quality is extremely variable. Some are fantastic, some are terrible, most are pretty mediocre. They changed the solder-mounted IHS system for a much less robust system with questionable TIM. See the delidding thread, Intel basically caused a ~20C rise in temps in some cases (overclocking) by cheaping out on this. Delidded (no warranty of course) Ivy Bridge can overclock much better than an average stock Ivy Bridge.
 

KingFatty

Diamond Member
Dec 29, 2010
3,034
1
81
What about being very selective about when you overclock? Just leave the chip at stock speeds all the time, and then when you want a "boost" you can overclock.

Also, you mentioned lasting 5 yrs, well, why not just leave the chip at stock speeds for the first 2 years, then do a tiny overclock for the 3rd year to get you used to the idea, and then go with a crazy huge overclock for years 4 and 5? that way, if you do blow up the chip at the 4.5 year mark, you are almost ready to upgrade anyway?

I know personally that I tend to mentally decide that I'm "ripe" for an upgrade, even though I continue to use my old system. It's like flipping a mental switch - once you are ripe for upgrade and flip that switch, you can totally abuse your hardware and even try to break it with aggressive overclocking, because if you break it, that's just another step on the way to upgrading, and easier to justify the cost to your spouse. "It broke, I need a new one."

But also think about your past behavior - how long did you hold on to your chip before upgrading?

Also, even when I follow this routine, I've never had a CPU fail on me. I was very unforgiving but the CPU was stronger...
 

Arkaign

Lifer
Oct 27, 2006
20,736
1,379
126
That won't work, unless I could overclock it without a restart. And even then, it would get very annoying overclocking and declocking every half an hour... I don't think it'd be good for the CPU too.

No, I don't have that mentality, I can't - it depends on me saving money, and I save everything I can to be able to afford a new computer.

My past behavior was 6 years for both PCs without any overclocking. 6 years is about the period of time I need to save enough money for a new one of high-average quality PC.

Most mobos, such as the decent Asus and AsRock models, have utilities that let you control clocks speed from within windows.

Also, CPUs regularly adjust automatically for clock speed and voltage anyway, it's not bad for it.
 

Denithor

Diamond Member
Apr 11, 2004
6,298
23
81
One further idea for consideration - is there a used market in your country? There are some unbelievable deals available on various outlets here in the USA - eBay, Craigslist - you can sometimes find components (or entire systems) 40-50% or more off retail for relatively recent gear. If there are such markets for used components available to you, buy used for cheaper and plan to upgrade more often.

If that is simply not an option, spend a little more on a good cooling system, keep your OC moderate and you'll be fine.

EDIT: As an afterthought - I don't know what your current setup is like or how badly you need to upgrade. But Haswell is scheduled to launch in about six months, it honestly might be worth waiting until then before buying. Haswell will have a whole slew of new features built in that are not available on today's chips. And although it might take a couple of years for those features to be implemented, if you keep your setup for 6 years you might seriously be wishing for those features well before you upgrade next time.
 
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BD231

Lifer
Feb 26, 2001
10,568
138
106
I'm not an average Joe... I do video recording, video conversion, image editing, gaming, compilation works, sound-related works, uploading, compressing, decompressing, watch 1080p movies, and probably more stuff that I didn't think of right this moment. I do that all day, for over 12 hours usually.

My main priority for the resource utilization, however, is still gaming rather than lower time of encoding, etc..

Then id stick to default voltage overclocking and only go one step over. If u get stuck at 4ghz you shouldnt need much extra voltage at all to reach 4.2 to 4.3 (on sandy anyway). Cpus are definitely not the tanks they used to be but with the lack of competition intel has been conservative with clocks.
 

Denithor

Diamond Member
Apr 11, 2004
6,298
23
81
Well, that pretty much sucks because IB is the end of the line for socket 1155. So you won't even be able to upgrade just your cpu in 2-3 years to a more powerful chip (which would be an option if you waited for Haswell).

Also, reviews really do show up pretty much instantly, all the review sites have the new chips in-house for testing well in advance of the launch date and are prevented from releasing their results by NDA with Intel. The info comes out usually just before launch (helps to hype things up and get sales moving).

EDIT: What kind of system do you have currently? CPU/GPU/RAM/PSU are the major parts of interest. Do you have an SSD already or not? Perhaps we could suggest some relatively minor upgrades that would help you limp along until Haswell comes out.
 

jacktesterson

Diamond Member
Sep 28, 2001
5,493
3
81
2500k here on a cheap model P67 board since launch, running at 1.4v 24/7 @ 4.5 GHz

Never a hiccup.
 

cytg111

Lifer
Mar 17, 2008
26,860
16,123
136
cant find the thread right now, but a few months back someone posted some statistics on datacorruption vs overclocks ... interresting read, wish i'd bookmarked/saved it ..