Overclocking Hall of Fame

[poofyhairguy]

If there was such a thing as the Overclocking Hall of Fame, what CPUs would go in it? Here is my list so far (all Intel not on purpose) of CPUs that once overclocked turned into beasts that far outlasted competing chips:

-Celeron 300A
-Q6600
-2500K

What should be added?

 

[BonzaiDuck]

If there was such a thing as the Overclocking Hall of Fame, what CPUs would go in it? Here is my list so far (all Intel not on purpose) of CPUs that once overclocked turned into beasts that far outlasted competing chips:

-Celeron 300A
-Q6600
-2500K

What should be added?

Q6600 notwithstanding, I thought the E8600 was pretty phenomenal even for a C2D Wolfdale.

Yesitwas . . . . yesitwas . . .

 

[poofyhairguy]

Q6600 notwithstanding, I thought the E8600 was pretty phenomenal even for a C2D Wolfdale.

I thought about putting the E6600 on the list, as early Conroes could overclock nearly as well as Wolfdales. That is 2008-level performance in 2006.

 

[exar333]

AthlonXP-M Barton.

 

[MongGrel]

I'd agree on the Q6600.

I7 920 was good for the little ah heck also, I never owned the other two.

I still think the current L5639/X5650 etc do pretty good for what they are, using a few variants in what the 920's were in.

Not phenomenal, but pretty nice upgrades on an old chipset/socket.

 

[exar333]

I'd agree on the Q6600.

I7 920 was good for the little ah heck also, I never owned the other two.

I still think the current X5650 etc do pretty good for what they are, using a few variants in what the 920's were in.

Not phenomenal, but pretty nice upgrades on an old chipset/socket.

Considering this released almost 7 years ago and is STILL a decent gaming CPU speaks volumes.

+1 for the i7 920.

 

[MrTeal]

E2140 was pretty phenomenal as well as a budget CPU, close to 100% overclocks on the table there.
Not exactly the same, but some of the Sargas Semprons were outstanding if you could unlock them to a dual core and then go from 2.7GHz to 3.5GHz+

 

[poofyhairguy]

E2140 was pretty phenomenal as well as a budget CPU, close to 100% overclocks on the table there.

Part of it is the lower clocks it has. It is almost like overclocking cheating. I would think something like a Intel Pentium G3258 would get on the list first.

Not exactly the same, but some of the Sargas Semprons were outstanding if you could unlock them to a dual core and then go from 2.7GHz to 3.5GHz+

That is a good example I think. I figured that was what would get AMD on here, unlockable cores. I was thinking about Tri-Core models that could be quadcore, I forgot about the Sempron.

 

[Burpo]

Xeon L5639.. 6 yr old, 60 watt, Hexcore. I know of no other cpu that can run 2X it's rated speed (2.13ghz) & still be stable.

 

[happy medium]

q9550 over 7 years old and still can game.

 

[cbn]

q9550 over 7 years old and still can game.

My vote also goes to the Xeon E5440 (which is the 80 watt TDP equivalent of the Q9550).

Currently it is $18 shipped on ebay "buy it now auctions" and be overclocked just like the Q9550.

Side Note: It does need a LGA 771 to LGA 775 adapter sticker (~$2 to $3) and simple modification to the LGA 775 socket to get it to work. I detailed my own experience converting a Dell pre-built in this post --> http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=36890787&postcount=39

 

[Sweepr]

Core i7 920 and Cedar Mill Pentium 4/Celeron get my vote.

 

[cbn]

Opteron 165. (This chip was known to be the bang for the buck high end processor back in the socket 939 days).

1.8 Ghz base clock dual core with 2MB L2 cache. It could overclock to 2.7 Ghz and beyond.

 

[happy medium]

My vote also goes to the Xeon E5440 (which is the 80 watt TDP equivalent of the Q9550).

Currently it is $18 shipped on ebay "buy it now auctions" and be overclocked just like the Q9550.

Side Note: It does need a LGA 771 to LGA 775 adapter sticker (~$2 to $3) and simple modification to the LGA 775 socket to get it to work. I detailed my own experience converting a Dell pre-built in this post --> http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=36890787&postcount=39

wow I agree !

 

[MrTeal]

Part of it is the lower clocks it has. It is almost like overclocking cheating. I would think something like a Intel Pentium G3258 would get on the list first.

I'd actually go the other way, because the value was better with the E2140. They were both ~$75 chips, but the E2140 competed against the $500 Q6600, the $300 E6600 or the $500 E6700 on the top end. The lack of cache hurt, but a 3GHz+ E2140 was very competitive with a stock 2.67GHz E6700.
It doesn't matter what you do to a G3258, it's not going to touch a stock <$350 i7-4790k.

 

[cbn]

I'd actually go the other way, because the value was better with the E2140. They were both ~$75 chips, but the E2140 competed against the $500 Q6600, the $300 E6600 or the $500 E6700 on the top end. The lack of cache hurt, but a 3GHz+ E2140 was very competitive with a stock 2.67GHz E6700.
It doesn't matter what you do to a G3258, it's not going to touch a stock <$350 i7-4790k.

I think that is a good analogy. (though OC 2140 would not compete with Q6600 because of the difference in core count. Certainly a comparison to E6700 is valid though).

 

[MrTeal]

I think that is a good analogy. (though OC 2140 would not compete with Q6600 because of the difference in core count. Certainly a comparison to E6700 is valid though).

Yeah, I didn't mean to imply that the E2140 was competitive with the Q6600 though it could be in single threaded applications. Those were just the best chips available at the time other than the thousand dollar X6800.

 

[Sunrise089]

Athlon 64 3000+, 50% overclocks and slightly earlier to market than the similarly clocking Opterons.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I'd actually go the other way, because the value was better with the E2140. They were both ~$75 chips, but the E2140 competed against the $500 Q6600, the $300 E6600 or the $500 E6700 on the top end. The lack of cache hurt, but a 3GHz+ E2140 was very competitive with a stock 2.67GHz E6700.
It doesn't matter what you do to a G3258, it's not going to touch a stock <$350 i7-4790k.

Good point

 

[aigomorla]

Celeron 300A
Opteron 165 / AMD X2 Manchester / Toledo cores....

E6600 Conroe

Q6600 Kentsfield

Q9XXX Yorkfield

i7 9XX Bloomfield (sorry dont have a 920... but i had a 975)

i7 9XX Gulftown

Heh notice i was conservative with voltages on these cpu's as they were probably all cherry bin picked.

Then we lost overclocking and was forced to do it via multiplier.. (sad sad days)

My best cpu... i7 990X (still in use)

My most memorable CPU..
That yorkfield... although it did die... and it gave me many many hours listening to gillbot rant a storm in trying to get it to post...

 

[Arcanedeath]

I'd say the celeron 300/333A's, the pentium 3 550E (most made it to 733 fine), Athlon xp 2500+(& mobile versions too) @2.2ghz+, Athlon 64 4400+ /Opteron 170 @ 2.8ghz+, i7 920, xeon x5650, & the i5 2500k.

This would be my current list of cpu hall of fame chips.

 

[joutlaw]

The C2D E4300 was a beast. I ran this chip for many years and went from 1.8 to 3.5.

http://www.legionhardware.com/articles_pages/e4300_overclocking_for_beginners,1.html

 

[lopri]

Sorry about necro'ing the thread but I had to voice my opinion that Q6600 was a total dud when it comes to overclocking outside of a few golden nuggets. I even have a dead Q6600 in a drawer.

I would add E4300, E2140/E2160, and Opteron 144/145/146 to the list. I've gotten 100% OC out of E2140/E2160 and 50%+ out of Socket 939 Opterons.

Since then only 2500K and 1045T could do anything close to 50% overclock in my experience. (Of course lower base clocks help when the success is measured by percentage.)

 

[richierich1212]

From personal experience, the 1055T and 2500K.

 

[StrangerGuy]

I'd actually go the other way, because the value was better with the E2140. They were both ~$75 chips, but the E2140 competed against the $500 Q6600, the $300 E6600 or the $500 E6700 on the top end. The lack of cache hurt, but a 3GHz+ E2140 was very competitive with a stock 2.67GHz E6700.
It doesn't matter what you do to a G3258, it's not going to touch a stock <$350 i7-4790k.

And quadcores in C2D days aren't as mandatory as what they are now today.

Value-oriented OCing today with Haswell is a complete joke compared to those glory years where a $183 E6300 can easily match and exceed a $1000 X6800.