Pros and cons of OCing a 3930k

[guskline]

Your thoughts on OCing the 3930k shown in my sig below. I bought both the mb and cpu for a REALLY good price from Gillbot (plug for a great forum poster). I needed a new PSU so I bought a new PC Power & Cooling 950 Watt Silencer II so plenty of power. It's cooled by a Thermaltake Water 2.0 Extreme with Noctua TP. At stock it's a brute. Have it coupled with a new Intel 530 ssd-180g OS (Win8-64) and a WD Black sata III 500g for data. Video is a single PNY GTX 680.

Just like some opinions on whether or not to OC. I've done a lot of OCing through the years. My 3770k in rig 1 below performs well both stock and OC'd. I'm npot looking for that last few 100 Ghz. In fact I had it OC'd via the OC Genie software to 4 Ghz. I think manual tweaking will be better.

Your thoughts?

 

[exar333]

Why not?

4.4-4.5ghz should be cake, and with your cooling, you can probably get close to 5.0ghz if you got a good OC'er.

 

[FiLeZz]

Both my 3930k's runs all day everyday at 4.8ghz I can get it to 5ghz but thats to much for me on the daily running rig.


Cons ...Pulls more power from wall when overclocked. Make sure you spend the time to get it stable..Might shorten the life..


Pros.....Much faster then stock needed it to push my 780GTX x3 in sli.

Overclocked the second cpu just cause I could.

 

[aigomorla]

id say its totally situational..

for example... i have more chips now which arent overclocked.
I also own/run more ECC Reg Ram then normal Ram as well, which explains why im not overclocked on a lot of my processors.

I will overclock my daily machine tho, because i do scale cards like FileZz, and they have shown to be cpu limited.

I dont really care about it eatting into life unless its really noticable.
I typically run everything under watercooling, so talking about life to me is moot, as it will outlast 90% of stock systems due to watercooling, and this is with it on 24/7 as well.

Overclocking does EAT power...
The last time i had a daily system which drew less then 700W loaded off the wall would most likely be 2008.

:X

 

[guskline]

I'm stress testing at a "reasonable" 4.2Ghz. Tomorrow morning I'll have the results.

 

[Markfw]

I had problems getting over 4 ghz, but that could be my motherboard. If the vcore is low, go for it, its a waste otherwise. I have nothing but server chips in my house that aren't OC'd, and a few server chips that are !!!

 

[Rvenger]

Watch your VRM temps on X79 when overclocking! My Asrock X79 Extreme 6.

 

[Dave3000]

Pros: free additional speed (not really because the time involved in testing for stability).
Improved peformance in programs, depending on the game as some are more CPU bound or GPU bound.


Cons: You can never be 100% certain that the OC is stable, no matter how much you stress test but can only go by what you believe is stable.
CPU Throttling will occur if going past TDP.
BSOD
data corruption
crashes
reduced CPU life
CPU can fry
CPU runs hotter
CPU fan runs louder if it's a variable speed fan.
You have to set aside time for stability testing and can't use your PC for other stuff during stability testing.

 

[hot120]

^^^Wow! Lots of cons!

 

[ClockHound]

Yeah. Total vibe killer.

Overclocking is fun! And totally safe. Until it's not. But decay is the natural order of life, so don't fight the entropy, just overclock and be happy!

 

[hackerballs]

Well, about the comment that "Improved peformance in programs, depending on the game as some are more CPU bound or GPU bound."

According to the benchmarking in real life, single core vs dual core vs quad core vs 6 core

Every cpu kept up to the games framerate except the single core. Single core with HT also kept up

All the rest were almost equal in framerate

Please view this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4PDoy-mi0A

 

[hackerballs]

and as an afterthought, has anyone ever fried out the cpu quicker than expected? Not talking about a mistake and frying it, I'm talking about a stable OC'ed cpu burning out faster than a stock stable one

Have my old Q6600 which has been overclocked from day one, still working smooth, July 2006

Have my E7200 overclocked also and still running smooth, Apr 2008

So when do they burn out?

 

[Gillbot]

Both my 3930k's runs all day everyday at 4.8ghz I can get it to 5ghz but thats to much for me on the daily running rig.


Cons ...Pulls more power from wall when overclocked. Make sure you spend the time to get it stable..Might shorten the life..


Pros.....Much faster then stock needed it to push my 780GTX x3 in sli.

Overclocked the second cpu just cause I could.

Pretty much sums it up. I don't bother OC'ing anymore because i'm lazy and the performance boost isn't worth it to me.

 

[blackened23]

It's free performance if you want, with the main trade offs being heat, temperatures, noise, and electromigration (although it usually takes 2+ years of abuse for this to become a problem..).

I still overclock but honestly, I don't think I need to. I don't really need the additional performance to be quite honest. Is is kinda fun (to OC), though.

 

[ClearlyWeary]

Why not get the best of both worlds? Most motherboards now let you have multiple BIOS profiles. I have two profiles that I run on my 8350, an undervolted normal everyday usage profile. Then my overclocked profile I use for when I need(want) it. Granted I have to reboot my computer to change profiles but I don't leave my machine on 24/7 anyway.

 

[guskline]

Running at 4.2Ghz at 1.264 v stable. Ran over 6hrs of Intel Stress test under the Intel Extreme Tuning software and the hottest core was 66C Most were less than 60 C. EXTREMELY powerful.

 

[blackened23]

Running at 4.2Ghz at 1.264 v stable. Ran over 6hrs of Intel Stress test under the Intel Extreme Tuning software and the hottest core was 66C Most were less than 60 C. EXTREMELY powerful.

Nice! You probably still have room to go higher as well since you're at 66C (if you want - you have more than enough performance as is, though.) Just a suggestion, you may want to set up offset voltage if you haven't yet. It'll probably be a pain to set up - but well worth it in the long run to ensure low idle voltages and preventing electro-migration.

 

[guskline]

Nice! You probably still have room to go higher as well since you're at 66C (if you want - you have more than enough performance as is, though.) Just a suggestion, you may want to set up offset voltage if you haven't yet. It'll probably be a pain to set up - but well worth it in the long run to ensure low idle voltages and preventing electro-migration.

Thanks for tip. I have no reason to OC higher. The performance is incredible and frankly at stock this chip seems like a 426 Hemi

 

[Idontcare]

and as an afterthought, has anyone ever fried out the cpu quicker than expected? Not talking about a mistake and frying it, I'm talking about a stable OC'ed cpu burning out faster than a stock stable one

Have my old Q6600 which has been overclocked from day one, still working smooth, July 2006

Have my E7200 overclocked also and still running smooth, Apr 2008

So when do they burn out?

Burn-out is totally dependent on actual duty-cycle.

Overclocked but spending most of its time in essentially active-idle is the kind of duty-cycle that will still leave you with a decade of usable lifetime.

Overclocked and 100% fully loaded 24/7/365 with operating temperatures at or near TJmax is how you ensure the chip burns out in a couple of years or less.

Why not get the best of both worlds? Most motherboards now let you have multiple BIOS profiles. I have two profiles that I run on my 8350, an undervolted normal everyday usage profile. Then my overclocked profile I use for when I need(want) it. Granted I have to reboot my computer to change profiles but I don't leave my machine on 24/7 anyway.

Oh you can have it even better than that Get an Asus board and use the AI Suite to setup OC profiles from within windows.

Then it literally is a simple matter of clicking the desired OC profile seamlessly with your workload running in the background.

I use both my Intel and AMD rigs that way (all with Asus mobos), and the AI Suite is the way to go for on-the-fly OC profile changes. No reboot needed.

 

[guskline]

IDC, just saw your post about AI suite. Since this a MSI mb it uses software that apparently can be used inside Windows 8 called Click BIOS II. I'll install it and see how it goes.

 

[PhIlLy ChEeSe]

IDC, just saw your post about AI suite. Since this a MSI mb it uses software that apparently can be used inside Windows 8 called Click BIOS II. I'll install it and see how it goes.

I have a buddy with the X79 MSI board he has custom cooling, same CPU he is set up for gaming/over clocking.

He can do around 5Ghz easily if not higher(the CPU is board limited)as the multi is unlocked. The only issue is more power used from the wall, with his rig.
I have not used the pre built water coolers(Scene thermal junk) but do know they are better made now. Still I would not suggest that high to you, as the higher you go the price performance ratio's change quickly.........

A link to my system on a Asus Rive board :whiste:
http://www.3dmark.com/3dmv/4781399

 

[blackened23]

I use both my Intel and AMD rigs that way (all with Asus mobos), and the AI Suite is the way to go for on-the-fly OC profile changes. No reboot needed.

I also absolutely love the features of AI suite. Makes tweaking practically effort free - prior to using it, the concept of overclocking and over volting within windows seemed sketchy to me. But it works great.

 

[ClearlyWeary]

I have a Crosshair V board and have AI Suite but never thought to use it. Just considered it bloatware really. However that kind of usability would be really nice indeed. Think I'm gonna be installing it here in about 5, 4, 3, 2....

 

[Idontcare]

I have a Crosshair V board and have AI Suite but never thought to use it. Just considered it bloatware really. However that kind of usability would be really nice indeed. Think I'm gonna be installing it here in about 5, 4, 3, 2....

Get the newest version from the website, don't use anything that comes on a disc with your mobo.

 

[ClearlyWeary]

No worries.. Never do..