Will an external SATA HDD limit overlocking ability?

[Krakn3Dfx]

I've seen a few people mention in various forums that they were having issues with overclocking and just general stability until they unplugged an external HDD, I'm wondering if this is a common issue, since I have an external 250GB that I run games and such off of. Is having an external SATA HDD a problem for people trying to OC, and would switching it over to Firewire get around that issue? Thanks.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I don't think it is a problem overclocking, per se. It seems that what happens is if the external HD is connected at boot time, then the BIOS either hangs, or resets to default values, and then boots. So disconnect your HD when booting, and then plug it in when you are loaded into Windows, and things should run ok.

 

[Idontcare]

I use an eSATA connection for my external hard-drive which gets used as a backup disk.

Same eSATA harddrive used on both my old i680 striker board, and now with my current P5E WS Pro board.

Both systems were heavily overclocked (QX6700 at 3.7GHz on vapoLS cooling) and neither showed any instability with or without the eSATA drive hooked up.

There are lots of reports of flakey eSATA setups in general though, I'm talking about the $40 enclosure box, so if you get instability then I'd suspect that thing first and foremost.

Oh, and make sure you lock your PCIe to 100MHz so you aren't dicken around with your SATA speeds, just to avoid asking for trouble.

 

[myocardia]

Almost all of the reports I've seen of problems with using an external drive while overclocking involved USB drives. Granted, nearly all external drives are USB anyway, so that would factor into the equation. Nevertheless, I've never seen any complaints about using an eSATA drive while overclocking. And VirtualLarry is right, the people who were having problems with their USB drives found that they magically disappeared, when they stopped leaving them on 100% of the time, and only turned them on when they were needed, after booting into Windows.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Sorry, I didn't read that it was SATA he was talking about. I was assuming USB. SATA should be fine as long as you aren't overclocking your PCI-E bus or southbridge.