List your most fun or favorite overclock

[Grog6]

I bought an XP-2500M; it was fairly unlocked; I overclocked the FSB to 200/400, and ran it at 13.5; it's still running like that in the basement, hooked to a LAN, running Win98, lol.

It's not on a Public LAN, lol.

It's taking cosmic ray data from a huge chunk of sodium iodide.

 

[Apocalypsee]

I've the most fun during early Athlon64 era, I bought lowest AMD Sempron 2500+ Palermo core socket 754 with mere 1.4GHz clockspeed. At base clock it already beats my previous Pentium 4 Northwood core 2GHz runs at 3GHz in PCMark04 despite the huge clockspeed deficiency. I'm using DFI nF4X motherboard with stock cooler and got it all the way up to 2.64GHz, I still have the screenshot of it running prime for 3 hours plus with reasonable temperature. Great times. It games like a champ coupled with X1800GTO

 

[freeagent]

That reminds me of my second fav OC, Pentium3 650mhz(100mhz FSB) to 910mhz(140mhz FSB) with just a single bump in voltage.

What really got me into it was my best friend. He was such a nerd I thought with his computers, and everything he was into. He had a celery 333 on an Abit BH6. He wound her up to 666 and ran it like that. We were having drinks one night, and he pushed for more, and lost the board. He got a Northwood 3ghz when it was new on an Asus board with an Ati All In Wonder I want to say 8mb, but it could have been 16 or better, thems was some hazy days. The system was a beast. He hooked me up with an HP that had a Tbred 2600 on an nf2 mobo and I was able to oc in windows with it. I tried hard to beat his rig for awhile.. And when I got my NF7-S and things became easier

/ramble

I sure do miss Abit.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I sure do miss Abit.

Right there with you bro, right there with you.

 

[Grog6]

I had an Abit KT7A-RAID mobo, and it was the most frustrating thing I think I ever set up.

It had a bios Default setting that shut down the power if it didn't detect the CPU fan spinning.

Default for a new mobo was it only turned the fan on when the processor power reached a certain temp.

I bought this at Christmas, and it was ~65 degrees in the computer room, so it would power up, and power down.

I finally found a post with someone else with this problem, and what the deal was. (I always have multiple computers...)

I went and got a hair dryer, warmed up the CPU, and was able to boot it right up.

I sold that system to a friend, and he still uses it for video capture.

 

[Keullo-e]

In fact I OC'd that to 1403MHz via FSB, that Asrock board doesn't have multiplier settings on bios :S

Heeey, things seems better....

Got TWO offers from Abit NF7 boards


without KT7A, there wouldn't be me.

 

[Basard]

I had a lot of fun, a few years ago, beating the crap out of an FX-8300.... Went from a Freezer 7 Pro to my current cooler. That freezer 7 is still alive, over a decade later, I lapped it--man it had a rough base. Spent days in the BIOS of the 990 board. It finally started to die and I upgraded to a 9590 which I had to undervolt and downclock. Good, fun, cheap CPUs.

 

[storm-chaser]

I've had some fun the LGA 771 to 775 conversion. Especially the Intel Xeon x5470 X4, which runs at 3.33 Ghz right out of the box. MSI-P42-C51 motherboard is not the greatest overclocking board, so my options were a little limited.

Using the 10x multiplier I was able to hit 4.0Ghz with a few tweaks, and that's where I decided to leave it. Nothing spectacular but there is something about process I enjoyed. Guess what I'm trying to say is the conversion added another element to have fun with.

 

[Jism]

A radeon 2600pro on a 100% overclock running -40 idle and -25 stressed.

After re-reasing the voltage a bit more the sparks came out of the back of the card and the party was over. xD

 

[Mr.Scott]

Nice.
A fellow bencher.

 

[storm-chaser]

Just wanted to add another favorite to the list here. This is my Core 2 Extreme X9000 processor overclocked to 4.2Ghz in a Lenovo T61p laptop.
I used the freezer to cool it down then got the validation. This one put me in 3rd place overall for this particular CPU over at HWbot. But there are only 12 other submissions so it doesn't count for much. Some people said this couldn't be done due to increased power demands and I would eventually brick the computer. Its been well over a year and the laptop is still going strong. I used throttlestop for this particular overclock. Most of the time I run the CPU at 3.4Ghz and will occasionally go to 3.6 for benching.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Just wanted to add another favorite to the list here. This is my Core 2 Extreme X9000 processor overclocked to 4.2Ghz in a Lenovo T61p laptop.
I used the freezer to cool it down then got the validation. This one put me in 3rd place overall for this particular CPU over at HWbot. But there are only 12 other submissions so it doesn't count for much. Some people said this couldn't be done due to increased power demands and I would eventually brick the computer. Its been well over a year and the laptop is still going strong. I used throttlestop for this particular overclock. Most of the time I run the CPU at 3.4Ghz and will occasionally go to 3.6 for benching.

View attachment 126620

That is indeed an impressive OC!

 

[Grog6]

After re-reasing the voltage a bit more the sparks came out of the back of the card and the party was over. xD

As an EE, lose the tan 10 turn pots; they are wirewound, and are notorious for jumping back and forth between 2 close values when you're setting them.

The Blue Cermet pots are continuously variable, and won't do the change back and forth.

I've had issues where circuits worked with the warm setting, but when cold, it went one winding back, and exploded on powerup. (Tan wirewound pots)

Pots are such a bitch to spec; A 10k Pot on a HVPS that will do 0-1000V on a 10k change is a bitch to get to go close to Zero, or 100%, due to the end of the pot termination design.

First world problems, lol.

 

[Dinnercore]

I´m still kinda new to overclocking in general, back in my early days I used to avoid it, feared I might break something and loose the precious components I had saved my pocket money on for years and years.
I was so jealous of the 'rich' kids getting new PCs with expensive intel chips and high end GPUs every year and a half. I was on my AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000 for many years, still using it when Sandy-Bridge was long out. Back then I had no chance to OC my CPU and I did not dare to push the GPU.

This only changed recently when I started my Ryzen build and started to check into overclocking. I learned a lot and now there is not a single PC / Notebook in my house that runs on stock clocks and voltages.
The most fun I had was certainly while fooling around with C2D stuff recently. Tweaking the FSB to achieve the clocks, many different voltages to balance out while probing highest possible FSB, RAM and CPU clocks. Setting deviders accordingly. The whole thing is just a lot of fun to play around with, you dont get to dial in something and hit the hard limit within 30 minutes of testing. It is a whole journey every time, and everytime you think you could do just a bit better, just a few MHz more if I try this or maybe that...
Really got me hooked. Sadly our little competition here died down quick.

And finally coming to my most fun overclocking chip, that would be the E8500 sample that I got lucky with. Under ambient watercooling I pushed it beyond 5.1 GHz. On a more daily-safe voltage of 1.45V it would still hold 4.8 GHz. Compared to the other C2Ds I tested this one was jaw dropping to me. I just upped to clock again and again and couldn´t believe it still ran. Don´t know if it is any good compared to other peoples results but I was impressed. I can´t help but imagine what joy my childhood self would have had with this one. I could have run all my games smooth and not have to play with a headache for hours at 15-25fps.

 

[storm-chaser]

Wow dinnercore... That is a NUTZ chip you got there. Best I could do on my E8500 was 4.7ghz so you have something special, hell you even marched right through the 5.0ghz barrier without breaking a sweat. That's one CPU you should keep, frame, and put on the wall someday!

 

[lexluthermiester]

I´m still kinda new to overclocking in general, back in my early days I used to avoid it, feared I might break something and loose the precious components I had saved my pocket money on for years and years.
I was so jealous of the 'rich' kids getting new PCs with expensive intel chips and high end GPUs every year and a half. I was on my AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000 for many years, still using it when Sandy-Bridge was long out. Back then I had no chance to OC my CPU and I did not dare to push the GPU.

This only changed recently when I started my Ryzen build and started to check into overclocking. I learned a lot and now there is not a single PC / Notebook in my house that runs on stock clocks and voltages.
The most fun I had was certainly while fooling around with C2D stuff recently. Tweaking the FSB to achieve the clocks, many different voltages to balance out while probing highest possible FSB, RAM and CPU clocks. Setting deviders accordingly. The whole thing is just a lot of fun to play around with, you dont get to dial in something and hit the hard limit within 30 minutes of testing. It is a whole journey every time, and everytime you think you could do just a bit better, just a few MHz more if I try this or maybe that...
Really got me hooked. Sadly our little competition here died down quick.

And finally coming to my most fun overclocking chip, that would be the E8500 sample that I got lucky with. Under ambient watercooling I pushed it beyond 5.1 GHz. On a more daily-safe voltage of 1.45V it would still hold 4.8 GHz. Compared to the other C2Ds I tested this one was jaw dropping to me. I just upped to clock again and again and couldn´t believe it still ran. Don´t know if it is any good compared to other peoples results but I was impressed. I can´t help but imagine what joy my childhood self would have had with this one. I could have run all my games smooth and not have to play with a headache for hours at 15-25fps.

View attachment 126624

What were your temps?

 

[Dinnercore]

What were your temps?

My temps were around 60°C: https://valid.x86.fr/e0f5kg
I did cool my room down to 10°C tho, I would hit in the 70°C range if I did that now during summer.

This was my setup:

Huge radiator for just the CPU. Massive overkill but it held the temp. very constant.

[...] That's one CPU you should keep, frame, and put on the wall someday!

Oh I will! I tend to cling to most of my hardware, no matter how it performs

 

[lexluthermiester]

Huge radiator for just the CPU. Massive overkill but it held the temp. very constant.

Nice! Yeah I looked at your voltage and wondered if you had used some serious cooling to get there. Well done.

 

[Dinnercore]

Nice! Yeah I looked at your voltage and wondered if you had used some serious cooling to get there. Well done.

Thank you Now I actually had to check myself again, its been just over 2 months since I benched those guys and after that stuffed everything in a corner and hoped that summer will be over soon and I can get back into OCing.
I did faintly remember I had one E8500 put aside because it felt too good to be wasted with high voltage on ambient water and yes I found it!


Ok I know a photo like this is no proof that it runs 5 GHz @ 1.45 and it doesn´t stable if I remember correctly, but it boots like that. I just hooked my bench back up again to check if I used the E8500 from the picture for my 5.13 GHz run but NO that one was still on the bench.
To my own horror I found out tho that the CMOS battery did not hold the bios settings over those two months and my GTL tuning plus every other setting wiped... Ofc I did not write it down and the picture I took is on my now broken phone... I guess I´ll have to start over when I get my dry-ice equipment. Oh well

 

[TheUnbrained]

My lovely 638... at school times i nearly had no money and all i had was this fm1 mobo with an a4 3300... earned some money, got a x4 638 and that gts and figured out: ocing with this cpu is much more fun and easy as i thought...

it runs 24/7 stable @5,2GHz and is still going strong...

actually i still dont know if its "special" to oc some llano cpus to this clock... cause fx series could do it with ease... anyway i was proud of me in that time xD

 

[Edwired]

Just want to post the update on my pc it Asus p5q deluxe paired with Xeon e5450 overclocked to 4.320ghz @ 1.296v with Max temp on the core maxed out around 54c all this on air pretty much got the cpu stable just need to settle the ram it currently at 961mhz can run at 1153mhz but abit unstable something to do with either timings or voltage

 

[garrick]

a 4770k overclock 4.7 2nd computer

 

[storm-chaser]

FX-8350 was the most fun clocker. Hit 5.7GHz on water

I liked messing with my FX 4350. Now, it doesn't have the same number crunching ability as an 8350, but it's the same thrill, more or less, when you turn up the wick. My only complaint is the FX chips didn't see the massive performance improvements you could make on a Phenom II by turning up the CPU-NB speed to 3000 or higher. And it was relatively easy to do that. Instead I am stuck at 2600Mhz (no matter how much voltage) and my cache speeds don't seem much in terms of improvements. I expected more than this from AMD.

If I remember correctly I managed 5.2Ghz on water... and right now (it's sitting right next to me) I have it running at 4.8Ghz @ 1.5 volts and cooled by a hyper 212 (single fan). This is the sweat spot for air cooling IMO. Any more voltage and she start's to want liquid cooling. Any less clock and she takes her sweet time, if you know what I mean...

Just want to post the update on my pc it Asus p5q deluxe paired with Xeon e5450 overclocked to 4.320ghz @ 1.296v with Max temp on the core maxed out around 54c all this on air pretty much got the cpu stable just need to settle the ram it currently at 961mhz can run at 1153mhz but abit unstable something to do with either timings or voltage

Well well well - that's excellent voltage for that clock speed. Our rigs are quite similar in some respects. I just pulled my Q9650 (3.0Ghz, 1333FSb, 9x multi, just like your e5450) rig out of retirement (+ asus P5Q3 motherboard). To my horror all the OC settings got wiped due to a bad battery, so I am starting fresh. In point of fact, I think 4.3Ghz was my *stable* limit. Here is my highest validation, though:

 

[Edwired]

I liked messing with my FX 4350. Now, it doesn't have the same number crunching ability as an 8350, but it's the same thrill, more or less, when you turn up the wick. My only complaint is the FX chips didn't see the massive performance improvements you could make on a Phenom II by turning up the CPU-NB speed to 3000 or higher. And it was relatively easy to do that. Instead I am stuck at 2600Mhz (no matter how much voltage) and my cache speeds don't seem much in terms of improvements. I expected more than this from AMD.

If I remember correctly I managed 5.2Ghz on water... and right now (it's sitting right next to me) I have it running at 4.8Ghz @ 1.5 volts and cooled by a hyper 212 (single fan). This is the sweat spot for air cooling IMO. Any more voltage and she start's to want liquid cooling. Any less clock and she takes her sweet time, if you know what I mean...



Well well well - that's excellent voltage for that clock speed. Our rigs are quite similar in some respects. I just pulled my Q9650 (3.0Ghz, 1333FSb, 9x multi, just like your e5450) rig out of retirement (+ asus P5Q3 motherboard). To my horror all the OC settings got wiped due to a bad battery, so I am starting fresh. In point of fact, I think 4.3Ghz was my *stable* limit. Here is my highest validation, though:

View attachment 142714

Ah ya making me jealous on that q9650 over clock since I have Asus p5q deluxe ddr2 not the p5q3. As I see that the e5450 have some sort of limit on fsb anything above 490 it just get flaky

 

[Durvelle27]

I liked messing with my FX 4350. Now, it doesn't have the same number crunching ability as an 8350, but it's the same thrill, more or less, when you turn up the wick. My only complaint is the FX chips didn't see the massive performance improvements you could make on a Phenom II by turning up the CPU-NB speed to 3000 or higher. And it was relatively easy to do that. Instead I am stuck at 2600Mhz (no matter how much voltage) and my cache speeds don't seem much in terms of improvements. I expected more than this from AMD.

If I remember correctly I managed 5.2Ghz on water... and right now (it's sitting right next to me) I have it running at 4.8Ghz @ 1.5 volts and cooled by a hyper 212 (single fan). This is the sweat spot for air cooling IMO. Any more voltage and she start's to want liquid cooling. Any less clock and she takes her sweet time, if you know what I mean...



Well well well - that's excellent voltage for that clock speed. Our rigs are quite similar in some respects. I just pulled my Q9650 (3.0Ghz, 1333FSb, 9x multi, just like your e5450) rig out of retirement (+ asus P5Q3 motherboard). To my horror all the OC settings got wiped due to a bad battery, so I am starting fresh. In point of fact, I think 4.3Ghz was my *stable* limit. Here is my highest validation, though:

View attachment 142714

Definitely as volts start to sky rocket

Just to hit 5.5GHz i had to pump 1.6V