I have gone one step towards the perfect, overclockers' build: I have refused to pay top dollar once again for the mobo. I would say the cost was half way between min and max. I could have even payed double, or even half what I did, and I don't even know why. IOW, I dunno what those mods are good for.
So when I get P5K-E/WiFi-AP, E6850, 2x1GB Crucail Ballistix, 8800GT 512 etc. together I may or may not find out what the limiting component is. Don't know if I'll try to fix it. I don't know what its like. I think I will know immediately how well the whole OC build did though. I think I can assume that most of the components could potentially be stressed a lot more greatly and evenly than my last build if I wanted to, but do I want to?
The point of this question, btw, is to find out more about what a stable 24/7 OC is. I have no interest in breaking any OC records. I seem to always be doing this. Trying to get more from questions which may seem to be already answered. You may have a picture of how high all these specific components will OC, and if I need to buy the Thermalright Ultra120Extreme (which then needs a Scythe fan) for the cpu, then the Thermalright HR-03 GT vid cooler, not to mention the right case, the AS, the fans and controllers, etc. Last time I even ripped the case apart and painted the hell of it, inside and out, after installing my own window.
What is a stable 24/7 OC, how hot is it going to be, and how do I determine what the OC numbers are for my components once they are all put together? If the difference between set it and forget it, and going all out is only 5%, well....The point is, if I knew more about this, I would know where I could cut corners (which I think is as important for an OCers pc than anything else). I have no idea where in the scheme of things being able to do away with everything else is. ps I also want a quiet pc. Like when can I just buy the parts, turn the big OC knob in the sky and walk away? By the parts I mean mobo, cpu, RAM, and I guess vid card. I include it cuz it could get hot. But only when and if they are less than ideal. Its a slippery slope - it leads to installing windows and all kinds of crap!
Not the first pc I bought, but the first I made any kind of effort to overclock was the last one I bought. I researched all the components and then got an Asus P4C800E-D mobo, a matched pair of OCZ cas 2.5 PC4200 RAM (for the PC3200 - ddr400 spec) and a Zalman CNPS-7000Cu cpu cooler. All the reviews used the P4 2.4C cpu. I made the mistake of assuming a 2.6C would be an equivalent overclocker. I put out top dollar for all these components so I could reach high levels of overclock, but found out that the 2.6C cpu was the limiting componet, and instead of achieving a 40% improvement over the stock MHz, I could only achieve a 20% increase. Stock 2.6MHz@ddr400 became 3.12@ ddr440 instead of 3.64MHz@ddr480, which all the reviews had. Of course this meant that I didn't actually need to buy the best mobo, and I believe quite possibly I didn't need an aftermarket cpu cooler at all: I think the stock HSF may have done the job. I spent more than a hundred bucks just on specific cooling items I didn't need. This cpu never gets above low 40C even right after gaming. It does everyday stuff overclocked in thge twenties and thirties C. I even went out of my way to get a 40mm fan and spring it down to the NB. Talk about a waste of time. It was fun, but having done all the planning I thought I needed to do incorrectly, I made the mistake, and had design overkill, paying for it all over the place. In fact it is such a drag, when anything goes wrong, I just set it to stock and leave it. What was the point. You can see by the size of this post I sweat the details. So for this next build assuming I have no control over which E6850 cpu I get, and how well it will overclock will be just an educated guessing game, I am back to buying all the components I assume I will need. In reality though, at this point in this writing I realize I am on a learning path as much as a path to saving money, or hoping to change choice of components. I'm searching for knowledge. I want to know more about a point you brought up. The basis of the stable 24/7 overstock. I have never lerned what it takes - what it is. For me it was the maximum the limiting component was, then rounded down to the nearest 0 or 5, so 220FSB (vs.200). From my research I knew nothing else was stressed.
Don't want no fronkenstine. Best in show, or at least the ability to make it. No Cadillac A/C on my Miata. Just as you probalby didn't need to read all that.
