[Gig-O-Ram]

In other words, what factors make you choose your overclock of 300, or 500, (or in some cases) 1000Mhz, or whatever your OC happens to be?

How do you arrive at your decision? Do you pick a level you're comfortable with, once you found a level that's stable? Do you want to push it to the limit, or is there some other factor?

[tenchi86]

Partially just like to find the limit and try to push it to a nice number, like I would much rather OC to 3.02ghz rather then 2.99 ghz. Just so I can say I am running at 3GHZ, though I personally don't always keep my max OC once I have tested it and seen it is stable. Like for instance my current CPU I have tested prime stable at 3.6 (probably go higher to) though run it at 3.2 just because I don't need any more power then this and rather keep temps down.

[Gig-O-Ram]

The OC I have listed in my sig is as far as I've had time to try so far. I'm not OC'd right now, but over the weekend I want to see if I can get to 2.6 or better. When I had the 2.52 going, the RAM divider was set on the lowest divider, and the RAM was @170Mhz (300 below stock on stock timings), so I figure if I get to 2.6, the memory should be right at stock speed or so, maybe a little under.

[CrystalMethod]

I usually push in incrememnts of +10Mhz to the FSB, till I get to about +40Mhz. Then I go by increments of +5Mhz. At some point the system is just get to being unstable, and then I back off by about 10Mhz. Every once in a while I get to feeling lucky and really push the system, bump up the voltages and go for broke. I don't leave the system like that though. I'll only run like that for a few days befor ethe lucky feeling goes away and I realize I could be burning out a perfectly good CPU.

[techun]

i tried to go for the average overclock, on the highest voltage (2.4, and 1.9v)

once it was stable i backed off voltage till i found the lowest possible, then overclocked to 2.62 from there
i run it at 2.5 cuz i can run it at 1.8v, which is much cooler

[Soichiro]

I just go for whatever number sounds good. In this case it's 2.7 Ghz, or +50%

[Shelnutt2]

Currently I'm at my max OC, but it is because my ram is limiting me. Altough my ram is only 6MHz above stock and under volted. So right now I feel pretty safe at what I'm running.

I'm not entirely sure how to answer your question because this is only my second overclocking machine, and my first one I had at the max OC too.

I think personally it comes down to all the factors. What the voltage at, how are temps, if my max OC is not that off compared to stock (temps/volts) then I'll leave ti at max, but when you start having to go .2-.4 volts above stock then I start wondering where my 24/7 OC is going to be.

(note the exception: Yes I am currently running .3 volts above stock, but my xeons are the LV model and it is only 0-.05 above the volts of standard xeons.

[Malpine Walis]

Well, personally, I like to tinker with stuff. So I would start a new set of core components at just what they default to, write everything down and see where I go from there.

Basically, I will pick one parameter and see how far it can go with everything else set normally. When I have probed the limits there, I will put that one thing back and probe the limits of something else. Once i have a profile of how high each setting can go when it is just that that I am testing, then I can max one parameter and see what limit that will put on other stuff (again one parameter at a time).

That much being done, I feel confident that I have a good idea of what goes how high by itself and what other factor will interact with stuff and limit my eventual OC. Then I can begin my fine tuning to see just how high I can take a box and under what conditions. Generally, I find that there is no single best possible setting. But once I know all that about my system, I can get to what amounts to my max stable OC.

[CCUABIDExORxDIE]

heres how it goes down...i start out with a preconcieved overclock that i want. lately its been 2.7ghz. so ill try for around 2.7ghz with around 1.5v, with my x2 i went 250x11 with 1.5v. this was 24 hours prime stable...so i was delighted. so i bumped to 285x10 and tested with vcore, setting to 1.525v, failed. and then set to 1.55v, where it passed for 24 hours.

then after that....i try to find a ram that can run my configuration, i got lots to choose from...old bh-5, centon UTT, ballistix, tccd. i try to think of configurations that will work....basically ddr520 2-2-2, ddr520 2.5-2-2, ddr570 2.5-3-3 or ddr570 3-3-3. i test which are doable/which performed best. Sometimes high voltages 24/7 and the edge of stability can make me abit weary of running a setting. but once i get those settings hammered out...i basically test 3 ways, 500% stable memtest windows, then 32m spi, then some 3dmark loops.

for graphics cards. i just test with 3dmark01se-05 for stability, then game for like 3 hours at those settings. i use ATITrayTool to bascially test whats stable and whats not.

[Gig-O-Ram]

Originally Posted by Shelnutt2

Currently I'm at my max OC, but it is because my ram is limiting me. Altough my ram is only 6MHz above stock and under volted. So right now I feel pretty safe at what I'm running.

I'm not entirely sure how to answer your question because this is only my second overclocking machine, and my first one I had at the max OC too.

I think personally it comes down to all the factors. What the voltage at, how are temps, if my max OC is not that off compared to stock (temps/volts) then I'll leave ti at max, but when you start having to go .2-.4 volts above stock then I start wondering where my 24/7 OC is going to be.

(note the exception: Yes I am currently running .3 volts above stock, but my xeons are the LV model and it is only 0-.05 above the volts of standard xeons.

Since I just discovered for myself what overclocking is about with this new board, I guess I was curious what makes someone decide how far to go. I think if I got to, say 2.7Ghz, and found my temps going higher than I'd like, I would probably back it down until the temps were tolerable. Someone in another thread was saying their 3700+ (same chip I have) was good @2.8 on stock volts, but I think I might be more comfortable giving a little more volts on the higher clock.

Originally Posted by Malpine Walis

Well, personally, I like to tinker with stuff. So I would start a new set of core components at just what they default to, write everything down and see where I go from there.

Basically, I will pick one parameter and see how far it can go with everything else set normally. When I have probed the limits there, I will put that one thing back and probe the limits of something else. Once i have a profile of how high each setting can go when it is just that that I am testing, then I can max one parameter and see what limit that will put on other stuff (again one parameter at a time).

That much being done, I feel confident that I have a good idea of what goes how high by itself and what other factor will interact with stuff and limit my eventual OC. Then I can begin my fine tuning to see just how high I can take a box and under what conditions. Generally, I find that there is no single best possible setting. But once I know all that about my system, I can get to what amounts to my max stable OC.

I haven't done that much tinkering yet, because I haven't much time, but so far, I sort of done what you do, and I've picked numbers in advance. Like, I wanted to see if I could get to 4000+ speeds (2.4Ghz), and I so I set it up for that, and I got the 2.4 OC. Then I wanted to get 2.5, and so I did. Next, I want to try for 2.6. But I think the 2.4 was definitely thought of in advance.

I know that my memory divider set on low while raising the HTT seems to work, (getting to 2.43 with the RAM @170.4) so I think I'll try the memory on 166 and see how it affects an overclock. I might also try leaving the memory @200 and raise the HTT, and see what happens.