I realize this is an old thread, but I joined this forum specifically to express my gratitude to RGone and everyone else for their efforts to educate others. I happened upon this thread last night and very much enjoyed reading the first several pages, during which I not only gained useful knowledge regarding AMD overclocking, but also insight as to the emotional roller-coaster that apparently comes with the territory of assisting others in their efforts. I very much enjoyed reading the lengthy, and thoughtful musings of RGone and others. I look forward to reading the rest of it in due time.
I have been building my own systems for over 20 years. While I dabbled with overclocking many moons ago (15 years), I have been of the mindset that my builds at default settings are more than sufficient for my computing needs and the inherent risks of overclocking without the underlying knowledge of each tweak is foolish. Not that I would not have appreciated the gains through overclocking, rather I did not want to undertake the training and education required (for my comfort level) to do so safely.
However, times change. I completed my most recent build in Oct 2015 (see my profile if interested in the specs). My previous build was in 2009. I was blown away by the gains in Hardware over the previous six years. (I was still running XP Pro and using MS Office 2003, quite a jump to W10 and Office 365, etc) I built my system within a reasonable budget for myself and enjoyed researching various components with an eye toward revisiting overclocking.
I have spent hundreds of hours learning how to build systems, set up private networks, troubleshoot problems, update old hardware, setting up software, backups, cloud collaboration, etc etc over the years. I am my own IT guy as a self-employed consultant. Recently, I have begun a serious endeavor to understand overclocking, leading me to this forum, and this thread.
I am not in a hurry. My system screams compared to my last (yet it is whisper-quiet). While I enjoy reading how-to and configuration guides for my hardware, I'm more interested in learning how all the settings actually affect my system. I couldn't care less if it takes me months to overclock my system, so long as I learn the concepts in the process; these concepts will prevent me from having to seek the same one-off solutions over the next 20 years of building systems. Frankly, I learned more about networking because I had to do it with tools available back with Win 95. Same thing with financial modeling (big part of my business) by starting with Lotus 1-2-3 (Google it if you're younger than 35 years old). My point is the tools available today are vastly superior. Yes, anyone can build a pivot table in Excel by reading a few articles online. But to understand why one needs a pivot table and how best to use such a great tool, only comes with a deeper understanding, gained (in my case) by relying on creative workarounds until someone else developed the solution.
I feel sympatico with many of the contributors to this thread, feel like there are thoughtful members seeking to impart their wisdom to others with the hope the knowledge will in turn be cultivated and passed on later. While not meaning to denigrate, I also feel as though there is too much "hand-holding" and too little patience on the part of folks seeking answers (ample patience exhibited by the gurus). While I believe everyone whom takes the time to ask questions in a sincere manner are worthy of assistance, I also believe it is important to actually learn something new during the process, not just gain a specific, one-time means to a one-time end.
So, a heart-felt thank-you to all from beautiful Maine during idyllic spring!
Be well.
PS - I would have "Thanked" RGone as described within the first few pages of the thread, but it appears the option is no longer available. If incorrect, I'm sure I will learn how to do so soon. I did, however, rate this thread 5 stars!
