Overclocking: Risk vs. Benefit

[apollo]

I built my first system about a year ago (see below). Most of my tweaks since then involve improving cooling and reducing the load on my CPU. I've done some research into overclocking but would like to have some idea of the performance improvement I can expect before tackling a risky venture like that. Is there any diagnostic/benchmarking/etc. utility I can use to find out?

[Tin]

your system may OC a little bit, but not very far. you have a KT400 chipset, which doesnt have a PCI lock. you will be limited to 180-190FSB. an nforce2 chipset is where its at. they have a PCI lock and can run a much higher FSB. i have mine running at 250 (500FSB). you will also need better memory, atleast PC3200. overclocking is more of a hobby than anything else. i do it because i like to tinker with things. there is some benefit to it, like better game performance, faster load/access times, faster bootup, etc.

[apollo]

Hmm... the more I learn about OC (and pretty much everything else) the more it becomes one of those "if I knew then what I know now" things. Still, I'm pretty happy with what I have been able to squeeze out of it.

Guess I'll know for next time.

[Tin]

Originally Posted by apollo Hmm... the more I learn about OC (and pretty much everything else) the more it becomes one of those "if I knew then what I know now" things. Still, I'm pretty happy with what I have been able to squeeze out of it. Guess I'll know for next time.

dont worry, that happens to ALL OCers. i was there before, then you end up spending money to build an OCable system .