Should one delve into the realm of overclocking?

[Pandab34R]

I think I may want to find a good app to do some responsable overclocking and set the settings so it DOES NOT apply the settings when windows loads and try to boost my frames cause im noticing some sluggish and unwanted perfomance in some games... BUT this time I am coming here first to get some insight and technical knowladge and help. Would anyone be kind enough to help out? I am running a 6600LE PCI-express and an amd 64 3200 processor w/ 2 gigs ram.

[glc]

http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=142256

[ktkendall]

When you overclock it will affect everything cause windows does not control clock speeds, bus speeds, memory timing, or any of that. Those are all a function of your chipset and controlled by the chipset and the settings you set them at. Most newer boards allow you to overclock the processor though but lock in the AGP/PCI bus and lock the memory in also independant of the overclocked setting you apply to the processor. Older boards did not have that ability so as soon as you bumped up your bus speed you actually bumped up everything and usually what happened was the vid card couldn't handle it as well as the processor would so you really couldn't pump it up as much as you would have liked, or as much as the processor could actually handle. I found that after I tried it on my first build, it was way overrated, and I put it all back to default and am just happy to have a nice smooth stable running system that I built.

[MaxRat]

You'd be better of getting a better video card....You can overclock the one you have and not really get much gain from it...even the jump to a 6800gt would be a big jump....

You really only have to overclock the part of your system you use most...I only overclock my cpu and fsb because it more that double the encoding rate...Overclocking my card would do absolutly nothing for me... on the other hand overclocking the cpu and fsb may do little if anything to help you in gaming... enjoy

[doctorgonzo]

What kind of motherboard do you have?

I have an AMD 64 3200+ that I am overclocking to 220 MHz on the HT, using the stock HSF, with no increase in temps. I could probably push it a lot higher if I really wanted to; I haven't seen how far I could go, I set it at 220 MHz just to see what would happen.

[faulkner132]

Why do you need to overclock it? What applications are you running which need more power? My understanding is games will not utilize it and it risks destroying your hardware. The only thing I might see you needing it for is video/audio editing... but still not worth the risk in my opinion.

Just curious since the title of your post is whether or not to overclock.