If you overclock, do you overvolt?

[Albuquerque]

As long as temperatures stay within limits, increasing frequencies can't hurt your system.

well yes you can leave the voltage the same or even undervolt, but to truly get the processors full potential, you will need to overvolt. if you dont overvolt then you can be very limited on your overclock. as long as you have good cooling i dont see the problem.

"to get the processors full potential" - by this you mean the absolute maximum where you're stressing the device beyond it's designed limits. Good luck getting a useful lifetime out of that piece of hardware.

I have overclocked and over-volted essentially every CPU and GPU that I have purchased with my own money. And you know what? I've never broken a piece of hardware in it's overvolted and overclocked state either.

486DX33 -> 50mhz with some additional soldering for ~10% voltage bump and a jumper for ~50% more FSB. That chip cost me $380 and it lived for three years.

486DX4/133 -> 200mhz using same exact setup as above. AMD made this processor, it was AWESOME and performed phenominally. I had this box for almost five years with ZERO issues. Used the stock heatsink with a bigger fan.

SIS 864p VLB video card. Overvolted ~5% by some soldering, overclocked by ~35% via software. Had this video card on the above-mentioned 486 system all eight years without issues. No heatsink either

Pentium 66 -> 100. Overvolted by 15% and overclocked by 50% (multiplier). Only had this for about a year, so who knows? Used the stock HS.

Pentium 166 -> 250 Overvolted by probably 20% and overclocked by ~15% FSB and multiplier. Worked awesome for about six years, used only a bigger fan and some ducting on top of the stock HS.

Voodoo Original 50mhz -> 72mhz with about a 20% increase in voltage, a big heatsink from a Pentium 133 box and some software. I still have this card somewhere, ran on several different boxes in this config without ever having a problem.

NVIDIA Riva 128 original 4mb -> Actually, I don't think I voltmodded this, just an overclock. Meh.

*insert long pause*

Celeron 350A -> 504. More voltage, more FSB. Stock HSF, and lots of fun! I still have this box running a Telnet server...

NVIDIA GF3/Ti200. About 15% more voltage gave me Ti500 speeds. Stock HSF too...

P3/550 -> 684. Lots more voltage and more FSB. Stock HSF but bigger fan. Ran really well in a dual-processor config. My dad still has this box as his 24/7 rig, it's quite old too, has the above-mentioned GF3 in it.

P4/1.8A (Northwood) -> 2.7ghz. This was my first really awesome overclock since the Celly 350A. Used 1.85v to get there, but who cared? Sold it to a friend and it's still his primary box.

ATI 9500np softmodded to all 8 pipes and voltmodded + OC'd to 440mhz. I eventually killed this, but it was due to me being a dumbass and shorting it out with a huge steel washer that was holding the heatsink down. Still lived for better than two years.

ATI 9800np OV'd and OC'd to ~465mhz. This one cooked too because the aftermarket fan I strapped to it suddenly stopped one day. D'oh

ATI x800pro Vivo -> XTPE Vivo at 555/1166 with a pencil mod and some water. Ran awesome for three years, sold it to a guy at work, it's still his primary vid card and he loves it.

P4 2.4C -> 3.4ghz. OV'd to 1.65 with a big-a** copper heatsink. Loved it! This box is now my mom's...

P4 3.0 Prescott -> 4.2Ghz. Overvolted to 1.525 and watercooled. This is my current rig, it's been running for about a year. I love this rig...

NVIDIA 7900GT-on-AGP (aka the Gainward 7800GS+ 512mb). Actually I haven't overvolted this yet, but mostly because it isn't the bottleneck still Overclocked to 540/1525 tho...

[Jeremy]

This should be a sticky.