Overclocking (Main Thread)

So, why is it that I can breeze through certain tests without a single hiccup, yet others won't even launch? I just spent some time gaming—no crashes or anything, mind you—playing Need for Speed Heat, Grand Theft Auto V, and Resident Evil 2. Everything seemed fine. But then, once I closed out of the game and fired up OCCT, the whole system just rebooted itself after maybe two minutes.

If it’s running your games fine and handling everyday stuff in Windows without any issues, then just leave it alone. It’ll be okay. Benchmarks hit the hardware differently than actual gaming does, you know? But if you start seeing random restarts while you're mid-game... well, then you know you've got a serious problem on your hands.

Actually, it’s kind of the opposite. You really should be basing this on the stress tests, since that's the whole point—to make sure your overclock is actually stable. If it crashes like this, you might be mid-boss fight in some game when you suddenly hit a BSOD and it's game over 😬

I haven't actually had a spare second to sit down and stress test every single core—work's been a nightmare lately—so I’m planning to dive back in tomorrow. I need to figure out exactly which core starts acting up once I push the overclocking too far. Honestly, the idea of my system just collapsing mid-task because of an unstable OC isn't exactly appealing to me. I'm not really looking to sink more money into "legacy" hardware either; I’m currently saving up to jump straight into something modern. The catch is, I’ll have to swap out the motherboard too, since there isn't much left worth buying for the 1150 socket. I think I'll just hold off for a bit longer and grab a platform that actually has some longevity, rather than buying something that leaves me stuck in a dead end. I'll post the results once I've finished all the testing.

I haven't uploaded anything yet, so I'm not sure if you've been messing with your RAM settings, but a buddy of mine dealt with an unstable overclock on his Haswell build because of the memory, and he didn't realize it for the longest time.

fadedorca66 said:Actually, it's the exact opposite. You should be looking at the benchmarks because they exist specifically to prove your overclock is actually stable. If it passes this way, you might start a game, get right in the middle of a boss fight, and then—boom—BSOD and game over. 😬

In theory, sure, if you want a 100% rock-solid OC. But realistically? It doesn't matter that much.
I spent years running what was technically an unstable OC on my i7 920 because my cooler back then couldn't keep things steady under Prime95 for long. Still, it never crashed on me during gaming (temps stayed around 70ish C in games, but went >90C under stress). Now that I have the Noctua NH-D14, I can push it with whatever I want, though I don't notice any difference in daily use—it just runs cooler.

wiredotter14 said:In theory, sure, if you want a 100% stable overclock, but honestly, it isn't that big of a deal.
For years, I ran an unstable overclock on my i7 920 because my old cooler just couldn't keep things steady under Prime95 for long periods, but I never had any crashes while gaming (temps stayed around 70°C during games, though they'd spike over 90°C under stress). Now that I've got the Noctua NH-D14, I can push it with whatever I want, though I don't notice much difference in daily use besides it running cooler.

I picked up an x5650 Xeon to replace my i7 920; not only is it a 6/12 CPU, but since it's 32nm, the temperatures are way lower. It cost me about $10.50. Highly recommend this upgrade.

Just thought I’d drop a quick update on where things stand. Core number 3 is being stubborn—won't touch anything above 4.3GHz without pushing the voltage way too high. Core 1 hits 4.5GHz at 1.325V, while core 2 manages 4.5GHz at 1.330V. Then there's core 3, which barely scrapes 4.4GHz unless I crank it up to 1.375v. Couldn't even get to the fourth core because the third one just wouldn't cooperate. For now, I've settled everything at 4.3GHz @ 1.300V, applied a tiny 0.005v + offset, and ran through 25 IBT tests. AIDA64 held up for about 3 hours. From what I've read online, Haswell and Prime95 aren't exactly "best friends," so take that for what it's worth. Here’s the snapshot after the last round of testing:
I'm definitely going to perform a Delid soon to deal with this nearly 10°C gap; I'd really like to see that variance back down to a more sane 0-5°C range.



These temps are actually looking pretty decent after a few gaming sessions, even under 100% load at 1.300v.

Alexander Moore67 said:Picked up an x5650 Xeon and swapped out my i7 920. Not only is it a 6/12 CPU, but the 32nm architecture means temperatures are way lower. Cost me $10.50. Highly recommend this upgrade.

Yeah, I know it'd be a great upgrade, but realistically, once I start working in a year or two, I'll just overhaul the whole platform. For now, it gets the job done. I used to play Rising Storm 2 (Unreal Engine 3) and Fortnite. The CPU handles both fine, though I think my bottleneck is either single-core performance or the RX 580 at 1440p.

Mostly playing Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition now. It runs even with my mining rig running in the background 😁

I’ve got a question for you all... I stumbled upon this deal on Amazon, and it’s an interesting one: they're offering a Ryzen 5 3600X + Corsair Vengeance 2x8GB DDR4 3600MHz + MSI Tomahawk Max for $340. Is this actually worth grabbing right now, or should I just hold out for something better? I realize this would be a massive leap from my current setup, but looking at the specs, that motherboard seems like a beast for overclocking. My plan is to stick with my 120GB SSD and old hard drives for the time being, along with the GTX 1060 and the 750W PSU. Then, maybe next year, I'll pick up an M.2 drive, an RTX 20-series card, and who knows, maybe even another RAM kit. What do you think?

You living in the States? What’s the individual cost looking like?

CPU: $200
RAM: $80
Motherboard: $110
In the US, that works out to about a $40 discount once you factor in shipping costs.

In the end, you're going to pay more for that than if you had just bought it right here.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VGRJDFY
$1467

https://www.newegg.com/p/cart/example better RAM speed $1523

If I end up dropping $400, well, it’s still $567 less
than what I was expecting.

We can't see your cart. Did you account for sales tax?

I’ve been crunching the numbers—not that I’m a math whiz, mind you—but basically, we’re looking at almost double the cost for the exact same components. It’s a joke. Every time I need to pick up hardware, I run it through a buddy’s business to keep things tax-free and just handle the shipping separately, whereas here, they just bake the shipping costs right into the sticker price. Makes everything feel twice as heavy on the wallet.

Kevin Newman6 said:My math says otherwise. Basically, the same components cost nearly twice as much here. Everything I buy, I run through a buddy's company—tax-free, just shipping included. Over here, shipping is baked right into the price.

So you're telling me you'll order from Amazon using some US company, handle the import, and just dodge the sales tax?

There’s no customs fee involved because everything gets routed through a warehouse in the Netherlands, and since we're within the US, you don't deal with customs on domestic shipments—you only hit those fees if something's coming from outside our borders. His company works with all sorts of other American IT firms; they handle just about everything, but mostly electrical gear and components. When he orders parts, he lists them under R&D expenses for the company. From what I've gathered, he stays well under whatever threshold would trigger any massive sales tax headaches.

If you're ordering through Amazon.com, you're either paying 25% IRS on the delivery via the Amazon program or handling the import yourself through your business. I have no clue what kind of warehouse in the Netherlands you're talking about. Either way, you really ought to be comparing that cost against the net price here in the States if you're buying it under a corporate account.

Everyone’s piling into this one warehouse over in the Netherlands because apparently there’s some loophole in the tax code—I haven't the slightest clue which one, honestly—that lets them dodge customs entirely. They get this 25% net price reduction that you pay upfront, and then at the end of the fiscal year when you're settling up with the IRS, you get it all back as a refund. If you buy stuff domestically here in the States, you're stuck paying the full sales tax immediately. It's a brilliant little setup they've got over there, if you can believe it. But looking at my own math, I actually end up paying more $267 even if they handed me that 25% discount on a silver platter. Honestly, even if I just buy it locally and deal with the headache of customs, sales tax, and all those other bureaucratic absurdities, I still come out ahead by $133 less