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Originally Posted by ishotmydog i don't think i have ever been this confused before . here i go again :
1. e2160+abit ip35 = 8.5K
2. AMD X2 5200 + ASUS M2A-VM = 8.6k
i will not overclock my processor if it voids my warranty, so in that case the vote goes to AMD because it is better than the intel when stock.
but as amey said you as long as you dont hardmod the motherboard, or cause some physical damage to the hardware,there is no way to find out whether a particular hardware was overclocked or no. in this case because intel can be overclocked more, vote goes to the Intel.
also will not be buying a gpu immediately because the computer guy said that he doesnt keep the HD3650(i wonder why), and now since amey has convinced me, will only buy that. so i will have to find it someplace else, then which of the two has better onboard graphics??
OT - how exactly do you overclock a CPU(as in where you don't loose your warranty)?? |
Well, when it comes to motherboards with onboard graphics, i will have to say, AMD has much better boards.
Their own chipset, launched recently , AMD780G is a gem of a chipset with arguably the fastest DX10.1 compatible onboard GPU.Whats more, it even supports Hybrid Crossfire where in after adding another AMD Graphic Card later on, the onboard GPU and the Card combine to give better performance.
If i were to buy ONLY AMD platform as of now, i would go with this chipset based motherboard, reasons being -
1) Hypertransport 3.0 support
2) Hybrid Crossfire
3) AMD Phenom full support (Phenom = AMD's Quadcore CPU)
4) Best onboard Graphics money can buy right now
5) Good HTPC related features like HDMI.
As to your question related to overclocking, the overclocking potential of any particular platform heavily depends on the options made available in the BIOS.That itself decided how much you can overclock.
Almost all CPUs have a fixed multiplier and they work at a predefined System Bus speed, HTT in case of AMD A64 CPUs and FSB in case of Intel CPUs.
For Example,
Intel Core2Duo E8400 has a fixed multiplier of 9x and is rated to work at 1333MHz FSB
1333MHz FSB is a Quad pumped Bus so base frequency is actually 333MHz.
so 333 x 9 = ~ 3000MHz.
Now with a motherboard with good overclocking features,
you can adjust the FSB speed as the multiplier is fixed.
So say you bump the FSB speed from 333 to 400 MHz,
it will be 3.6GHz
This way you can overclock.But sometimes if the chip is not that great, it might get unstable with stock Vcore( voltage to the CPU) which is anywhere in between 1.2v-1.4v generally.
Then you might need to increase the vcore through BIOS to gain stability at a particular overclock.
With high FSB overclocks like 500MHz or more, you might need to increase VMCH (voltage to Chipset, Northbridge to be specific)
All such options are opened up in motherboards supporting overclocking.The available options vary with Mid end to High End boards, high end boards having the maximum options available for perfect fine tuning.
With overclocking related boards, you can adjust the Memory timings also to gain better system performance by overclocking the memory to higher speeds and tighter timings.
So as long as you play in safe limits, overclocking is fun and you get better performance too,thus enhancing your Value for money aspect of the system.
With Mid End boards, the options enabled in the BIOS are generally kept on the safer side keeping in mind that most of the people who would buy such boards would be novices,this makes things simpler and risk of damaging hardware reduced.
Newer CPUs have thermal protection. Meaning, CPUs have a inbuilt Thermal Diode to guage the temperatures and the manufacturer designs them in such a way that if the CPU exceeds a predefined threshold of temperature it will automatically shutdown, avoiding damage to the CPU.So killing a CPU is quite tough.
The only scenario when you can kill a CPU is when you pas insane amount of voltage through it ( such options are available only on High end boards)
For example,
Intel Core2Duo E8400 has a nominal working voltage of ~ 1.15-1.2V at stock speeds.
Intel specifies that maximum voltage that can be passed through this CPU is ~ 1.45V
Now when you exceed this limit, the CPU wont die immediately but unknowingly it detoriates slowly and one fine day just gives up.
Normally people dont use such high voltages while overclocking with Air Cooling or Water Cooling.
They use it only with extreme cooling (Sub Zero), i know i am shameless but yes, i have passed 1.8V
Whats more, people have even passed 2.1V through it, only to know that the chip is dead in a weeks time
So this is how you basically overclock and this is what overclocking is all about.
Hope that helped you