PC Users - Our Own Worst Enemies

It is currently 4:59AM EST, and here I sit working on an overclock. Why? Was my previous overclock bad? No, not at all. When I originally purchased my Intel Core i7 920, after a few months I worked into a comfortable overclock that was perfectly stable at 3.8GHz. That is very respectable, considering the base clock on the i7 is 2.66GHz. So why change it now?

I decided it was time for a BIOS update, along with my chipset drivers, etc. When I boot my computer up with my original BIOS settings, she no longer wanted to post. 4 hours later, and a pot of coffee, I am now sitting at my desktop writing this blog trying to get a stable clock. The upside? Well, it seems I can push her a bit further this time. I'm sitting at 4.0GHz, which is a first for this computer considering I have as of yet never been able to push her this hard and still maintain decent temperatures and good voltages. I can't imagine what that BIOS update did, but something magical happened.

So, likely for the next few hours, I'll be sitting here checking temperatures, stability etc.

I would like to recommend a few programs by the way. If you are an EVGA motherboard owner, I would highly recommend E-LEET, which is available here ----> http://www.evga.com/eleet/ <---- This program allows you to make adjustments from within Windows itself, which is quite useful when you have a stable enough overclock to get into Windows and only need to make minor changes with voltages, etc.

Two other highly recommended programs are Prime95 (http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft/) which allows you to "torture" test your PC, putting it through it's likely highest temperature range and checking for stability and RealTemp (http://www.techpowerup.com/realtemp/) which allows you to get a better sense of what temperatures your CPU(s) are actually reading. Both of these programs are critical for testing a stable overclock.

I would like to point out that overclocking your computer is not something for the faint of heart. Doing so poses serious risk to damaging your CPU, motherboard and other devices. Inevitably, this can also void your warranty on said parts. Only those with experience with computers and/or overclocking should attempt to do so. If you are new to overclocking, I recommend lots of studying before doing so.


So, I'm going to get back to it. Hopefully in the future I won't ambush myself by trying to update something like my BIOS.

*SIGH*


-Cody Bergland