probably a really dumb question but: When ur overclocking, is it the fact that the cpu is overheating cause the instability? or is it some other factor? (i.e i have an athlon1.2 oced to 1.333 when i push it to 1.4 it becomes unstable. i'm getting myself a dragon orb 3 for my cpu. if i oc it above 1.333 will it remain stable because its cooler?)
It's very difficult to say what causes unstability. The biggest reason for this is of course overheating, if it weren't why the HC clockers would use LN2? (Like here, http://www.muropaketti.com/artikkelit/cpu/northwood2200/ln2/index.phtml) But it's not that simple. Let's say that you have a CPU that stable in 1GHz and temp 50°C. But if you OC it to 1,1GHz the 50°C temp might not be enough low to keep the system stable. It needs more cooling. It might be stable at 45°C and so on. i.e. you OC it to 1,6Ghz it would require 10°C.
cascade? like the cascade effect then? ie 1ghz requires the temp to be 50degC 1.1ghz - 45degC 1.2ghz - 40degC ahhh muchos explainos - thx ;D
What causes the system to become unstable at high clock speeds is that data gets corrupted. What should be a 0 is a 1, and vice versa. This is caused by several things. It can be caused by the chip just trying to go too fast for its design, or excess heat can give the electrons enough energy to randomly turn one to the other. This can also happen due to the right combination of solar radiation hitting your CPU, although chance of that is so slim that it's probably never happened in the history of computing (although it theoretically could, and becomes more likely as CPUs get smaller with more and more transistors).
This problem can be "helped" (damn my poor english) by adjusting the core voltage of CPU. This makes the signal (1 or 0) stonger so they don't get mixed up so easily. Rising the voltage usually gives the "last boost" to CPU to reach the limits. i.e. it's almost stable in 1,5Ghz with normal voltages it might be rock stable with higher voltage. You can safely adjust the core voltage from BIOS because nowdays the MoBo's wont let you to set it higher than it's safe (HC O/Cs usually make voltage mods for their MoBos to get more voltages). Of course there is down side in this. CPU naturally heats up more when the voltage is higher. Of course this appies other way too. If you just want to cool it down and not to overclock it, you might want to adjust the voltage lower than specs say...
Re: cascade? BTW, you get the ° like this. Press ALT-key. Tap 0 and 1 and 7 and 6 from numpad. Then release ALT-key. °
WOW! hey! big thanx everyone! pc running steady at 1.4Ghz now with a cpu temp of only 49° THANX! :rofl::rofl::rofl:
