[Pc_Support] AM2 Based motherboards, Overclocking & Linux

[Bryan J. Smith]

On Tue, 2006-07-18 at 21:01 -0500, Patrick wrote:
> The  real problem with overclocking is that the PCI buss gets over 
> clocked, also.  Many peripheral device cards just can't take it.

Actually, this is _not_ the case on the A64/Opteron.  The memory and I/O
interconnects are _separate_ and no sychronized timing is necessary
without any performance hit.

In reality, overclocking _maybe_ nets you another 5-15%, maybe 20% in a
rare model.  It was worth it when 33-50% was possible as we weren't
pushing 20+W through them.  But today, not only will you eventually
cause your processor to stop working at some point, but you'll often
start getting more and more errors before then.  Same deal with GPUs,
you'll get an increased number of "artifacts" until the GPU eventually
just dies.

It's only useful if you upgrade every 3-6 months and honestly don't
care, or are happy if your CPU/GPUs last 12 months.  Me?  I recycle
_all_ my old components to family or LUG members, so I don't like to
pass on "overclocked" components that won't clearly operate as well.



-- 
Bryan J. Smith          Professional, technical annoyance
mailto:b.j.smith at ieee.org    http://thebs413.blogspot.com
---------------------------------------------------------
The world is in need of solutions.  Unfortunately, people
seem to be more interested in blindly aligning themselves
with one of only two viewponts -- an "us v. them" debate
that has nothing to do with finding an actual solution.