On Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:58:19 -0700, "Calif Bill"
wrote:



Why the hell would anybody overclock a modern CPU chip?

To get a better benchmark than another overclocker, and brag.
Same with the Intel vs AMD crap.

You are number 1
asking for problems with any hardware race condition possible. And most PC
use at home is more bandwidth limited by parts outside the CPU. Maybe if
you had a 5000 cell spreadsheet, with lots of formulas, there would be a
difference between CPU's but 99.99999% of home use and even business use
would be fine with a 2 ghz cpu. The closest to needing the really fast CPU
are the gamers, and they are better off getting some of the new game
consoles. Look how long it takes to boot a PC anymore. Most of the time is
watching the disk activity light being on. A 10k rpm drive with good
caching would help a lot, but even with read ahead, the disk is a lot of the
limitation anymore.

You can set up RAID for better performance too, but I never tried it
since I seldom have a game slowdown with 7500rpm disks.
A lot of PC gamers have no interest in game consoles, including me.
Most of the bleeding edge stuff is overkill. Benchmark bragging
rights. Like a car that can go 165mph but is always driven under 90,
and mostly at 25.
I upgraded my PC once to play a new game the old one couldn't handle.
That was a few years ago, and I've been solid with every subsequent
high-demand game.
After the P4 came out, the only things that kills game play is
insufficient memory or video card capability.

--Vic