Is this healthy for my computer?

[Darwin]

I began to overclock my PC a little further tonight.  

So far I have abstained from changing voltage from its stock, and achieved a stable 3.19ghz.  Tonight, I decided to Up the voltage.  

I found my P4 Northwood 2.4ghz @ 3.43Ghz to be stable at 1.648v.  Is this healthy?  Currently, my temperature on load (using prime95 at full cpu load) is around 57*C.  I can actually now feel the heat coming from the case.  Feels nice.
*edit*  (this is the hottest the cpu has ever been.  Typically, it is around 35*C at load)

Anyway, I had heard of NSDS (northwood sudden death syndrome) when the voltages reached around 1.8v.  Any thoughts?


Heres a SS.  Lowered my res to 1024 for you nubs.

[JayJay]

water cool that baby  

[Darwin]

That will be my next pc.  Just waiting for DX10 hardware.  Must follow proper upgrade path.  Til then, I think I'll grab a nice Zalman cooler or something.  Intel stock, so far, has been awesome until I upped the voltage.  Also considering I had lapped the CPU heatspreader and the heatsink.

[Particle]

More than anything, the golden rule of overclocking seems to be "keep that proc cool".  For example, when I was using an AMD AthlonXP--the kind that ran at 1.65v, I looked up the tech docs on AMD's website.  The processor series was rated for like 2.1-2.3V before damage occurs.  Keeping in mind that voltage that high is rediculously boosted, I stopped worrying about overvolting my chip.  That much being said, however, you need to worry about keeping your processor cool.  As you increase voltage, you increase heat.  Not only should you try to keep below failure temp (90C for an AthlonXP for example), but you need to keep it as cool as absolutely possible.  A cool processor is a happy overclocker.  Simply boosting voltage won't always yield a clock benefit if you can't keep it cool.  Unless you've got a water cooling system that can stay about the same regardless of how much heat you are pumping into it, you need to find a balance.  Some times you won't be able to run as fast at 1.8V as you can at 1.75V, simply because you couldn't remove the extra heat well enough.

If you want to see what this Venice will do on air, I managed to overclock it by 1GHz:





As far as SNDS goes, I've heard of it.  It used to be a big deal.

Also, 60C is hotter than I would continue to run anything, personally.

[Darwin]

Yeah, I'm taking it easy on the processor now until I can get a nice copper cooler.

[JayJay]

Water cool it.  I spent around $120 on mine, but I made the water block in my machine shop class at school.  $30 for the pump, $45 for the Thermaltake Big Water radiator, around $5 for 12 ft of hosing, and around $20 for the hardware(springs, screws, nuts, etc.)

[Darwin]

If I water cool, I'm going all out, sir.  I'm deriving inspiration from this beast:

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php ... ge=1&pp=20

*edit*




Those things on the side are massive german passive radiators from FrozenCPU.com.

[Particle]

If you are going to do a total water cooling setup, don't forget to cool the power regulators as well as the normal CPU, GPU, and chipset cooling.

[Darwin]

Well, not that far.  But I am planning some really big passive radiators.  I have come to hate the 80mm aspire screamers that came stock with my case, even if they push out alot of air.  (Really they arent that loud, I'm just anal about computer sound).

You can bet that I will surround my water pump(s) with sound absorbing pads.  My main concern is really to cool the processor, northbridge, and an SLI setup.  All the parts that I chose will all need to be super-compatible with Linux, thus I may be dropping my fanboy-ism of ATI and selling out to nVidia (sorry ATI, but this just doesnt cut it!):


Where's my AA settings?  None?

Sorry, getting off topic.  I might stick with intel, since it seems that AMD is going the way of ferrari and becoming more expensive than intel.  Intel is making great headway in performance-per-watt with their mobile processors, which have made transition into more desktop settings, like the new macs.  With a great water cooling setup, imagine the overclocking capabilities.

[Particle]

I think you totally missed my point.  If you're doing water cooling on your CPU, video, and chipset (like I pointed out is the norm), make sure you cool your power regulators on your motherboard as well.  Why?  Because they can easily be pushed too far when overclocking a CPU.  If the regs are meant for <= 100W and your CPU is sucking up 150W, what do you think is going to happen?

It's something often overlooked and some times regretted.




Yeah, ATI's drivers are unacceptable compared to nVidia's.

[Darwin]

Any useful links for cooling power regulators?

[Particle]

Just get some large aluminum heatsinks for them and use some Arctic Alumina or what have you.  It's probably a lot easier than trying to use water on something so small and crowded.  Some are more exposed than others though and would work fine.  They're always near the CPU socket.  Here's an example from one of my old A7N8X motherboards:

[Artorius]

Jesus and water cooling will lead to salvation.

[Particle]

Water cooling has a lot of "potential" (as in heat removing potential), but I will never be comfortable putting water in my machine--until I can afford to replace it if there's a catastrophy.

In the mean time, lots of copper and big-ass low speed fans seem to work pretty well.