Dual core and new Asus overclocking BIOS

[dbarrow]

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2822

The introduction of Core 2 Duo about a month ago delivered a new processor with about a 25% improvement in performance over the fastest chips in the market. The top-line X6800, running at 2.93GHz, was the most flexible of the new processors, with completely unlocked multipliers up and down. This allowed settings like running the stock speed at a 12x multiplier (3.5GHz) at default voltage - the result of the incredible head room exhibited by the new Conroe processors. ...

*Interesting prospects on getting some big bumps with Conroe dual core processors. Asus makes overclocking easy!

[jcampi]

I'm looking forward to building my first PC late this fall. I've often wondered about over clocking. How do you know how much you can safely over clock a chip before risk damaging it? Is there a rule of thumb or guideline?

[dbarrow]

With THERMAL THROTTLING and shutdown built into the new CPUs, it is almost impossible to fry them.
Combined with the newer and more advanced BIOS these days, a failed OC just results in the machine rebooting and resetting to stock configuration. It will even take you straight into BIOS setup to make new adjustments.
Most that are overclock friendly, like Asus, have automatic and painless OC settings built in that are already pre-configured. Unless you want to get extreme, where you have to bump voltages, etc., just select automatic AI OC and choose 10, 20, 30%, save and reboot. Depending on the multiplier of the CPU, 30% OC is a big jump up. These AI settings are usually quite reliable and rock solid. All the dual cores are showing much headroom over stock and easily reaching 1.5X their stock speeds without a gripe.

[Pi rules]

The key is to go little by little. I'm pretty sure (may confirm this before school starts on Wed :sad:) that my Pentium D 930 @ 3.0 GHz maxes out at ~3.6 (20%) no matter what the temp, must be a minor manufacturing flaw. :cry2:

I've hit 20+ % on a Celeron D 330 - 2.66 to over 3.192 stock cooling, but it's performance was still low on benchmarks due to 256 L2 cache. :laugh: