Hy guys,I don't mean no disrespect with this question, I just don't know:isn't oc. a component reducing it's life span,I mean why bother buy an expensive CPU for example when you can buy a cheap one and then overclock it to a higher frequency.I would gladely oc my CPU aswell as the graphics card.. thanks guys

"I mean why bother buy an expensive CPU for example when you can buy a cheap one and then overclock it to a higher frequency"

In some cases, it is better to buy a cheap CPU, however, both AMD and Intel's highend CPU Athlon FX and P4 9xx/xE are multiplier lock free, meaning you do not have to raise the FSB and simply raise the multiplier to enjoy overclocking. Like 200x17 = 3400Mhz, for these expensive CPU, they can go for 200x18 = 3600Mhz so that you don't have to worry about other components be disturb due to high FSB w/o a PCI-E/AGP/PCI lock at 100/66/33... Also, if the mulitiplier can be free adjust, you can go with the high CPU external frequency to get more performance.. Instead of doing 200x18=3600Mhz, you can try 300x12=3600 to get more performance out of it.

Secondly, even though you can buy a cheap CPU and overclock it to the max, sometimes you will need better cooling to keep the CPU within safe temperature. For example, I can buy a 2Ghz CPU at $100 and the 3Ghz cost $300. The 2Ghz CPU can be overclock to 3Ghz but requires better cooling like water due to increase voltage. If the water cooling itself cost $250, is it more justified to buy a $300 CPU instead of $100 CPU + $250 water cooling = $350??

TMP-Man

Asus P5P800-SE
P4 506 2.66Ghz @ 4100Mhz 1.525v
Thermaltake CLP0024 w/ 2000RPM FAN
1024MB DC Corsair DDR400
40GB 5400RPM/120GB 7200RPM HD
128MB Radoen 9500 mod 9700 @ 360/585

There are those infrequent times when overclocking is simply a logical necessity (Athlon XP 2400+/2500+/2600+ = Athlon XP 3200+) but most of the time, it is somewhat of an adventure for folks who like to push the envelope regardless.

Now in regards to the longevity of an overclocked CPU, the truth is, you would have upgraded several times over before any damaging effects of overclocking would ever surface on the CPU.

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If you remember back in the old days with Pentium II series, the Celeron 300A was a godly overclock, 450Mhz w/o voltage increase, and that is 50% overclock. Some achieve 112x4.5 and few even did 133x4.5 = 600Mhz (100% oc needs vapochill cooling ($650+) <-- is this justified?)... IMO, to enjoy minimal price for maximum performance, a CPU must able to achieve at least 50% oc and requires air cooling to satisfy that condition... i.e the CPU I bought from newegg, 2.66Ghz o/c to 4.1Ghz, >50% overclock.. The stock cooler ran fine at 4.1Ghz just the noise I can't live with...

"Now in regards to the longevity of an overclocked CPU, the truth is, you would have upgraded several times over before any damaging effects of overclocking would ever surface on the CPU."

I heard a rumor said that the P4 505/506 series were at first made be the P4 580 4Ghz CPU, but due to heat problems, Intel downclock them to 2.66Ghz and sell them out as 505/506... By clocking them back to 4Ghz is merely back to its old self(P4 580)(Clocking back to 4Ghz where these chips were orginally design to run, I don't see a problem that it will damage the chips)... And yes I agree that you will upgrade at least 1 time before your CPU goes out due to overclocking...

TMP-Man

Asus P5P800-SE
P4 506 2.66Ghz @ 4100Mhz 1.525v
Thermaltake CLP0024 w/ 2000RPM FAN
1024MB DC Corsair DDR400
40GB 5400RPM/120GB 7200RPM HD
128MB Radoen 9500 mod 9700 @ 360/585

In most cases, the lower end & higher end CPUs of the same core type are identical. In fact, they're cut from the same wafer. Generally, the cores cut from the center of the wafer are the "cream of the crop" & are designated for higher speeds...the ones cut farther from the center are usually (but not always) slightly weaker & are destined to become lower speed CPUs.

The AMD Barton is a good example. Let's say that AMD was getting a high yield of Barton wafers capable of running at 3200+ speed (11 x 200MHz), but the demand was higher for 2500+ CPUs (11 x 166Mhz). They didn't change the wafer process to create 2500+ CPUs...all they did was lower the default FSB setting of the 3200+ CPU to 166MHz & branded them as 2500+. That's why the 2500+ Barton was such a popular choice a couple of years back...all you had to do was change the FSB from 166 to 200 & you "created" a 3200+, when in fact, it most cases, it actually WAS a 3200+.

Intel has been doing this since the days of the socket 7. There was a huge scandal when it was found that they were "rebranding" the 233MMX as 166MMX CPUs. When word leaked out about the rebranding, everyone was buying up the 166 & "overclocking" to 233. Not long afterwards, Intel began locking the multilpier on all their CPUs.

Eventually, AMD began locking the multiplier on it's CPUs too. At 1st, unlocking methods (aka "pencil trick") were developed, then they went to the "super-lock". Now, they have the "half-lock"...meaning that you can lower the mulitplier, but you can't raise it above the default.

But to wrap things up...when you buy the bottom end of a certain CPU series, you *may* in reality be getting a higher end CPU that has simply been reprogrammed to run at a slower speed. So in a way, if you increase the speed of a lower end CPU, you're not so much overclocking as you are "reclocking"

Does that make sense?

Here's a couple of articles I have bookmarked:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/display/20030319192135.html

http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=getarticle&number=1&artpage=286&articID=84

"a high yield of Barton wafers"

EDIT: That should have been, "a high yield of Barton cores"

Now,I have a 2600+ Barton on a MSI K7n2ultra
with 2x 256 ram in dual ch.:could I overclock the cpu,it already stays at about 45'C.The motherboard supports Fsb 400 but it's now set to 166,how should I proced since I have never overcloked my cpu?

I've remembered something!
The motherboard has fsb jumpers and they are now set to 166,should I set them to 400 to?

No!

Don't just start playing around with jumpers and frequencies when you don't know what you're doing or even what you're trying to achieve.

Overclocking properly requires perfect balance between many important aspects of your computer like memory and the different interfaces like FSB and HTT. Don't mess around with them if you don't know what they do.

There are plenty of forums for beginners that deal with introductory overclocking. Google it and see what comes up. In the meantime, leave your computer alone! lol