Should I overclock?

[blackoutHERO]

I have been trying to play MK: DD and it runs slower than normal speed with about 30FPS. I'm capable of overclocking my processor speed to 3.4GHz but am worried about the damage it can cause.

Any help is appreciated


Specs:

Intel® Core™ i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz
6.00 GB RAM
ATI Radeon HD5870
Windows7 64-bit

[abfab126]

Oc is fine as long as you know what you are doing : Watch your temps with CoreTemp and get a proper CPU Fan ( I will advise a Noctua ^^) Other than that It depends a lot on the quality of your components (some brands are better ,avoid MSI for example.. ,and give us your motherboard references ,idem for the rest of your setup .

Cheers!

[blackoutHERO]

It's this PC with the 5870, W7 and 1.5TB harddrive.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-030-OE

They have provided instructions on how to overclock and it seems fairly simple. I just don't know how much overclocking affects a system. Will it reduce the lifespan by years?

[abfab126]

Yes ,well , OCing does affect the life of your components , but I dont think you need to Oc that computer , it should run your games just fine .

BUT if you do , first thing you need to do is check your actual temperatures(at stock speed with Core temp) ,then Oc a little and check your temps again , then you 'll have to found the max temp your cpu can handle with your actual Fan .Then you'll have to swap it for a better one if you have the inel one.

Last thing , the motherboard that comes with your pc ,and even if its an excellent brand , is the cheapest one from the X58 series , so dont expect too much from your Oc (3.4 - 3.6Ghz will certainly be a limit to the whole setup) ,but , this rig is great , even at stock speed , better check how to setup Dolphin a little , maybe ... ^^

Cheers !

[blackoutHERO]

So is it possibly my settings that are causing my games not to run at full speed?

[wasup]

no even with optimizing that you won't gain that much more speed.... it should be at at least 3ghz for fullspeed

[Unknownforce]

i7 without O/C is not worth spending the money on... should have just gone with an E8400 or Q6600 or something if you weren't planning on O/C'ing.