[Dwayne]

I've never had an overheating issue in the last 15+ years or so. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, I'm just saying I've never had one.

Actually, that's not true - I did have an overheating issue when I tried watercooling, the precise thing I was attempting to avoid. But, as always, each situation is different, I suppose.

I'd be completely content with a stock HSU, even as a gamer :D

[panzer]

I usually don't OC. My last build has a stock overclocked video card, but even if I UNDERclocked the thing I still had overheating issues. My best guess after a lot of work is that it was the northbridge and that the temp sensor wasn't giving me accurate readings (it said temps were OK). If I set a small desk fan blowing directly on the middle of the motherboard, the computer would run for hours (rather than 30 minutes) between crashes.

My solution was to buy a new rig and to take the cooling seriously.

I also should note, even my old rig worked fine when I had ambient temps in the ~65F range. However, I don't use AC in the summer, so on hot days the temp in my apartment can reach +90F. I can tell you right now that a stock cooler wouldn't be able to take that in stride.

[Speckz]

Dwayne, on Aug 03 2010 09:17 AM, said:

I've never had an overheating issue in the last 15+ years or so. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, I'm just saying I've never had one.

Actually, that's not true - I did have an overheating issue when I tried watercooling, the precise thing I was attempting to avoid. But, as always, each situation is different, I suppose.

I'd be completely content with a stock HSU, even as a gamer :D

Ditto!

[Fluidbat]

You can get amazing air coolers now-a-days. I think liquid is only for if you're trying to achieve a silent PC or if you're in it for min-max performance.

I had my cpu clocked stable a 3.8 on an air cooler with temps that weren't a problem at all. Then I switched to "faster" ram and apparently one stick is borked as I cannot run them at the timings I should. That's my third kit from Corsair that has not worked 100%. Done with them. After that it was like a chain reaction... all sorts of shit started happening and now my ram timings are a joke and my cpu is clocked back at 3.0 - 3.2.

GPU Overclocking never really worked for me, regardless of cooling, but EVGA makes it real easy with their performance program. I was able to achieve a stable overclock but really didn't notice any sort of performance boost in anything.

ANYWAYS.

[Keenan]

I wouldnt call myself an overclocking guru or anything (far, far from it actually), I learned just as much as I needed to to squeeze as much as possible out of my CPU/GPU. There is a lot more to learn about voltages and whatnot but I got my rig running stable for the last 2.5 years with a fairly big overclock. When I get new components I'm sure I will do a bit more research into it as to not blow up my stuffs but if it wasnt for overclocking my computer would probably have a hard time keeping up with BC2 and whatnot at this point. Maybe I am just lucky but I have been running a 1.4 ghz overclock (C2D E6750 ~ 2.4ghz bumped to 3.8) for 2.5 years now with no issues what so ever.

Im not running an OC on my GPU right now but have in the past without much in the way of problems. As long as you keep an eye on temperatures its fairly safe. (fairly the key word there)

To me that is more than worth the risk. Maybe not right away like I did, but as your components start to age a little bit and you feel like you need to upgrade something, slam some extra juice to it. If you are going to replace the parts in the near future anyways, whats the big deal (so long as you dont get into crazy temps and fry something else). I just kept my voltages as low as I possibly could and maintain stability. Works like a charm.

In closing, you are all trouts.