I have a Intel dual core E7400 @ 2.80 ghz, and a nvidia geforce 240. I was wondering if overclocking to 3.2 ghz would result in better fps. I am also worried about increasing the voltage, because i have an extremely low power supply only 280 watts
3.2ghz would get you another 10-20% increase in gaming speed depending on the game. So if you have a lot of games running at 45-50fps when they should be running 60, it may be enough to make them run full speed. That's a low enough overclock you may not need to increase voltage, and if you're squeamish at all about it... it may be best not to until you have a better powersupply and cooler.
That said, you will never destroy any component from having too low of a power supply. The only problem it could cause is random restarts or shut downs and if it occurred you could easily readjust it. You may need to pull the power cord from the PC a few moments if it happens (some mobos refuse to be turned on in certain cases) and the worst case scenario would be pulling the CMOS battery from the mobo for 30 seconds to restore your bios settings to default. Nothing that couldn't easily be taken care of.
Let me just add that Intel stock coolers are rubbish. If you plan on over clocking, you need to at least upgrade your cooler/heatsink.
(12-21-2009, 07:54 AM)Todd318 Wrote: [ -> ]I have a Intel dual core E7400 @ 2.80 ghz, and a nvidia geforce 240. I was wondering if overclocking to 3.2 ghz would result in better fps. I am also worried about increasing the voltage, because i have an extremely low power supply only 280 watts
With your power supply i would not recommend overclocking at all.You could end up blowing your motherboard and or graphic card.
(12-21-2009, 08:07 AM)Koji Wrote: [ -> ]That said, you will never destroy any component from having too low of a power supply. The only problem it could cause is random restarts or shut downs and if it occurred you could easily readjust it. You may need to pull the power cord from the PC a few moments if it happens (some mobos refuse to be turned on in certain cases) and the worst case scenario would be pulling the CMOS battery from the mobo for 30 seconds to restore your bios settings to default. Nothing that couldn't easily be taken care of.
I have seen blown graphic cards due to low capacity power supplies.Trust me man.
You can easily overclock it to 3200mhz without having also to buy a different fan. Just overclock your processor the way it has to go (following a guide and not just jump into the bios and only change the mhz!). So lock things, disable speedstep, memory 1-1 with bus speed etc. etc. Overclock in steps of 5mhz bus speed (is not processorspeed, your multiplier is 10.5). Stress your PC with Orthos for many hours to test stability.
For example my E6750 runs 2666mhz standard 1.30v. I can make it run at 2950mhz while still not increasing the voltage. But even increasing the voltage a bit won't use much more energy. My E6750 runs at 3200mhz with only 1.34v. That is little watts more for like 550mhz speed increasement!). That's not gonna blow your PC.
You will even do better and get more speed increase per volt as you have a 45nm processor. Mine is a 65nm processor.
I am sure you can overclock quite some without having to use more energy. 45nm processors like your E7400 are good at that.
Here two links that you need for overclocking:
Your processor:
http://processorfinder.intel.com/details...Spec=SLGQ8
Thermal Specification: 74.1°C (so max temp measured with Realtemp = 74 degrees)
Thermal Design Power: 65w (is same energy use as mine)
VID Voltage Range: 0.85V – 1.3625V (max voltage your processor may handle = 1.36v)
And a guide to overclock:
http://www.sharkyextreme.com/hardware/gu..._oc_guide/
But you can look on the internet for tons of other guides as well.
Half the people on this planet overclocked theirs already so it's not a PC freak thing. And Intel is even encouraging it.
Good luck overclocking, it's very safe if you follow the rules/guides.
Your intel fan will serve you well with the little overclock of 3200mhz speed, no need to buy a different one.
If you are going to post that kind of q in an OCing forum, they're gonna tell you to forget about OCing if you are not getting a good psu...While its true that you didnt mention the make/model of the psu, it still is on the low side of things (280w is the advertised power output; if it is a generic one, its going to be far lower than the advertised rating which is bad considering that you have good components that suck up wattage). Aside from that, OCing requires stable flow of juice....and you're gonna hope for hope that your psu is up to the task.
And that's why you stress your CPU while increasing overclock everytime in Orthos/OCCT or Prime.
As long as it runs stable, there is enough supply power at hand. And the CPU won't make any error.
To be honest, I'm shocked that it's even booting. I would worry about stability at stock CPU settings, forgetting about OC settings. Your main focus now should definitely pick up a new PSU, 650w+ . Those things are not that expensive anymore, even the brand name models.