Overclocking newbie a bit confused if I should take the dive

Hello all, I am new to the forums and have a question. Right now I seem to be at an impasse. I have never overclocked before but ever since hearing about it have wanted to try it. But before I do I have several quick questions. Right now I am runing a Dell mobo so I would need to buy a new one in order to OC from the bios. I already have one picked out, but I also do want to get myself a Razar Naga mouse and I can only get one or the other at the moment so I want to make sure I make an informed choice. The CPU I am currently running is a Wolfdale E6500 @ 2.93 ghz, which is its stock speed. I upgraded from the stock dell processor that came with my Inspirion 530s and noticed a big difference. But what I am wondering is how big a difference overclocking will actually make.

Right now I mainly play WoW, and from what I understand it is more CPU intensive then GPU, so I figured that a slight overclock would be pretty beneficial, with the new expansion coming and upgrades visually to certain parts of the game I want to run it was smoothly as possible on my budget. I do say a slight overclock because I have never done so before and dont want to get out of hand. From what I understand the CPU I have is a great overclocker, but I dont know if my expectations are too high since my knowledge of overclocking is trivial.

So, to summarize, do you think that overclocking may be beneficial in my position, and if so, how much might I need to overclock to see any real gains in a game like WoW that relies more in the CPU? Or should I probably not worry about it since I have an alright cpu and dont play anything too modern like Crysis and instead spend my money on that Razar I have my eyes on. Thanks in advance for any answers.
 
i wouldn't bother, that processor is plenty capable for what you need it for... so why risk it?

overclocking is, by all means, not a difficult procedure but if you're new i would advise you to do some searching for a similar configuration and see what each setting does. there are quite a few message boards besides TS that specialize in OC configurations and support. please keep in mind that your cooling system plays one of the biggest (if not the biggest) roles in overclocking, so read up on different cooling options as well if you plan on giving it a try.
 
Overclocking my phenom from 2.5 ghz to 3.1 ghz does very little to improve the framerates in wow. Maybe 2 to 3 at the most.

Personaly i would not bother.

Razer naga looks very nice though ;)
 
The fun of building computers and experimenting is what makes it exciting. Captain Kirk once said," Risk if part of the game if you want to sit in that Captains chair". I would do my research and make sure that you have adequate cooling and go for it. I've had my old Q6000 at 3-to 3.5Ghz for a few years and so far no issues. Just don't over do it. I treat my PC like my car and so far no issues.
 
Overclocking is certainly something one as a computer-enthusiast should try out! But be warned though; if you're planning on doing this only to improve on game FPS-rates, then you shouldn't really bother taking the leap.

After all, there is a slight risk involved. :eek:

But my advice to you is the following:
If you want to start overclocking simply because, then you could try purchasing a cheap non-gaming motherboard (or an expensive one, for all I care) and overclock it until your computer crashes! (Seriously, it's a wacky idea, but I personally thought it totally worth it :D ) Overclocking is indeed fun, but expect the machine to misbehave from time to time, such as boot-failing and so on...
 
I find overclocking rewarding and exciting. It takes baby steps and patients. As a first step, I would Download CPU-z, speed fan, and SUPER PI, all are free.

CPU-z tells you things like clock frequencies and voltages. YOU WILL WANT TO PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO THESE SETTINGS.

Speed fan measures temperatures and can show you a graph of the temperatures over time. Very useful for testing temperature under load.

I use super PI as 1) to measure the progress in overclocking. 2) it is a quick way to test if your overclock is stable. Keep note that Super Pi is not 100% accurate in measuring stability, but it will become obvious in other programs if your OC is not stable.

Post some screen shots of CPU-z and I can help walk you through the overclocking process.

EDIT:

Just realized that this thread is dead...
 
Well,you shoudl rlly overclock,2.9 ghz is pretty good,no real need to have over 3.0 in most games today

if just WOW,then no,iwouldnt do it
 
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