Forum: Rants
Topic: Overblown hardware reviews
started by: Hellraiser
Posted by Hellraiser on Jun. 15 2000,02:21
One thing that really ticks me off is all those hardware reviews that are out there that were done using top of the line overclocked systems. I mean, reading a review about this new graphics card running in a PIII 800 overclocked to 975 or something like that with 512 MB of PC 133 RAM, how am I supposed to know how it will perform in my more typical 500Mhz system? Of course the new card will do wonders with all that horspower behind it, but how would it benifit me? Come on! I wish there were more reviews that test hardware in more average systems so we could have a real idea of how buying the hardware will improve our systems. A lot of us can't afford a brand new computer every year, which is why we need reviews that will help us determine what upgrades will add the most to our existing computers and get another year out of them.
Posted by ScruplaniS on Jun. 15 2000,15:44
Yeah, it's just too bad that all these people care about is FPS... Everywhere you go they talk about I got this processor up to this speed and my FPS are this high! Like it is a big thing, yeesh  Personally I got a Celeron 400 OC'd to 500... but my mainboard died so I'm working on a 233 Laptop, and I get 1.5fps with low detail on my laptop yeah! ------------------
ScruplaniS
"Nothing Dies More Quickly Than A New Idea In A Closed Mind."
Posted by Nero on Jun. 15 2000,19:38
it is if it doesn't die. i saw somewhere (anandtech, i think) that as high as they've ever overclocked a video card they've never had one fry. they've had it fail to post, they've had it give horrible artifacts, but in the end it always ran. i know several people irl that have overclocked celerons that run just fine. octavian has his celery 366 running just fine at 548. kobane (who i don't think does more around here than read the bastardizations) has or did have (last time i checked)his clocked even higher. all he did was cool it down more.high end system reviews don't bother me as much as super long ones. a video card doesn't need 16 pages for a review. anand tech. i wanted a review, not something by stephen king.
Posted by eng_man on Jun. 15 2000,20:36
Yes o/c isn't a guaranteed thing, but it's like getting something for free. You buy a PIII 450 and it runs at 650, hot damn an extra 200 mhz for free, let's not get into how much money I saved by not getting a 650. And things don't break because you o/c them. Sometimes things don't work correctly, when that happens you simply slow it down or go back to stock. No harm done.Then again, you may just be a complete fuck up and do something really dumb, that in general o/c is safe. It's not the fact that the hardware sites have badass systems, that don't bother me. What really irks me is that _most_ of the time they got it for free. That's just not cool at all. I want some free stuff! ------------------
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Posted by Hellraiser on Jun. 15 2000,20:42
Well, it is kinda neat to get a faster computer without paying more, it's a case of figuring out how much you can overclock without having problems, then overclock it just a little less. An overclocked CPU running at 1.2 or 1.3 times its original speed will work fine if cooled properly for about 3 years as opposed to 5 years for a non-overclocked CPU. Since most of us will buy a new computer within those 3 years, there shouldn't be any problems. I am basing this on something I read, not personal experience. I have never kept a computer for more than 2 years and so far they've all been working when I got rid of them. The one I had before this one (which I got in May of last year) is still running fine OC'd to 266 (it was a pentium 200) and I think it must be at least 3 or 4 years old now. So it's not that much of a problem to OC. It's not something to do if you don't know what you are doing, but if you do know what you are doing you can get a PC and run it at the speed of a PC that costs 2 times as much, with just a little extra cooling.------------------
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Posted by Sithiee on Jun. 16 2000,05:30
call me a non-risk taking jew, but i think overclocking is dumb, its not a guaranteed thing, and unless your rich enough to waste money on broken parts, is the extra speed at all worth it?
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