While, yeah, in the long run (say 10-15 years), overclocking probably is not good. However, who really has the same computer for 10-15 years? Then take those people from that small group who would overclock it.
Overclocking becomes more hazardous when people start applying too much voltage. A little extra voltage can help give the CPU or RAM that extra kick to keep firing, but going too far above that can cause more heat than the cooling can handle. In some cases, notably the Pentium 4 (specifically the Northwood core) may simply fail, regardless of cooling if a voltage threshold is exceeded after a point.
RAM can be tweaked and overclocked. They are linked together, but newspaws has the relationships mixed up with some FSB thrown it. RAM will run at a tighter latency (lower number) with a lower speed than at a higher one. Conversely, a looser (higher number) can allow for a higher speed. This assumes that you’re being held back by the RAM in the first place. Overclocking can be fine-tuned by fiddling with these settings.
It’s not mixing standards to say that you have PC3200 (DDR400) and an 800MHz FSB. Look at a Pentium 4 system with an 800MHz FSB. For optimal performance, it needs to be equipped with PC3200. You can go with higher-speed stuff, but you won’t render any benefit unless overclocking. You can go lower, but then you have to run the CPU slower or run the memory at a divider. If the CPU loves memory bandwith, as is the case with the AthlonXP’s (although the P4’s did too), this will kill it. People that have a P4 sporting an 800MHz FSB are correct. However, in this case, there are a couple of things you need to understand.
1.)PC-DDRxxxx relation. I’m going to assume you’ve read that for the rest of my post.
2.)The Pentium 4 (and Celeron’s based off the P4 designs) utilize a quad-pumped FSB. The base frequency is multiplied by 4. To achieve and 800MHz FSB, you start off with a base frequency of 200MHz. Tie this in with PC3200 (as explained in the link) and you get your matchup.
HyperTransport is usually denoted as ‘HTT’, while HyperThreading is denoted as ‘HT’. HyperTransport is a bus, while Hyperthreading makes use of the long execution pipeline of the Pentium 4 design to process additional data when parts of the pipeline aren’t being used by another process. It’s a half-assed multi-CPU execution. The Core 2’s design is about efficiency, whereas the P4 was about scaling to high clock speeds. Core 2 doesn’t have the longer pipelines, so while Intel probably could implement HyperThreading, it wouldn’t be as optimal. There’s also a new CPU war, and that’s about stuffing as many cores onto a die as possible.
