I've not used many sets of hardware or multiple of the same cpu, but people always talk about getting lucky with their chip to achieve an overclock at low voltages. This made me wonder if that is the main point or if it is the power delivery etc on the motherboard? Or even the PSU? on that one Canadian guy's video of building computers with used parts that other Canadian guy needed an uninterruptable power supply to clean the AC from the wall to be stable when overclocked. Does that help any overclock or just if you have a poor quality power supply in your computer plus dirty wall power? Google doesn't seem to have easy information on this subject.
A cheap motherboard won't overclock well, but after a certain point on the higher end boards the silicon lottery does come into play
As far as the UPS goes, it might make some difference for low end power supplies mostly, but you shouldn't ever buy a low end PSU to begin with
It is not so much an "either/Or" situation. They both will be major factors. VRMs, Chip, Power phases, PSU, cooler all have a very important part to play. The thing with an UPS, is that they do as the name implies, they give you the time to shut down in case of power failure.
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So silicon lottery Is deffinately confirmed and not just a proposed reason to cover for a poor combination of components or wall power? Also a better quality power supply, does that simply mean better 80 plus rating or has anyone heard of an 80 plus platinum or gold being responsible for poor overclocking?
Thanks for the replies!
Yes, silicon lottery is a thing, not a huge thing, but a thing.
as far as quality PSU goes, for most of us, that usually means "dont buy crap" meaning to not spend most of your budget then buy your PSU as an afterthought. Most anything with a rating will be better than the best PSU without one. 80+(bronze, silver, gold) are measures of efficiency under %100 load. While buying a good power supply, it is also a good idea to know when you have bought too much. EVGA, Corsair, NZXT. Fractal Design all make a full range of budget, middle and high (or high*ER*) end PSUs and none of them make a "craptastic" PSU but there ARE those out there that do make stuff for the same price or at a discount that are not worthy to power an egg timer. the only way these will influence your overclock, is if they cannot produce the juice that your rig is asking for.
A decent motherboard is definitely important for overclocking.
If you plan to do some serious overclocking, you should definitely not cheap out on a motherboard and psu.
In my opinnion a motherboard is still one of the most important parts of a system.
Some people might disagree with my opinnion, but the a decent motherboard is basicly the base for a good running system.
I concur with this statement.
If a person has a holy magical CPU that can overclock to 42 GHz, that's great. If they put that into a cheap motherboard however, it's liable to end in disaster. Same idea with a PSU, if the PSU can't supply the system adequately, it's going to make for a bad day.
To compare it to a car, the CPU could be like the engine. Some engines are far better than others, some have certain features, and some have different intentions. Regardless of what engine is used, if the rest of the car is crap than that engine is as good as the flaming ball of fiery death it will probably become. If the frame (motherboard) can't handle the engine, than things are likely to break. If poor quality fuel (PSU) is used, than it might not even be noticed right off the bat if the engine isn't super high performance. Down the road after extended use however, things start to slow down and perform worse.
TL;DR - Buy once, cry once. You won't regret it in the long run when your system doesn't break and/or catch on fire.
Well lets say, that i have seen allot of people making the same mistakes over the years, with cheaping out on a motherboard.
Lets take AMD FX8 cores for example, i have seen allot of people making the same mistakes trowing those cpu´s on a cheap 4+1 powerphase board.
And then they end up with overheating vrm's and mosfets, unstable systems, and even board burn outs.
Just because they dont listen.
Agree from simple personal experience when me and my brother bought FX-6100's and brother went cheapest blue Asrock board, and I decided to go with Sabertooth R2.0? Surprise surprise that mobo didint even boot with 1866MHz memory, although it did list that same stick in the support list.
Plus I could get with stock volts +100-200Mhz OC over his setup but I have no idea if thats already silicon lottery.
Then later on I did ramp up memory to 2133MHz just fine, no issues. From this experience only I will not suggest anyone to get cheapest board.
@tehpanda64 The silicon lottery of the CPU is the absolute range of frequency that the CPU may reach, within its given voltage limits. The motherboard allows it to obtain that range.
equally important man