Downsides of Overclocking?

[ukballer1012]

From what I can see on tigerdirect and newegg at least and just people talking about the subject, it's sounding like the only risk of over clocking is just overheating. Is this the only downside? So in theory, assuming the cpu is cooled 100% to its needs, I'd have nothing to worry about, in terms of performance, stability and etc if I overclock my cpu?

I realize there are other downsides like it wont last as long, but that is probably because one is assuming the oc'ed cpu isnt being cooled enough, which would branch from the overheating issue.

[Dngrsone]

Well, there's the whole possibility of data corruption as well, which usually manifests in the form of the computer locking up on you spontaneously...

[JCB]

overheating and possibility of damaging computer components such as the CPU / Motherboard, If your system was to hang / crash because of the heat the could lose data / unsaved work

[strollin]

Overheating, instability and shortened component lifetime.

[Dragonslayer]

I remember overclocking my old 3.5 ghz phenom processor to 4.9 with an aftermarket cooler.... It was awesome for the 5 minutes before it died RIP

[The Trickstarrr]

Fun while they work, a fire hazard permanently and useless when they die, which is normally quickly if you do it to high

[Daplodas]

If you overclock the CPU, it has the potential that you would lose all the data or CPU overheated and permanent damage:-(

[TechWiz8000]

Possibly overheat if you dont know what your doing and cause permanent damage to the cpu and motherboard if you have a standard crappy fan

[Der-PC-Mann]

If done RIGHT, with research, and with the right gear, then it's fine, otherwise, yes, data loss from crashes, stability issues, damaged components, etc.

TBH, I've found the main reasons for things going wrong regarding OCing, is heat. I've never come across proper references to hardware being damage solely because.. well, because it was overclocked; it's always "it overheated" or "it melted" or "there was smoke" etc. Other ways thing can be damaged regarding overclocking, is overclocking the voltage of components, which I consider to be quite risky if you aren't careful.

People seem to have a habit of running their (for example) CPU at temperatures beyond what is the maximum recommend by the CPU's manufacturer, and they'll do this for a while, then wonder why their CPU died. The temperature doesn't seem to always have to be extreme, just enough that it's too much for it, over time. Heat has pretty much always equaled lifetime, which is why some of us always strive for a cool system, because a cool system is a happy system.

Anyway, to answer your question:

No.

[aPanzerIV]

Data corruption n stuff ussually comes from low end mobo's not being able to handle the higher power consumption of the processor. Overheating can dud your processor if it happens enough, even with OH protection. I'de say the safe heat limit for any processor is 65C tops, no higher.

I thought i fried my E7500 when I oc'd it to 3.8 on my biostar board. the rma wouldn't post with it, so I used it as a lapping test. I used it to test a board where another processor died, and it came up with an O/C error on every boot, but still ran fine.