Why would anybody overclock?

[womfalcs7]

I have a question.....Why would anybody overclock their hardware? I'd spend extra money and get me faster parts rather than exhaust the cheaper ones. Overclocking shortens the lifespan of processors and ram modules which means a person would have to buy more in a shorter amount of time. If you spend more money to buy a faster piece, it'll last longer which means you'll probably save money. I don't know.

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[Kodo]

I agree with you but there are times when someone simply cannot afford the extra dough for the higher clocked CPU,thus they spend some time to overclock.. ultimately they get the same performance for a lesser price provided the extra cooling didn't out-balance the cost

Others do it because they can :D

[goldfish]

*cough* flamebait

The point is, people overclock the highest specced bits of hardware too. They want to get the fastest possible speed with what they've got, which is fair in my eyes. I overclock my video card because its rubbish and I want to be able to play my games at a comfortable speed.

Recently, my old video card died from overheating - mainly due to dust buildup and the extra heat. Has that put my off overclocking my video card? No, I expected it to happen sooner or later, and the enjoyment gained from overclocking (in the process of finding the best speed and the extra performance in games) outweighed the fact it lasted about 6 months less than it would without an overclock.

[Rikky]

It only reduces the life of the components if you dont employ more cooling,there no evidence that I have seen that an overclocked component dies earlier than one at stock speeds,if people overclock a component by adding more voltage and increasing the frequency using the stock HSF of whatever the component the computer will let you know its had enough!

[ACE 256]

Why do people climb mountans ?? Why do people bungy jump ??? Why do thay do thies things ? It only shortans thare avarage life span .... 3 words because thay can....OCing is a hobby like any thing else....( it is to me any way )
Thare is no standing proof that OCing kills things ..But thare is proof that heat does ...OCing =heat so i under stand the misconseption ..but a smart OCer will run his\her hardware as cool as posable weather its being OCed or not....witch normaly means cooler then it whould normaly run ...Take phase change cooling whare the CPU runs at -10F or cooler OCing at thows temps WILL NOT shorten the life span of a CPU...in most cases it will last LONGER then at temps that low even if it is OCed ....