overclocking should be done little by little over a period of time TS. and you better know what you're doing. AMDs are not as safe as intel with overclocking. better check some of the overclocking guide here and try to understand as much as you can. overclocking blindly is a good way to waste money. 0.2Ghz increment is not that significant is most cases.

about the prime and benchmark thing:
it is to show stability. your system will rarely be pushed as much as with these benchmarking softwares. so if you're system is considered stable doing you daily task, there are still instability in your system that just haven't been discovered. so if your system is not stable with prime or any other benchmark software, your system is not 100% stable. it is only stable for your daily task.

This post has been edited by zeroglyph: Dec 28 2006, 10:37 PM

well, that's what i'm basing it on. i'm not too updated with AMD technology, but i'm pretty sure Intel can still run safe without heatsink . i know that AMD can be overclock, but i've seen for a fact(forgot which website) an overheated athlon got fried and an Intel will only throttle down and reboot. so let me rephrase that abit:

"AMD is overclockable as much as Intel(if not better), but it may not be as failsafe as intel "

exactly what i mean. intel will not fry itself due to its throttle down and reboot feature. by not updated, i mean i know that athlon does not have this feature, i just don't know whether the newer AMD model has it. so it is my bad for basing on old tech.

by failsafe, i mean a p4 can be overclocked without worries on stock, but an athlon will fry if clocked too much on stock. with proper cooling, it's a different story already.

by "knowing how to handle things" means, it is no longer in failsafe territory because they already know how to do things.

i'm not trying to mislead or "wreck havoc", just a precaution based on experience. if that's wrong, then.....whatever.

by athlon i mean athlon XP. the research papers i read was a comparison between p4 and athlon XP.