Nieminen Mika wrote in message <372c5bbd.0@news.povray.org>...
/a lot of stuff/

    First, let me say that this all is a terrible lot of rambling on a
question that is per se relatively off-topic. But I feel I have to comment
on some of your points.
    What you said about speed testing is not wholly true. Competition has
great importance in marketing strategies, and the need for a cheap CPU was
the only reason for Celeron - which is basically just a stripped-down PII.
There is _very_ little physical difference between the core of a Celeron 300
and a PII450. The main cost-cutting factor is smaller onboard cache. The
quality of the core is quite uniform over the whole range.
    Secondly, you talk abut 1.3 the regular speed. Well, this is 30% speed
increase! 450MHz is 1.5 times 300, i.e. 50%. I would say this is not bad.
Some processor types handle such increases better, some worse, some not at
all. The Celeron is a special case. I will not delve into the reasons here,
but it is quite obvious when you look at how the Celeron came to be. Taking
a Celeron from 300 to, say, 375 MHz is not an issue. The physical limit of
the current .25 micron PII core is around 550-600 MHz, 450MHz is well below
that limit.
    Then you speak of crashes and instability. I'm sure you've worked on
Windoze. Overclock, underclock, whatever. Windoze crashes regularly. IMO, as
long as you stay within certain limits, overclocking does not affect system
stability. And yes, deep-freezing the CPU does expand those limits. Frying
your CPU is not that easy - it locks up long before, forcing you to ease
down. You just need some common sense.
    I agree that overclocking your server workstation at work is very
irresponsible. But if you know what you're doing, the risk is negligible in
any case. I have always overclocked and will always overclock. Just as I
will continue to tweak any other aspect of my system to get maximum
performance. There may be some small risk involved, but I am willing to take
that risk. It pays off.

    I think I've said enough abuot this. Back to POV.

Margus

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