What does this mean?

[Brett_Henderson]

It can also be used to fill in the performance valley.. Like, if a major upgrade is financially out of the question, but you're pretty sure a few FPS will make things better right now... OR.. like I did (with much help here).. take a CPU that seems to be MADE to run faster and make it happen. Price difference between a AMD64-3700 and 4000 was just over $100..

[congo]

System speed control is a good thing. For example, I have my PC underclocked in bios, and my cpu undervolted. This is how I run it when not simming/gaming/etc. There is no need for the system to be clocked so high in my general usage of it.

While others are busy shutting down background apps preflight, I slide the clocks up and press FLY. It's pretty handy to be able to do that.

Logically, the cpu would last longer in this type of usage where the cpu is under less load 90% of the time.

This is being achieved with no added cooling solutions or extra hardware of any kind. My overclock involves software switches only, simple and effective.

[VVM]

Just checked my bios just now.

[Politically Incorrect]

Logically, the cpu would last longer in this type of usage where the cpu is under less load 90% of the time.

That does make a lot of sense.
Guess I may have to experiment some with this and see what happens, now that I have a better understanding.

I got to thinking about cpu life at work and wondered if over clocking it would shorten it.

My overclock involves software switches only

And what software would that be? I have the Abit Guru that came on the install CD with my hardware and its software allows some type of OCing, is this the type software you refer too?

[congo]

You could try the abit guru, or an updated version of that from the abit site (for your mainboard).

The problem with supplied auto-overclock utilities is that they are not flexible or even very good in my experience.

I set up a rig similar to your's, (the same motherboard), and I am a little familiar with it's BIOS options. Abit are one of the few mobos that have a fully tweakable BIOS and that is a distinct advantage over most PC's. (I like the Abit AN8)

I don't think the guru software will let you make some manual changes from the desktop, ie Vcore, Vram, and others.

Perhaps you could do some basic research on clocking the nf4 chipset, and get familiar with your bios, then I can help you if you like.

I use BIOS and a util called "ClockGen for nForce4".

Bios sets my underclock, and clockgen allows me to change the CPU multiplier, Vcore and HTT from the desktop in an easy to use and small application that doesn't need to be left running once the clocks are switched.

I actually leave my cpu multiplier at 10.5x (stock is 11x), so I only need to click the Vcore up and use the slider to push the HTT bus up to achieve my gaming speed.

ClockGen's latest version doesn't support some options anymore and I have no idea why this is, the older 1.04 version must be used to access Vcore.

Saying that, a good overclock may be possible on your rig with no added Vcore, but high overclocks always require some added voltage to the CPU.

The 3800+ you have should overclock very nicely and you should see a good improvement in FS9. I estimate you'll get a 600mhz CPU speed increase if your CPU is of average or slightly better than average quality. More speed is available with cooling solutions, but that's another story.

If you cannot find clockgen 1.04, PM me and I'll send you a private link to it. Monitoring software such as Everest is useful as is 1 or 2 stressing applications to test your settings for stability. (FS9 is a pretty good stability test mind you, but it doesn't provide useful feedback! ) I can get you links to these small and useful tools if you want.