Hosts: would you overclock a server for a customer?
 

Just curious whether you'd do a mild overclock (eg upping FSB, no voltage or RAM timing changes) of a server if a customer requested it.

not a chance

no way jose

I was hoping to provoke some discussion rather than just a yes/no answer. :Graucho Why?

No way

if the server can't handle it its time for new hardware..

Overclocking causes instability. The only reason one takes expensive server hardware over normal PC hardware is because of its stability.. If you dont mind an instable server then you might as well build a rack with cheap PC hardware twice as fast and still save $400

Anyway the speed gained by overclocking vs. the instability it causes doesn't add up at all in my opinion. I'm running my normal PC also on safe speeds..

Having my photochop crash every 60 minutes for that 0.00001% extra speed no thank you.

:thumbsup

Lol no discussion needed I think. Anyway see my post up here for some extra discussion content :)

Servers run hot as is. overclocking would just be a bad very bad idea.

Why. heat thats why.

I have two machines with an overclocked E2160 (1.8GHz -> 2.4GHz) and also a more conservative overclock of a Q6600 (2.4GHz -> 2.6GHz) with zero problems so far.

Now, having said that, those 3 machines are in the same room as me. I'm not sure I'd be so keen on 'toying' with a server that was half a world away.

My E2160's have the stock cooler and the heatsink isn't even warm. :) Of course they're not crammed together in a rack...

Reminds me...

I visited one data centre years ago and wasn't too impressed with their cooling system. Next to the a/c unit it was nice and cool, even chilly, but wander down to the other side of the room (where my server was) and you'd be sweating. The few times that I pulled the server out for maint the internal frame was quite warm even a few minutes after it was powered off.

The funny thing was that the room adjoined a communications carrier interconnect room which was super chilly all through. I guess they didn't care about their small clients...

It's not like your typical server needs more CPU power anyway - usually the bottleneck is disk I/O... :2 cents: