Phenom II X4 955BE Overclocked bundle or DIY?

[cheekster]

Hi.

Which of these two options would you go for if it was your money?

Option 1: Purchase a pre-overclocked bundle such as this one: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...id=339&subcat=

Option 2: Purchase the components seperately which currently comes to £356.10 and overclock it yourself. Same 955BE cpu, Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P (next model up), AKASA AK-967 cpu cooler, Corsair Dominator 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3, PC3-12800 (1600), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9, DHX (this was £67.99 last I looked but has since shot up to £84.74!)

Never overclocked before which is half of the reason I considered the bundle from Overclockers.

Replies/advice asap please as a couple of the items at Scan are on offer under Today Only deals.

Thanks.

Cheekster.

[Jasp]

Tbh i wouldn't bother with the bundle, the BE has a unlocked multiplyer so it should just be a matter of changing one setting to get it up to 3.6ghz as long as the board auto corrects for any extra voltage needed.

[Zhaoman]

If it was my money I'd overclock it myself because it is so damn easy it's not even funny. overclockers.co.uk simply up the multiplier and gets £50 more for exactly the same products. It really is just changing one setting in the BIOS

Plus we are always here to help if you're having any trouble

[peterb]

If you buy the bundle, you get the warranty on the system, so if it does develop problems or instability (more likely with an overclocked system because the components are being operated beyond their guaranteed parameters) you have recourse to the system builder. That is partly why the system is ore expensive - the system builder taking on that risk.

If you do it yourself, you will learn more, get more satisfaction from it, but if you have problems, you still have recourse to the system builder - which is you!

However there is an enthusiastic band of over-clockers here who will be delighted to help you solve any problems that you might experience.

[cheekster]

Thanks for the replies guys and for giving me the confidence to try and have a go at overclocking myself.

Before I place my order with Scan for the cpu and mobo, can I do any better on the RAM front, now that it has shot up nearly twenty quid? This is the RAM that CAT-THE-FIFTH recommended some while back: http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=1030822

Preferably would like to get the RAM from either Scan or ebuyer so that I can take advantage of free shipping.

Same with the cpu cooler, would the stock cooler be powerful enough for an overclocked cpu or would you recommend an after market one and if so is the AKASA AK-967 my best option?

Many thanks.

Cheekster.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

RAM has gone up quite a bit in price recently!!

You could give this RAM a try:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/p...L9D-4GBRL.html

You will need to check for compatibility although Novatech do free postage BTW!

There is also this RAM:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/4GB-%...d-CAS-9-9-9-24

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/166995

[cheekster]

CAT-THE-FIFTH

Any performance difference between the different RAM you've mentioned bearing in mind I plan to overclock my 955BE? Remember you mentioning that I would have to adjust the timings of PC1600 RAM down to 1333 for the 955BE, how exactly do I achieve that?

Thanks.

Cheekster.

[McstylisT]

All 1600mhz or faster ram is overclocked. Even if stated otherwise. Your system will automatically set it to 1066 as this is the industry standard for DDR3 at the moment. To achieve higher than 1333mhz you need to bump the volts 0.15.

I am also an Intel users so things are a little different.

McT

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

CAT-THE-FIFTH

Any performance difference between the different RAM you've mentioned bearing in mind I plan to overclock my 955BE? Remember you mentioning that I would have to adjust the timings of PC1600 RAM down to 1333 for the 955BE, how exactly do I achieve that?

Thanks.

Cheekster.

Here is an article about memory scaling with the Phenom II:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...ddr3,2319.html

If you can get the 1600mhz RAM it should be able to run tighter timings when set to 1333mhz. But TBH if money is tight even cheap 1333mhz will do the job with a slight performance hit.

What McstylisT says is correct so you just have to manually adjust the settings in the BIOS and muck around with the best timings manually.

[cheekster]

May just go for your original recommendation in that case. Money isn't tight (hell, I don't even want to think how much the total build cost of new machine will end up at!). It's just the £18 odd price hike since I bookmarked that RAM a month or so ago, that I was annoyed about.

Cheekster.

[cheekster]

Placed order for CPU, Motherboard and RAM this afternoon from Scan.

Bearing in mind I wish to overclock the 955BE, what's the best quality (must be silent or very quiet) aftermarket CPU cooler you guys would recommend?

Ones I'm considering:

AKASA AK-967
Titan Fenrir (though I read that it covers two of the RAM slots!)
True Black

Thanks.

Cheekster.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The AK967 looks pretty decent IMHO considering it is under £30:

http://www.frostytech.com/articlevie...articleID=2354

I would check some reviews for the other coolers too though.

BTW,the CPU,RAM and the motherboard are on Special Offer this weekend on the Scan Today Only web-page.

[cheekster]

Part of the reason I ordered the bits I did today without an aftermarket CPU cooler was I didn't want to miss out on the Today Only special offer prices. Didn't notice RAM was on offer today, so have just e-mailed them to see if they'll kindly credit me the difference (spent around £1.5k+ in past 6 mths alone with them!).

Any idea what CPU speed the AKASA AK-967 will be powerful enough to cope comfortably with ie. upto 3.8GHz+?

Thanks.

Cheekster.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The Titan Fenrir has slightly better cooling than the AK967 but at the expense of noise:

http://www.frostytech.com/articlevie...id=2383&page=4

AFAIK looking at the FrostyTech charts the TRUE is better but the cooling efficiency depends on what 120mm fan you use.

[Domestic_Ginger]

Novatech sell the Spire thermax II; looks very nice.

Titan fenrir is meant to be very good.

Xigmatec 1283; someone was using with an unlocked 550 which will produce about the same heat as your 955. They posted some temps on hexus somewhere.

Watch out for the UP/Down heatsink hanging over ram slots connundrum.