Best overclocker and advice

[eletero]

Hi all,

I was looking at upgrading my machine a few months back but due to one thing and another it didn't happen. Anyway I'm now going to look into it again...

At the time I was looking at getting a Barton XP2500 and overclocking to a 400FSB. I should say I've never overclocked before and have just read bits on how to do it. Anyway, this option appealed to me as I could overclock fairly easily and cheaply.

Now 2 months have gone and the XP2500 availability seems to have dropped somewhat and prices seem to have increased. I've just finished reading the article on the Sempron 3100 overclocking and the results look fairly promising. As far as I can see I'd need a mainboard with the NVIDIA nForce3 250 chipset? Something like http://www.hothardware.com/viewartic...leid=585&cid=3

Now as far as I can see all I need to do is increase the clock generator frequency and adjust the memory frequency divisor appropriately? That is if I want to move the clock generator frequency above 250 I drop the divisor to 1:11? (This is assuming 400DDR) Do the AGP/PCI frequencies take care of themselves on the nForce3 250 chipsets?

So the point of this post is ,
1. Is what I've described above correct/sensible
2. What's the best CPU option for a moderate (ie., no water cooling!) overclocker at the moment

Ideally I'd like a quiet system too so if there are suggestions for CPU fans/cases that would be good.

I was looking at getting the antec sonata and a Thermaltake Silent Boost K8.

Thanks for the help.

[skattrd]

Mobo - personally I'd go for the DFi lanparty mobo - looks a treat, a bit of a bargain as well http://www.cpucitystore.co.uk/catalo...roducts_id=569

CPU, depends how much you want to spend, for a bit over £200 theres the mobile 3400+ http://www.cpucitystore.co.uk/catalo...roducts_id=591
For under £100 theres the sempron 3100+ http://www.cpucitystore.co.uk/catalo...roducts_id=566

The mobile 3400+ is multiplier unlocked .. so overclocking can be multi and fsb

[Lee H]

For a excellent overclocking setup I would read the following review of the sempr0n 3100+

edit : doh you've read about the sempron 3100+ overclocking on a NF3 motherboard.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu...n-3100-oc.html

Not bad results in the benchmarking - makes a P4 cry in some situations ( well... nearly all actually )

Hope this helps

[Rave]

I wouldn't get a Sempron personally, the A64 2800 is only a couple of quid more expensive for an OEM processor (which is fine if you're buying a Silent Boost anyway). NForce3 250 boards do lock the AGP and PCI busses properly- the DFI Lanparty would be my choice of board.

How you set your memory divisor really depends on the capabilities of your RAM- I wouldn't expect normal PC3200 to get to 250FSB, so you might have to turn down the divisor earlier than that. You have quite a lot of flexibility with a board like the Lanparty, you can turn down the multiplier of the processor and increase the HTT so that you can get your RAM running close to its optimum speed.

Rich :¬)

[Russ]

see sig

personally i'd go for the 2500-m rather than a sempron

[eletero]

...You have quite a lot of flexibility with a board like the Lanparty...

tbh I hadn't come across the lanparty before but it seems that's the board for socket 754. If other people are interested then I found a good review here...
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2198&p=1


Thanks for all the help.

[eletero]

see sig

personally i'd go for the 2500-m rather than a sempron

I had thought about that but the reasoning against it was
1. the availability
2. Having a 754 board means more flexibility for future CPUs

I'm actually considering the Athlon64 2800 now?... hmm decisions....

[Russ]

but you'd spend £100 pound on a 2500M and an NF7.

which would resell at at least £75

if you payed 100 for a 2800 and another 80? for a mobo i doubt you will sell it for any more than 130.

and the 2800 will need replacing just as soon as a 2500M.

[kushtibari]

Running the DFI board with a sempron 3100 and 2x512 sticks of ballistix 3200. Only just got it all in the last few days and I've only got stock cooling at the moment so just running at 2.1ghz - raised cpu to 233 on stock volts (41c). Waiting for the XP-90 to arrive and then I'll give it a bit more. I know it'll run easy at 2.4 with 1.64v as I did a short run at that. I swapped from NF7S and a 2500XP-M and have no regrets.

[mike_w]

If you overclock a Mobile Barton quite far and stick it alongside something like a 6800, it should be a decent machine for quite a while.

[eletero]

... and 2x512 sticks of ballistix 3200...

I've read somewhere (in the review I posted I think) that using a single stick of RAM is preferable for overclocking, does this make a big difference?

Also is there a partciular brand of RAM I should look for, in the past I've bought crucial and it seems okay. I guess when overclocking the stability of the RAM at higher speeds is more important? What RAM would people recommend?

Cheers

[Hottentot]

I've been using Kingmax memory (available from Aria) for my A64 , its pretty cheap and I have had no problems on the KV8 Pro. Funnily enough the same memory gave me problems on an NF7. Probably worth getting DDR 500 so as to give your self some headroom.

There is supposed to be a price cut soon on AMD chips so its worth waiting for that and the 90nm Semprons. Probably get one myself if they drop down to the £50-70 mark.

[Agent]

I've read somewhere (in the review I posted I think) that using a single stick of RAM is preferable for overclocking, does this make a big difference?

Also is there a partciular brand of RAM I should look for, in the past I've bought crucial and it seems okay. I guess when overclocking the stability of the RAM at higher speeds is more important? What RAM would people recommend?

Cheers

In most cases one stick of RAM will hit its overclocking limit before the other. "Matched Pair" RAM are from the same batch / waffer, hence will almost certainly clock within very close levels of each other
Other than that though, "Matched pair" and "dual channel optimised" is a con...good marketing though..

[kushtibari]

Think it's always been the case that one stick will clock better than two. The only problem is that unless you've got a 1gb stick Far Cry and the like isn't overly happy. I had a ZNF3-150 for about a week that ran great with one stick but not at all with two.
With hindsight I maybe would have gone for faster rated ram but the ballistix has a very good blend of overall speed and low latency.

[StormPC]

Not always. As Agent pointed out 2 good sticks will overclock better than 1 bad stick. Also, depending on your setup, 4 sticks may give more bandwidth than 2 if the 2 do not allow 4-way interleaving. It is generally true that (especially on A64 setups) less memory overclocks higher than more if the quality is equal, although it's not always faster just because it clocks higher.

If it's in the budget the FX-53 and Asus A8V should be in your future. You won't need an upgrade for at least two years if you go that route. Semprons are a bad idea unless you just want a cheap 32 bit CPU to play with. The performance is good for the money but they won't run 64 bit apps or OS's. 64 bit has been here more than a year and a half. Everything is moving towards 64 bit. If Intel would have had their EMT 64 CPUs ready we would all be running Win XP x64 Edition right now. Actually, I've been running it although I am missing a couple of drivers.

Whatever you get you should definitely go 64 bit!

[Agent]

....although it's not always faster just because it clocks higher.

Yup, totaly.
Another common issue ive seen is when the memory controllers / or northbridge on the board cant keep up with the FSB and large memory values, due to the shear volume of data its trying to process.
For example, you may have 3 * 1gig sticks that are all certified to run at 250mhz. The system will run with one or two sticks, but as soon as a 3rd comes in, it gives up.