Buying advice needed: AMD 64 4000+ san diego or X2 3800+?

[Thorsson]

Heat is a major factor in limiting OC. The mobo is another, and the luck of the draw with your chip is a big one.

[NikolaX]

I have a couple more questions as a result of the last few posts

1. is heat the major factor in limiting how much overclocking a cpu can take?

2. in terms which psu to buy, how do you determine how much power a system will require? I know which gpu I'm after (7800gt), and I'm not going sli, but I've no idea how to find out the wattage needed.

Thanks again.

1. yep, you must have good cooling if you want to OC..
2. You will be fine with 480 W, have a look for this calculator, it will tell you how much W you need, but allways go for little more.

[Holtzclaw]

Thanks NikolaX.

I had a look a the Hiper 580w psu you recommended in an earlier post, and was wondering how I can determine if I can use this with the motherboard I am interested in - the Abit AN8 Ultra. I understand the psu is atx 2.2 compliant - what does this mean? I've looked at the Abit site and can't find much on this even in the mobo spec.

Advice is much appreciated.

By the way, would you recommend the above mobo and do you think 580w is a tad excessive for a non sli system?

Many thanks.

[kempez]

I would reccomend DFI or Asus as far as main boards are concerned. DFI asre great for OC'ing

The PSU seems fine: you can never have too much

2.2is the latest ATX complience (I think - its hard to keep up): so its all good. An NF4 board will need at least ATX 2.0 with a 24pin PSU ATX cable