A 4.1 GHz Dual Core at $130 - Can it be True?

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Add VAT to that £80 as well so its £93 in good old UK. Still a bargin if all of them preform that well.
Click to expand...
RTFA, that's with VAT 😛 Still, it's a feat, and taken on the whole I think it'll save you money over the £700 EE. But you chaps are right, there are other options to look into for budget processors that overclock. Just we can't give you every piece of info under the sun in the one article :wink:

Suggest you check your facts:
Article says at overclockers

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Intel_Pentium_4_Dual_Core_570.html

Price pentium d 805 £79.95 + vat (93.94 icluding vat)
or this week only £73.95 + vat (£86.89)

That aint £79.95 including VAT
 
Here comes a real-life user, for all who doubt.

Out of the box, in Gigabyte 8n SLI mobo, overclocked to 3.7 at stock voltage without ANY problems at all. Slight increase in voltage to 1.425V enables 3.8. Stable with F.E.A.R, oblivion and Toca Race Driver 3 for hours and hours on end. Ran 3dmark05, 06 coupla times too...nil problemo....

No budget for additional zalman fan, therefore not overclocking any higher. However, intel's stock fan is already giving me a headache with its xtra loud wind sounds when at high speeds...3200rpm onwards....

So thats 1 thing to consider....otherwise, im very very very happy w the purchase.

Heres what i used in all :

Pentium D 805
Gigabyte 8N SLI
512mb x 2 Corsair ValueSelect DDR2 533mhz
250gb Maxtor PATA IDE
Elsa 7800gt 256mb
AOpen 450W PSU <- I hear this's quite crappy but its working real well.

BTW, i have 2 questions:

1. When i overclock fsb to 740mhz, does it mean i have sufficient bandwidth by using ddr2 533mhz in dual channel? Cuz from what i know, theres theoretically double the bandwidth so i shld not need to be worrying much?

(p.s. my mobo allows fsb n ram to clock seperately...)

2. To prevent high power usage, im downclocking the processor to 2.1ghz... Which is about 105fsb. I also reduce voltage to 1.275. At this speed and voltage, fan is hardly audible and temps are near room temp.
Does this mean my power consumption is much reduced?

pls advice, THANK U ALL!!
 
What is this doing in memory? Anyway finally some vindication. And on the vr forums i guy got to 6.xx ghz it was a sucide run,it was cool to see a cpu z of it.
on a side note i used stock hsf to get to 3.53 ghz not throttling.. Cpu/mobo combo was only $139

take a look at THIS
 
I think you guys should also give the Socket 939 Opteron 165 and 170 a Look, Personally I have a 165 running perfectly stable at 2.6 Ghz with stock cooling, thats an FX-60 for 1/3 the Price. For a little more cash, you can get an Opteron 170 which has an optimal 10X Multiplier. Both of these generate significantly less heat than the said overclocked Pentium D. and Dont require any sort of cooling tweaks to reach these speeds. Based on my experience I'd say about 90% of Opteron 165s are capable of Reaching 2.4 Ghz, and 90% of Opteron 270s are capable of reaching 2.6. (While remaining under 1.5 Vcore).

I personally know someone who has an Opteron 170 48 Hour prime stable at 2.9 Ghz. The opterons really do make great chips.

Edit: 100 series, not 200 series! Doh!
 
I think you guys should also give the Socket 939 Opteron 265 and 270 a Look, Personally I have a 265 running perfectly stable at 2.6 Ghz with stock cooling, thats an FX-60 for 1/3 the Price. For a little more cash, you can get an Opteron 270 which has an optimal 10X Multiplier. Both of these generate significantly less heat than the said overclocked Pentium D. and Dont require any sort of cooling tweaks to reach these speeds. Based on my experience I'd say about 90% of Opteron 265s are capable of Reaching 2.4 Ghz, and 90% of Opteron 270s are capable of reaching 2.6. (While remaining under 1.5 Vcore).

I personally know someone who has an Opteron 270 48 Hour prime stable at 2.9 Ghz. The opterons really do make great chips.
Click to expand...

Are you sure you don't mean 165 and 170? There are no opteron 2xx series chips in socket 939. They do overclock pretty well though.
 
I'd suggest the Zahlman - it's not that expensive. Also, 800mhz memory will make a slight but noticeable difference. But the Zahlman will be running at half throttle all the time, or literally 10db or more lower than the stock piece of crud. Got noise? Ditch the stock cooler.

I'm kind of in your boat - I want a faster CPU(2.4 Ghz right now) and the dual-core is appealing. But I also want a 2-4 year system, so 3.8Ghz seems to be the best compromise.

Oh - Small cooling primer:

#1 - replace your stock CPU cooler. Quieter.
#2 - replace any sleave bearing fans as well - including the ones on the Northbridge/etc. Quieter the better.
#3 - Leave a slot open next to your video card. - Two slots away from it(with dead airspace inbetween) - put a slot cooler in.
#4 - put your hard drive into the lower 3.5 bay in the front. Open up the 3.5 bay cover above it. I have Maxtor 300Gig hard drives in my system. They run too hot to touch, but with the intake airflow going over them, I can place my hand on them - they're about 85 degrees F.(!)
#5 - Remove the front intake fan - all it does is make noise. If the rear fans are working, any opening in the front will pull in enough air. By my forcing all of the air through two 3.5 inch openings(used a floppy drive adaptor for a 5.25 bay as well) - the airflow going in is accelerated easily as much as the intake fan was doing. It feels noticeably cool, even with the hard drive right under it.

#6 - The real, true fix. Do this if you don't do anything else. The problem with most fans is that they are quiet until you put them into a system, right? It's backpressure. Look at the back of your case. Notice all of those nice OSHA-approved holes for the exhaust? That's 1/2 of your system's noise right there! Placing high speed fans millimeters away from a metal obstruction not only magnifieds the noise by 20db or more, but it also shortens the life.

Look at the fan on your power supply. It's identical to a stock 60mm fan. Note how much quieter it is and how much more air it's moving? That's because the only thing there is a wire finger guard.

So the solution is easy - pull apart your case. Get a Dremel. Grind out the round holes where the exhaust fans go. (be sure to clean up properly - metal dust=NG) Put the fans back in and add wire finger guards(round wire type - not some fancy logo or nonsense).

I did this and my airflow doubled. All of the above? One afternoon. Dropped my Db by at least 10 overall, my hard drives run cool to the touch, and most of all, my CPU temp dropped 13 degreesC and my system overall, 10 degrees. Not bad for an afternoon and $50 in fans.
 
I'd suggest the Zahlman - it's not that expensive. Also, 800mhz memory will make a slight but noticeable difference. But the Zahlman will be running at half throttle all the time, or literally 10db or more lower than the stock piece of crud. Got noise? Ditch the stock cooler.

I'm kind of in your boat - I want a faster CPU(2.4 Ghz right now) and the dual-core is appealing. But I also want a 2-4 year system, so 3.8Ghz seems to be the best compromise.

Oh - Small cooling primer:

#1 - replace your stock CPU cooler. Quieter.
#2 - replace any sleave bearing fans as well - including the ones on the Northbridge/etc. Quieter the better.
#3 - Leave a slot open next to your video card. - Two slots away from it(with dead airspace inbetween) - put a slot cooler in.
#4 - put your hard drive into the lower 3.5 bay in the front. Open up the 3.5 bay cover above it. I have Maxtor 300Gig hard drives in my system. They run too hot to touch, but with the intake airflow going over them, I can place my hand on them - they're about 85 degrees F.(!)
#5 - Remove the front intake fan - all it does is make noise. If the rear fans are working, any opening in the front will pull in enough air. By my forcing all of the air through two 3.5 inch openings(used a floppy drive adaptor for a 5.25 bay as well) - the airflow going in is accelerated easily as much as the intake fan was doing. It feels noticeably cool, even with the hard drive right under it.

#6 - The real, true fix. Do this if you don't do anything else. The problem with most fans is that they are quiet until you put them into a system, right? It's backpressure. Look at the back of your case. Notice all of those nice OSHA-approved holes for the exhaust? That's 1/2 of your system's noise right there! Placing high speed fans millimeters away from a metal obstruction not only magnifieds the noise by 20db or more, but it also shortens the life.

Look at the fan on your power supply. It's identical to a stock 60mm fan. Note how much quieter it is and how much more air it's moving? That's because the only thing there is a wire finger guard.

So the solution is easy - pull apart your case. Get a Dremel. Grind out the round holes where the exhaust fans go. (be sure to clean up properly - metal dust=NG) Put the fans back in and add wire finger guards(round wire type - not some fancy logo or nonsense).

I did this and my airflow doubled. All of the above? One afternoon. Dropped my Db by at least 10 overall, my hard drives run cool to the touch, and most of all, my CPU temp dropped 13 degreesC and my system overall, 10 degrees. Not bad for an afternoon and $50 in fans.
 
who cares about price and power that thing takes all comers in quite a few benchies. i know some people like wusy will disagree about the zalman though. still price performance is incredible. remember most overclockers will buy an aftermarket cooler regardless of which cpu they get so the cost of that isn't really important.
Click to expand...
True
 
Kudos to the team at Tom's for discovering this anomaly and doing such meticulously methodical research to prove their case!
 
Well im sold. Im going to go and check to see if my supplier has the correct cpu's and then order a Gigabyte GA-8N-SLI Board with some HyperX DDR2-800 ram with the CPU.
 
LOL They probaly going to look at me like im crazy or something

Such a nice board and memory then this crappy entry level cpu.
 
I have been thinking about upgrading my current PC. I was going to wait for Conroe/AM2. When i do upgrade i will need to start from scratch(i plan on going sli). Do you think building a machine with this setup is a wise choise? Or should I wait for conroe etc?

If so what do you reccomend i go with for:
Mobo:?
Mem:?
After Market Cooler: ?
 
yea when i was researching to buy it a mth ago, i could only rely on google...."budget dual-core goodness"....that article got me sold....
where im at (singapore), x2 3800+ costs 500 while p805 costs less than 200.


btw plekto, go for it, no regrets man...and i wonder if the price will rise soon....after so much coverage, even toms did it...

great tips on cooling, i might add....will try it on a sunday...hopefully dbs go down....

Lastly, 740fsb not bottlenecked by 533ddr2 dual channel?
 
Wow. This is a great feat I am happy Toms put the story out but now the price of 805 Ds will go up. So does the motherboard make a diff. in the oc done by toms is my question or can we use various? Also, they said water cooling at 4.1 Ghz but the said it could be done with air? So which is it just stable with water or stable and running hot with air?
 
Im running an 805D on a cheapy ECS C19 mobo 200$ USD total cost (already had the DDR2) I have mine @3.6Ghz with the stock voltages I would try to OC it some more but not untill I get rid of the stock cooler (come on UPS hurry the F up...) It does run on the high side running Quake 4 I got it to 56C wich is pretty hot in my mind. so far I would say im very pleased with the performance. Oh and the person who asked about SLI. That ECS mobo is an NForce4 bourd and it seems to work fine :)
 
They did say Motherboard and memory quility will effect the outcome.

So if you going to do this a good motherboard (asus or gigabyte) with some good ddr2-800 ram.

With the cash you save on the CPU you can get the watercooling for the setup.
 
Water cooling would probably be required above 3.8Ghz I just cant imagine using air above 3.8 (although im sure some people will) I knew the 805 was a good deal for the money and I knew it had some good OCing potential but this article was eye opening to me. I now feel safer in pushing it for more :)
 
I think a better comparison may be done with an Opteron 165, the cheapest dual core Opty. The good old 144 is single core.
 
Are you folks sure that this will work? I have seen other Pentium D 802 review. Many of them said they couldn't overclock past 3.8.
 
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