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

[Skidd]

I recommend DDR2-800 Corsair and Gigabytes GA-8N-SLI Rev 1.1 board for the OC.

Been running two weeks now at 3.8 and its stable as can be.

Had a little hickup at the lan due to a power surge cusing the Lan on the board to ciese function. But a disable and re-enable in the bois sorted it out quick quick.

Ahhh a lag free life for me 🙂

 

[Tjik]

Now that we have some folks who have set up systems with this CPU, it would be interesting to see some performance figures.

Would someone like to share their experience by posting some bench-marks?

If you do add a complete list of hardware, since it otherwise don't say much.

 

[theGamer]

For darklife41,

I am also in Australia, and I am looking to buy a new computer, possibly with Pentium D 805 overclocked.

let me know your details, I might buy it from you.

Thanks.

 

[Chupes]

I recommend DDR2-800 Corsair and Gigabytes GA-8N-SLI Rev 1.1 board for the OC.

It's exactly the board i was thinking to get, but wanted to ask around first.
There are also other choices i could use some advice with:

Video Card: should i get twin SLI XFXs 6800XT now or get a 7600GT now and another in 4 months?

Water cooling: what choice you recommend? i was thinking maybe a big water (thermaltake), is this a good choice or can you suggest something better under US$180? (i also want to include the video card(s))

Case: My main choice was an Acrylic case, but i'm feeling that they only look cool in dark spaces, so during the day it's hard for the internal ligths to shine. should i get a normal case (IE: Thermaltake) instead?

 

[angry_ducky]

Video Card: should i get twin SLI XFXs 6800XT now or get a 7600GT now and another in 4 months?

Forget SLI; just get a 7900GT/X1800XT

Water cooling: what choice you recommend? i was thinking maybe a big water (thermaltake), is this a good choice or can you suggest something better under US$180? (i also want to include the video card(s))

Sorry; I don't know sh!t about water coolign.

Case: My main choice was an Acrylic case, but i'm feeling that they only look cool in dark spaces, so during the day it's hard for the internal ligths to shine. should i get a normal case (IE: Thermaltake) instead?

Just get a normal case; if you want to show off LEDs, get a case with a window.[/quote]

 

[Plekto]

Feh. The point is that if you leave it at a reasonable 3.6Ghz, it'll not require a voltage increase or anything more than a slightly better than stock cooler.(the stock is fine, but over time they do loose efficiency due to dust buildup and age).

There should be no issues with memory or CPU life being shortened at 3.6, either. And it works with any board as it only draws about 180-200W at full load, which is a smidge lower than the top-end Pentiums do in stock form.

As for "fanboyz" - yeah - who cares. I suppose some guy will get his to 5ghz with liquid nitrogen cooling or some nonsense, but I just don't care. beating Intel at its own game of massively overpriced CPUs that offer incremental returns is the real joy here.

 

[darklife41]

TheGamer, I replied to your PM. Holler if you buy and want some help setting it up. 🙂

On SLI: My experience with a DFI LanParty NF4 SLI-DR and Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI is that NF4 has a problem with voltages when running RAID. If you're not going to run RAID, it should work fine. If RAID is in your plans, I'd stay away from NF4, and thus SLI. I've fried a BFG 6800U, both those MB's (the DFI repeatedly), and 2 SATA hard drives due to this issue. Might run fine for awhile, but eventualy BSODs either on start up or while running, and occasionally takes other hardware with it. I've never had this on anything other than NF4 with a RAID 0 array.

I agree that a 7900GT or 7900GTX would be as good or better than either of the SLI combos that Chupes mentioned. SLI is great for showing off high benchmarks and looks impressive inside the case, but does little to improve real life performance.

On benchmarks: I don't think benchmarks prove much unless they're compared with the same components. To that end, I intend to provide benchmarks for 3dmark01-03-05 and PCmark05 with my water cooling system (when its done) to compare with my current system. This will compare the same HD's, video card, and cooling. It'll also show the top scores for an A64 3700+ San Diego to the 805 D. Unfortunately the RAM (DDR to DDR2) and chipset (NF4 to Intel 975) will both be different. My RAM with the AMD benchmark is OCZ Gold DDR500 (2x1g), so will be interesting to see how the DDR2 compares as well. I also want to see the difference between DDR2-533 and DDR2-800 (will benchmark both). I can't recommend that anyone pay the difference for DDR2-800 until I've seen a performance increase to justify the price. This 805 OC makes DDR2-533 perform much better, 50% + (on my tests) above stock speeds. The bandwidth increases are phenominal. Seems unlikely that DDR2-800 will show the same performance increase, but remains to be seen.

Again, IMO this goes to the point of TG's review. You can pay more for a Pentium D Extreme and DDR2-800/AMD FX62 and DDR 600, OR overclock an 805 and DDR2-533 to perform as well for much less $.

On cases: I believe you'll also find that an acrylic case is very hard to keep looking good and clean. Personally, I prefer a side window. Also keep air flow in mind if you're going with an air cooled system, especially for this OC. Almost any brand makes a decent case for this purpose, so its just personal preference. I prefer Antec to Thermaltake mainly because of the PSUs (Thermaltake PSUs have known issues), and the fact that Antec includes a (quality) PSU with most of their cases. I'm also partial to Lian Li, but they don't provide adequate air flow for this system IMO. Having said that, my case is a Lian Li PC65 but I also have water cooling. 🙂

 

[darklife41]

..

 

[theused]

Hi, i am thinking about ditching my 820 and getting an 805 but im not sure if it is worth the hassle. I can probably overclock the 820 pretty well on my asus P5WD2 with the Zalman CNPS9500 but would I be better off getting an 805 instead? Anyone know if there would be a difference in power consumption and overall performance differences. Thanx

 

[theused]

Hi, i am thinking about ditching my 820 and getting an 805 but im not sure if it is worth the hassle. I can probably overclock the 820 pretty well on my asus P5WD2 with the Zalman CNPS9500 but would I be better off getting an 805 instead? Anyone know if there would be a difference in power consumption and overall performance differences. Thanx

 

[theused]

Hi, i am thinking about ditching my 820 and getting an 805 but im not sure if it is worth the hassle. I can probably overclock the 820 pretty well on my asus P5WD2 with the Zalman CNPS9500 but would I be better off getting an 805 instead? Anyone know if there would be a difference in power consumption and overall performance differences. Thanx

 

[rathma155]

Hi, I'm just about to overclock my 805, but just have one question. What do I want to disable to be able to change the FSB speed?

When I enter BIOS and go into the advanced CPU settings I get this;

Frequency : 2666MHz
FSB Speed : 533 MHz

Microcode Updation: Enabled
Max CPUID Value Limit : Disabled
Execute Disable Function : Disabled
CPU Internal Thermal Control : Auto

I think I have to change that "Auto" to disabled but i'm not sure. Also, how much should I up the FSB speed?

 

[AliasRomanian]

I have had my cpu overclocked at 3.60 ghz for 4 days now and ran a hot cpu stress test with hot cpu tester 4 lite and it worked well.

The only concern I have is whenever I run utilities like speed fan or hmonitor it shows one of my cpus at 117 C. The weird thing is whenever I boot up my computer and run it once it shows up at 17 C but once I exit speed fan and enter it again it comes up to 117 C again.

Anyone else getting this problem ?

 

[PlasticLSD]

With a schythe nunja plus (120MM fan at 1298RPM in a fairly shitty case) I've had to keep mine at 3.5GHz because dual prime 95 makes it skirt 70C at 3.6HGHz. The funny part is I see the chip throttling a bit in the low 70s. In the article they are over 70C long before 4GHz yet they don't mention throttling until then.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/05/10/dual_41_ghz_cores/page25.html

Still a good chip but hot as hell. I'm never gonna load this thing like 2 copies of prime will, but would not want to leave the chip at a speed where throttling is possible.

 

[Kano]

I would not buy any of the pre-built water cooling setups (ex: TT Big Water/Exos, GB 3D Galaxy, Koolance, even Zalman's setups suck)

They're not worth what you pay for them and won't perform as well as a water cooling system should. I was thinking of buying one of these cheaper setups untill I read the reviews. Most will in fact crack or leak after a few months due to the cheap inexpensive way they are bult.
If you want watercooling, buy all the parts separately and build your system.
It is not as hard as you think and will save you $$ and frustration.
Plus you will be able to achieve overclocks unthinkable with air cooling.

I used to think it would cost too much for a watercooling setup, but then I discovered that you can build a very decent setup for under $200. For just over $200 you can add a GPU water block.

It is complicated at first to understand how to put a watercooling setup together. But you can find step-by-step insructions on several forums and websites on what to buy/where to buy, how to do it, cleaning etc. (www.xtremesystems.com)

In the past watercooling was mostly for looks. Now that CPUs like this have come out that are cheap and are only restricted by heat/power: water starts to sound better.

BTW, some people claim to get up near 5 Ghz with this CPU in a good watercooling setup. If you think thats insane, look at the link where some people got it to 8 Ghz with liquid Nitrogen setup (somewhere in this topic).
If you have any questions or want to start watercooling, feel free to PM or IM (watercooledkano) me.

 

[DJSlane]

Considering the following system:
CPU: Pentium D 805 OC'd to 3.33 Ghz Zalman cooled as in test.

SLI Motherboard (2x16xPCI) by ASUS
2 XFX NVIDIA 512 MB Geforce7900GTX
2 GB DDR2667 (OCZ)
650W ATX Power Supply

(Also HDD, DVD+-R/RW, Case)

Also considering waiting for an intel version of the ATI Xpress3200, where I could use 1900XTX's and 800Mhz memory...liquid cooling...knock it upto 4.1 GHz....Oh probably new PSU will be necessary...any estimates on wattage needed for such a monster?

(I ask if you reply to this not to get into an argument with someone else...they have ruined this whole forum topic)

 

[rathma155]

Alright I upped the FSB from 150 to 180.

Right now it's at 3.6ghz running fine. The memory clock speed is set on auto or something, if i want to push it higher than 3.6ghz is there more things I have to turn up than the FSB? My voltage is still the same as well.

Update: Hmmmm okay I tried turning the FSB getting it to 4ghz but it wont boot into windows on a liquid cooling system and motherboard Asus P5WD2-Premium, with 2GB DDR2 667 memory.

It should be able to handle it. Do i have to turn up the voltage or something?

 

[Kano]

Most likely yes. It needs more power!

 

[llama_thumper]

regarding power consumption - what is it when the PC is in standby? i'm considering getting a pentium 805D, will be using it for gaming for a couple of months, after which my parents get it - which is when it will be in standby for at least the night time...

 

[darklife41]

Well the water cooling is up and running. Unfortunately the promised benchmarks leave a bit to be desired. Either 3dmark05/06 and CPUz 1.33.1 don't support the 975 chipset, or I have a bad CPU as only 1 core is listed and benchmarking. Sisoft Sandra 05 results are about half what they were with the same settings (on air) on the P5WD2-Premium (955 chipset) and DDR2-533. I'm having trouble with my (paid for) key on Sisoft Sandra '07 which claims to support the 975 chipset. When I get that sorted out I'll post the results if I find that its only unsupported software causing the problem.

These are my conclusions. I had almost identical results to the TG review. I'm currently posting this @ 4.3GHz (1.65v) and stable. Ran 3dmark05 for a couple hours with no problems. Here's a benchmark for any doubting Thomas's. 🙂

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm05=2036789

The system wouldn't boot to 4.4GHz and I'm afraid to raise the voltage any further. Currently using Crucial DDR2-800 @ 430MHz (1:2). Honestly, although the DDR2-800 works fine, DDR2-533 or possibly DDR2-667 is the way to go with this system. Since a 1:1 ratio is not available on this motherboard, DDR-800 is only running at 430MHz when the CPU is at 4.3GHz so not even being pushed. I wouldn't waste the $ on DDR2-800 as the performance of DDR2-533 is incredible with this OC. Also got a couple screen shots that I'll post a link to when they're uploaded to our web page. 🙂

 

[icbluscrn]

These are my conclusions. I had almost identical results to the TG review. I'm currently posting this @ 4.3GHz (1.65v) and stable. Ran 3dmark05 for a couple hours with no problems. Here's a benchmark for any doubting Thomas's. 🙂http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm05=2036789

well that does not help it does not show a cpu score or any cpu test.

 

[darklife41]

I would not buy any of the pre-built water cooling setups (ex: TT Big Water/Exos, GB 3D Galaxy, Koolance, even Zalman's setups suck)

They're not worth what you pay for them and won't perform as well as a water cooling system should....

Water cooling 101a:

Heat is transferred via water efficiently with turbulent flow. Anything less than turbulent flow is laminar flow and inefficient. I forget the exact formula (as I used to know it as a supervisor/plant manager in injection molding for 17 years), but turbulent flow requires something like 5 gallons per minute of circulation with a 1/4"" ID hose. Needless to say, there's no 12v pump nor series of 12v pumps for a computer that will achieve turbulent flow. Most 12v pumps aren't capable of more than 1.8 gallons per minute. So EVERY water cooling system for a computer is inefficient, be it DIY or manufactured system, although all are better than air.

I have about 10 years of real life experience with water cooling on computers. I've built several DIY water cooling systems. Before components were available on the market I used injeciton molding fittings and car heater cores. Eventually the industry realized the niche and started making components. My weapons of choice were usually Danger Den or Swiftech components, usually a combination of both and some others.

I now use a Koolance Exos2. The Exos2 performs BETTER than any DIY system that I've used in the past. Period. It also blows away the Exos. The Exos2 uses a top of the line radiator and 2x120mm fans. It also looks a heck of a lot better and leaves room for some air to circulate in my mid-tower case (for the 6 hard drives and motherboard circuitry). I have yet to see someone with similar hardware beat my benchmarks or match my GPU OC with a DIY system. The Exos2 is expensive, no doubt. But the performance is second to none. Of course you can buy what you like and everyone is entitled to an opinion, but this reviewer gives the Exos2 4 1/2 stars. When I get rich, I intend to check out the Koolance 1kw systems. If only I were able to build my own 6 gpm pump!

My 805 is running stable @ 4.3GHz with an Exos2. That's slightly better results than TG got, and with slightly less voltage. Within the margin of variables for the same lot of CPUs? Maybe, maybe not. Anyone with a DIY water cooling getting the same results or better? 🙂

 

[darklife41]

[/quote]
well that does not help it does not show a cpu score or any cpu test.[/quote]

Until Futuremark updates their software to include the 975 chipset, its the best I can do. The CPU score won't show the true dual core results until then. What it DOES show is that the system is stable enough to run the benchmark without crashing. 🙂

Found out that Sandra '07 single edition won't run on a domain computer. Doh! Spose I'll have to log onto 'this computer' to run the silly thing. :?

 

[icbluscrn]

These are my conclusions. I had almost identical results to the TG review. I'm currently posting this @ 4.3GHz (1.65v) and stable. Ran 3dmark05 for a couple hours with no problems. Here's a benchmark for any doubting Thomas's. 🙂http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm05=2036789

well that does not help it does not show a cpu score or any cpu test.[/quote]

So do you have any with cpu scores?

Well with a thermaltake bigwater 745 i was getting 3.95ghz easy could not take it any higher because i would lose the sata drive on the p5ld2. I think this is a good wc kit did a good job

I have been waiting on my Corsair Nautilus 500 but its been backorderd on TD for a week already so today i ordered one from newegg.
they say it can handle a 500watt load and i read alot of good reviews so well see.
I did not buy a diy kit because i could not order all the parts from one place otherwise i would have.

I have a aqaugate mini r120 ($80)that i was saving for my opty but i might throw on the 805 just to see what it can do.

On a side note just finishing up the lapping on my 2nd 805 only have a camera phone on me. check it out.

 

[Kano]

I would not buy any of the pre-built water cooling setups (ex: TT Big Water/Exos, GB 3D Galaxy, Koolance, even Zalman's setups suck)

They're not worth what you pay for them and won't perform as well as a water cooling system should....

Water cooling 101a:

Heat is transferred via water efficiently with turbulent flow. Anything less than turbulent flow is laminar flow and inefficient. I forget the exact formula (as I used to know it as a supervisor/plant manager in injection molding for 17 years), but turbulent flow requires something like 5 gallons per minute of circulation with a 1/4"" ID hose. Needless to say, there's no 12v pump nor series of 12v pumps for a computer that will achieve turbulent flow. Most 12v pumps aren't capable of more than 1.8 gallons per minute. So EVERY water cooling system for a computer is inefficient, be it DIY or manufactured system, although all are better than air.

I have about 10 years of real life experience with water cooling on computers. I've built several DIY water cooling systems. Before components were available on the market I used injeciton molding fittings and car heater cores. Eventually the industry realized the niche and started making components. My weapons of choice were usually Danger Den or Swiftech components, usually a combination of both and some others.

I now use a Koolance Exos2. The Exos2 performs BETTER than any DIY system that I've used in the past. Period. It also blows away the Exos. The Exos2 uses a top of the line radiator and 2x120mm fans. It also looks a heck of a lot better and leaves room for some air to circulate in my mid-tower case (for the 6 hard drives and motherboard circuitry). I have yet to see someone with similar hardware beat my benchmarks or match my GPU OC with a DIY system. The Exos2 is expensive, no doubt. But the performance is second to none. Of course you can buy what you like and everyone is entitled to an opinion, but this reviewer gives the Exos2 4 1/2 stars. When I get rich, I intend to check out the Koolance 1kw systems. If only I were able to build my own 6 gpm pump!

My 805 is running stable @ 4.3GHz with an Exos2. That's slightly better results than TG got, and with slightly less voltage. Within the margin of variables for the same lot of CPUs? Maybe, maybe not. Anyone with a DIY water cooling getting the same results or better? 🙂

I'm surprised. Most of what I've heard about the Exos2 has been bad. Like that it performs worse than original Exos. Thats fine that its a good performer for you. But $300 is way too much for a setup that doesn't include any blocks.

What block do you primarily use? I'm planning on getting a Swiftech Storm. Heard a lot of good things about it.