Advice on what to buy

[NateTron2thou]

I was wondering what you guys recommend buying as far as processor and motherboard for overclocking. Also what type of cooling? I'm open to water cooling aslong as it's a good setup that works and isn't wildly expensive. I thought about buying one of the FX processors, but I thought why not save some money and have fun at the sametime by oc'ing.

It would be nice if I could use my current motherboard or processor with some suggestions. My current motherboard is an MSI nforce2 ultra400 with an AMD 2700+. I won't even list my memory cause it kinda sucks. But if you guys highly recommend something else to OC I'm open to suggestions. Thanks

 

[RichPLS]

overclock what you got, if mem's holding you back upgrade that.

<font color=red><pre>\\//__________________________________
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>

 

[NateTron2thou]

Thanx for the advice. I have a pretty good air cooling right now but need a better cpu heatsink. Is a good water system better and what is recommended?

Thanks

 

[Monkeymagic]

Your going to be limited with your current mobo and ram. The FX chips are great overclockers if you have the cash. Otherwise a AV8 and a A64 3200 with some OCZ or Ballistix ram. Below that there is the NF7-S and Xp2500m route wish is a cheap and fun way to get into overclocking. If your experienced with air cooling then watercooling is the next step. A dual heatercore and a TDX block is a good start but you need to do the research to see what suits you. Do you want to overclok GFX too? There are loads of options.

 

[Monkeymagic]

double post oops!

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by monkeymagic on 11/30/04 04:39 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[NateTron2thou]

If I can overclock it I will try. My two workstations at work are even overclocked. My budget right now for processor, memory, and motherboard are 1,500.I want the best bang for my buck.

My home system right now is:

2700+ @ 178 FSB, 1.70 Vcore (stock heatsink and fan)
1.5 GB Avant PC2700 in sticks of 512 @ 3-6-2-2 (not sure if that's that right order:/) 2.7 voltage

AGP oc'd @ 95MHz
GeForce FX 5700 Ultra @ 535 GPU , and 995 MHz mem

600 watt PS

I think I can go further But when I try 181Mhz FSB my system reboots when I'm playing a game or it crashes to the desktop. Maybe My AGP is clocked to high. I'm a new guy to these forums so, I'm not sure if I listed everything correctly.

Thanks
Nathan

 

[Monkeymagic]

eek: get the AGP speed down to 66mhz!!! Set the memory to 11-4-4-2.5 and see if it will clock higher.
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by monkeymagic on 12/01/04 03:31 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[NateTron2thou]

Thanks for the advice Monkeymagic! I'll try it when I get home from work and let you know how it turns out!

 

[addiarmadar]

Getting the good memory is key to OCing. Id tell you wat for these Prescott P4 chips and high end a64 chips I would at least look into watercooling however getting the good ones will cost a pretty penny if you want it right.

<i><font color=red>Only an overclocker can make a computer into a convectional oven.</i></font color=red>

 

[NateTron2thou]

Alright. I tryed your suggestion. I returned the agp to 66MHz, and set the mem to 11-4-4-3 (it won't even boot into windows on 2.5). I clocked it up to 182 FSB- get into windows - start up 3dmark2001. It runs great for a little while then i crash back to the desk-top or it reboots- or it blue screens. I don't get it. I don't have any visual tearing or artifacts running at the higher clock speeds and my cpu only gets to around 47 degrees C on load.

hrmm..dunno

Nathan