An $89 Pentium Dual Core that Runs at 3.2 GHz

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caamsa

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Well you know everyone who posts here is a self claimed expert on just about everything......kinda hard to keep egos like that in check.... :ange:
 

dspear

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Zenmaster: Thank you for your excellent answer, and I think a valuable addition to this thread. Your reccomendations for a reasonably-priced PSU?
 

zenmaster

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Depends on Budget
Dell is shipping C2Ds with 8800GTS & 400w PSUs.
FSP's are no frills and as low as I would go.

The EarthWatts would likely be my 1st choice for a budget build.


FSP 400w for $35 after rebate.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817104953
FSP Reviews.

A Step up
Antec Earth Watt for $50 after rebate.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371006

Review - http://www.silentpcreview.com/article684-page1.html
Review -http://www.jonnyguru.com/review_details.php?id=51&page_num=4 (Note: This one has less watts - same build)

A notch higher - Corsair 450w. for $70 after rebate.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139003&Tpk=corsair%2b450w
Review - http://www.jonnyguru.com/review_details.php?id=125
 

onestar

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I do not know how to separate your questions for individual answers except as below:

What do you mean by balance in your builds?

Balance in my builds means choosing components that have a track record of working well together. Balance in your builds, from what you have posted here, is whatever you decide it means at the time.


Do you mean choosing to build some good and some bad?

Of course not but you knew that already.

I would prefer to make "Logical" builds that are well thought out.

Hmmmm. That would seem to be “logical”, no surprise here.

If somebody put a $5, $10, and $20 bill on the table every day and said I could have "one" of them. To me it would make sense to take the $20 every day. I would not call myself a "fanboy" of the $20s. I would certainly take (5) $5s or (3) $10s before a $20. ??...Your analogy would seem rather stretched.

What if the $5 bills were actually worth $21 because they were collectors items. In other words… apparent value does not make you a fanboy. It is knowledge, and experience that makes us prudent system builders.

Balance is neither logical nor based on sound reasoning.

Balance…does not seem to mean the same thing to you as it does to me.

The better choice often tends to remain the better choice.

The better choice…according to you or according to the end user who will use his machine differently than you? The better choice is often in the eyes of the end user, and relative to his perspective.

It may be that every single review site on the Web is biased against Intel and posts faked review numbers. Sadly, even AMDZONE.com which makes no bones about being a "Fan" site does not post many reviews comparing AMD chips to Core2Duos.

I care considerably about numbers, however I care significantly more about the reality of how the machine performs it’s function in the real world and how much trouble it was to get it there.

On a very very tight budget, you can build a reasonable AMD system for about $50 less than a Core2Duo system. However, for $50 more than the cheapest X2 system you can put together, I can build an Intel system that is as fast or faster than a X2-6400+ system with the same components. And at this point the Intel system will use less power and run quiter.

Doubtful.

That leaves the AMD systems to those with extremely minimal funds or those without basic computer knowledge about optimizing their system.

No, it leaves the AMD systems to those who are prudent with money, knowing full well the AMD system will operate well within the design parameters and spending more on an Intel system will afford them no better computing experience and less money to have a life with. We are not talking game addicts here.

This also leaves the retail market as well. These systems simply run at default settings with little choice to optimize the box.

Big manufacturers tend toward the cheapest components and the largest profit margin. They also strive to appease customer perception without regard for customer education so we do not look favourably upon those systems.

On the server side, AMD's memory numbers are great for Virtualization servers running software such as VMWare.
However, the majority of the people that post on this site do not fall into those categories. Hence, I would not intentionally suggest a build that does not fit their needs.

VMWare has been an AMD partner for some time so it would seem a logical and viable result
 

dspear

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So we have a nearly cutting-edge DIY for $500 (excluding accessories)

Intel Dual-Core E2160 Allendale 1.8GHz LGA775 BX80557E2160 -Retail $85.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116036

GIGABYTE GA-G31MX-S2 LGA 775 Intel G31 uATX $78.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128061

A-DATA Value 1GB DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) VDQVE1A16 $31.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211062

EVGA 512-P2-N548-TX GeForce7600GS 512MB PCIEx16 SLI $79.99 -$10.00 MIR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130021
(Yes, this is the limiting factor here. Suit yourself)

COOLER MASTER Elite 330 RC-330-KKN1-GP Black MidTower $39.99 -$10.00 MIR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119115

CORSAIR CMPSU-450VX 450W $79.99 -$10.00 MIR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139003
(www.extreme.outervision.com says this rig needs 407 watts)

HITACHI Deskstar T7K500 500GB SATA3.0 $109.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145137

LITE-ON LH-20A1P-186 20X DVD±R Burner IDE $27.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106050

Subtotal: $534.92
MIRs -$30.00
Cost $504.92
Shipping: $33.03
 

KyleSTL

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Looks like a quality build to me.

Except I don't like the choice of 7600GS with 512MB. Go for this, it has a more reasonable memory size and it's DDR3 instead of DDR2 like yours:

EVGA 256-P2-N615-TX GeForce 7600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card - $75 (after MIR = $15)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130062

Sorry I know we're not suggesting a build for anyone, I'm just wasting time before football starts this morning. GO Cincinnati Bearcats!
 

jaydub

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I know I'm a bit late to the party here, but I've got a question on a part of the article. Perhaps a stupid question, but I'm new to OC'ing, in fact this article finally gave me the kick in the butt I needed to go ahead and order the parts to build a OC'd pc. Anyway...

At the bottom of page 4, it says "There is a nice advantage to accelerating the FSB speed within the capabilities of the motherboard, or only slightly beyond (355 instead of 333 MHz), which is the modest overclocking of the memory. The DDR2 RAM operated at DDR2-880 speed..."

So the question is, did they manually set the RAM to 880, or was it an automatic byproduct of overclocking the MB? If so, the max FSB on the MB was increased from 333 to 355, which is a 6.5% increase, so how did that make the memory jump by 10%? Also, does OC'ing the RAM even buy you anything if you can a 1:1 ratio @ DDR2-710?

I think I'm lost on actual, effective, and theoretical memory specs. I'm also just "bench racing" here, since I haven't even received any hardware to start my journey to the OC darkside.
 

renauldo

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Just wanted to drop a line and thank THW for this article. I very much needed an upgrade and this seemed like the perfect setup. I purchased the very same cpu, bought the cheapest Gigabyte p35 mobo and lastly, picked up a pair of Patriot 1 gig sticks at Newegg. I pretty much did everything that was gone over and I couldn't believe it would be that easy. I now have a solid $230 purchase (cpu, mobo, mem) overclocked at 3.1GHz for everyday use. Best investment that I've made recently.
 
One happy customer ...

and a dozen fanbois from both sides choking chips all over the place.

Glad to see you got a good result renauldo - what were the settings you used by the way and what ram?





 

V-dub

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I have read this article over and over. I have read the last 3 pages of forum posts over and over. Can someone please clarify why this processor is not a good buy? I have a 2.8ghz p4 in my current sony vaio which is 3 1/2 years old. I went to newegg and looked at the specs and the e2160 is twice as fast as my current system. I can play all the latest games and im running only 1.5 gigs of ddr2 with a radeon x1600 512meg vid card to include EW quake wars (of course without all the goodies turned to highest settings). I beta tested supreme commander and ran that at 1280x960 at the highest detail settings. I guess I'm stating all this because I want to buy either this chip or the newer e2180 proc but the fact that forum posts are saying this setup is not worthed for games keeps me from making the purchase. Can someone clarify a lil more as to why this guide will not help when it comes to games? What exactly does L2 cache really do for me that makes it so detrimental to performance in games?
 

WSRC

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The problem you are having here is that too many fanboys running their mouths not knowing what it is they are talking about. Yes the 2160 will smoke your current chip. Especially with a decent overclock. The 2180 would not be a bad choice either. For a budget gaming system it would be plenty fine. The cache is not going to matter much in 99% of games since most games rely more on GPU anyway. If looking to upgrade for not a lot of money then the 1mb cache Allendales are a good choice. Really the setup in the article was pretty good but you could get the cheaper P35 gigabyte board and get similar if not the same results.
 

FatFish1

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Well, I for one saw this review and jumped on the idea of having some fun overclocking (haven't done it since owning some socket A's) and moving from my older AGP 939 platform 4400 X2. I figured I would get almost the same performance out of the e2160 at stock speeds and a lot more with "easy" overclocking. Besides, I will now have PCIe graphics, faster memory and an SATA 3.0 HD too. I will post my results of overclocking using the Foxconn board I picked up for around $100 after rebate.

Since I already have a good case, power supply and plenty of hard drives it actually will be a very inexpensive upgrade (after I sell my current components). Plus even if the e2160 dies after a short fast life, I have a much better upgrade path than the dead end 939 and AGP platforms.
 

morphy666

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Hi all. I love the looks of this setup but have 1 important question.

I run my PC 24x7. My current PC probably has about 30 hours total downtime in the 3 years I've owned it. I don't push it hard at all, nor do I play games, I just run a lot of servers off of it.

If I were to do a setup like this, can I expect stability and uptime? i.e. would the overclocking burn the chip out with me running it constantly?

I was looking to do a similar setup but with the E6750. I'd much rather overclock the E2160 though.
 

WSRC

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As long as you keep temps in check you will be fine. If you set the FSB to 1333 like in the article and do not try to go any higher you will be ok without changing any settings since it is a standard setting for the motherboards themselves and for the upper model core 2's. Just set your ddr2 800 or 667 to ddr2 400 speeds and then start your overclock. That way your ram and cpu will stay @ 1:1. Anything over the 1333/3.0ghz mark you will probably have to adjust settings some to keep it stable. @ the 1333/3.0 you should be able to just set it and forget it without playing with voltages or timings. I really wish they would have used a 2180 for this article too in order to see if you could do the same to it and get a clock speed of 3.33ghz without changing anything else. that is the chip I am most interested in right now.
 

jwolf24601

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It will probably last longer being on 24/7 than on and off, most of the wear on the processor is from the materials in it expanding and contracting as it heats up and cools down, with it on 24/7 it should experience less thermal extremes.

That said I would suggest a more moderate overclock if you plan on having it a long time. Try to keep the load temperature below 55C.

You should be able to get 2.7ghz out of it pretty easily, without raising the voltage much if at all.
 

morphy666

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Thanks guys. My Athlon64 is getting old and it's time for a treat.

I'm good at keeping temps down. My case has a gazillion fans and I always buy a good CPU fan.
 

onestar

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If you have a gazillion fans...it might be good to get a power supply that will handle them. (kidding)

I really like this setup.
 

UHz

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Very nice article. I'm missing one important thing though... temperatures. Looks good it can run with stock cooler, but how hot does it get? If the author of the article don't have numbers, maybe someone here at the forum has? It would be very appreciated, thanks.
 

hok

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The motherboard that is recommended in this article is known for overclock cold boot issues! I have bought one and using the same chip, however it is know throughout the overclocking community that this mobo has a cold boot issue like stated here: http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2902&p=2

I wish Tom's would do some more research before recommending this motherboard specifically for overclocking...
 

onestar

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I read this article but did not notice where cold boots were an issue, can you hold us by the hand a bit?

I suspect you highlighted the wrong web page, for the cpu is not the $89 pentium dual core, and the motherboard is a 965 series.
 

thephilosophizer

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For the record.
I have this chip, and I have a GIGABYTE P35-DS3L board, which is a good bit cheaper then the one they used ($110 at newegg). Though I opted up for an Artic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro cpu fan ($20). So with 2x1gb DDR2 800 overvolted by .2, and the cpu at 1.4 volts, and the FSB overvolted by .2, I am running at 3.2GHz, the memory at 1066, and all with a load temp less then 45 degrees.
 

hok

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thephiloso phizer:
Your load temps are pretty low for those volts. what is your stress test? also what is your memory multiplier? 3? Are you running 355x 9? I'm using the exact same hardware as the article (mobo and cpu)

For mine, I'm at 3.0 GHz I volt at 1.28 and my load is 52C, my idle is 33-34C. I use Prime 95 for 8 hours stable as a rock. But the cold boots are an issue where you have certain USB peripherals. I have to unplug the usb connections on cold boot. Its just becoming a real pain and annoying. But this is a good setup if I didn't have the cold boot issue.

Thanks for the inputs
 

hok

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Thats what I mean. Toms had no mention. I researched a bit more and the cold boot is a well known problem with this mobo and overclocking. The cpu is irrelevant i think.