which way to go for OC'ing

[atahualpa]

Hello,

I need to replace almost my complete PC, just keeping some peripherals.
Thought this would be a good time to look at OC'ing as well. Just don't know where to save money and where to spend. Any recommendations for a Mobo, CPU and memory??
Which PSU's to avoid?
Been through a lot of reviews and threads and decided that a MSI NEO2 Platinum + AMD 3200 (90nm core) would be a good choice.

Am I on the right track ?

Thanks

[clockworkmep]

Re: which way to go for OC'ing

Hello,

I need to replace almost my complete PC, just keeping some peripherals.
Thought this would be a good time to look at OC'ing as well. Just don't know where to save money and where to spend. Any recommendations for a Mobo, CPU and memory??
Which PSU's to avoid?
Been through a lot of reviews and threads and decided that a MSI NEO2 Platinum + AMD 3200 (90nm core) would be a good choice.

Am I on the right track ?

Thanks

Yah that MSI is a good selection but im sure every1 here will disagree with me. I personally have had 3 MSI boards and each one overclocked fine and ran great and stable!

[Yawgm0th]

Re: which way to go for OC'ing

CPU and memory??
Which PSU's to avoid?
Been through a lot of reviews and threads and decided that a MSI NEO2 Platinum + AMD 3200 (90nm core) would be a good choice
Am I on the right track ?

Yes, you're on the right track. The MSI K8N Neo2 is perfect, as is a 3200 Winchester. You'll also need Arctic Silver 5 and a good HSF. A Thermaltake K8 Silent Boost seems to be able to bring the 3200 to amazing speeds at low noise, price, and heat.
There are lots of PSUs to avoid... I'd specifically recommend a 480W Thermaltake, but there are simply too many brands and PSUs to tell yuo what to avoid. The PSU is not an area to skimp on if you're overclocking.
What are your current specs? You might be able to use your existing memory. If not, something like Corsair XMS PC3200 with 2-3-3 latencies would be good. Get at least 512MB, and get a GB (two 512MB sticks) if you can afford it. Something like Crucial Ballistix PC3200 would be even better, but stick with something cheaper if you can't afford it.

I could even provide specific links if you're in the U.S.

[atahualpa]

Re: which way to go for OC'ing

Thanks,

My current system is antique...a PIII 1Ghz, so nothing is useable except drives.
It seems pretty hard to find all this stuff without visiting 3-4 places (driving about a 100 miles), so i might have to look for some alternatives.
Corsair prices are skyhigh here, 350 euro for 1 G, and are seldomly fully spec'd.
At best they mention CL2, 2.5 or 3 or this" "Timing 2-2-2-6-T1 at 166MHz"

Thanks for the help.

Any other suggestions are welcome.

At.

[Yawgm0th]

Re: which way to go for OC'ing

Try for a different brand, then. OCZ, Geil, Crucial, Mushkin... There are tons of great brands out there, so don't restrict yourself to Corsair.

[atahualpa]

Re: which way to go for OC'ing

Thanks,

found a memory test, including all above brands on the net. Performance and oc are about the same for theses brands, but it showed that some cheaper brands did good as well. Another test showed was a memory against motherboard test (14 MB's and i think 18 memory types, full matrix test).

thanks

At.

[Joe89]

Re: which way to go for OC'ing

It seems pretty hard to find all this stuff without visiting 3-4 places (driving about a 100 miles), so i might have to look for some alternatives.

People still go to stores to buy hardware!?!?
Seriously now, except for the occasional Fry's deal, you'd be much better off with newegg. Good luck anyways

[wayout44]

Re: which way to go for OC'ing

People still go to stores to buy hardware!?!?
Seriously now, except for the occasional Fry's deal, you'd be much better off with newegg. Good luck anyways

Seeing as atahualpa is talking euro's I know for a fact that newegg will not ship parts to him in Europe.

[atahualpa]

Re: which way to go for OC'ing

Yep,

Netherlands, Belgium, Germany is europe indeed. All within 30km (20mls)

Have my system now. K8N neo2, 1Gb Corsair 2-2-2-5 3200 RAM and a 3200 winchester. Overclocks like ****, must be doing something wrong........

Ata

[Yawgm0th]

Re: which way to go for OC'ing

We can't really tell you anything if all you say is "it overclocks like ****." I'd bet you are doing sometihng wrong, but I have no way of knowing what it is, though I have a few guesses, the first being that you aren't running a divider on the RAM speed and base-clock (erroneously A.K.A. FSB or HT).

[atahualpa]

Re: which way to go for OC'ing

Hi,

first msg was abrubt.....but it was late.

I have been trying to find the weak spot, and believe it is the CPU.
HT multiplier set to 3
mem set to max 100 (=50% of Base clock) at 2-2-2-5 2T
CnQ off
cant get base above 260 with 8 times multiplier
actually, can't get cpu above 2080 in any combination of multiplier,whether i use 8x260 or 9 x 230.
Also the MSI d.o.t. overclock in the bios fails at more then 5%.

It looks like I ruled out anything else beside the CPU (I also did increase the core to 1.45V without any big improvement (maybe 20Mhz cpu clock))

Any suggestions?

thanks

Ata

[KoolDrew]

Re: which way to go for OC'ing

The PSU is not an area to skimp on if you're overclocking.

Then he should get something much better then that Thermaltake. Especially for ocing.

[Yawgm0th]

Re: which way to go for OC'ing

Shows how little you know... You can talk about the amperage of "that Thermaltake" (see, Thermaltake makes more than one 480W PSU, and some are very different. But anyway, since you seem to think Thermaltake PSUs are so horrible wth overclocking in all that experience you've had with them, let's compare the Thermaltake line to the Antec, which is very good.

Here's Antec's cheapest 480W on Newegg (prices will be similar elsewhere anyway). Here's Thermaltake's. No compare them... The Antec is a little more efficient, and some of the amps are marginally better, though some are marginally worse. The Antec also has a few other nice features that TT doesn't. Great. Now that's for $30 more. Let's look at some other 480W Thermaltakes (did I meniton there are nine on Newegg alone, and probably even more if you go to Thermaltakes web site and look up models?).

There's this, though really it's not much better than the last model, and probably worse than that Antec. But then there's one with Active PFC for less money. Let's look at the 480W Butterfly and more accurate specs. For $4 more, it looks better spec-wise, and tihs one is actually somewhat famous for being an all-around great PSU, overclocking included. In fact, I think Darth even had a review of it. Then you can look at Antec's best 480W. Sure is great... You pay $36.50 more for a product of aobut the saem quality, though the dual +12Vs are nice, even if the amps are no better than the TT. Or, you could just pay $30 less and get a 560W Thermaltake that should be better. But yeah, I guess "that" Thermaltake must suck for overclocking, especially if it's almost as good as an Antec of greater cost. Who cares if most people who have actually used "it" (again, there must be just one...) says it's great for OCing.

I really like the self-contradictory statements like this (which was said elsewhere:

I see Yawg and many others reccomend Thermaltakes and I highly disagree that they are any good. I forgot what model it was exaclty but it had 18Amps on the 12V which is pretty pathetic and you really want as many amps as possible on the 12v rail. I ussually suggest at LEAST 24 amps on the 12v rail. Closer to 30 amps is even better.

Stick with Antec/OCZ/Enermax/Fortron/Sparkle

Now if you go down the line of Antecs at Newegg (though you can go look at Antec's web site as well), you'll see how full of it you are. The cheapest Antec that meets your amp requirement for the 12V rail is this. Yeah, I guess you really need at least 24 amps on that +12V, because we all know how much Antec sucks at overclocking below the 550W models... Nevermind all the people who've actually overclocked using Antec and Thermaltake PSUs well below +12V@24amps (myself included) and would say otherwise. You must know more.

[atahualpa]

Re: which way to go for OC'ing

Thanks

it seems that you think that the PSU could be the prob, however I have an Enermax 485W supply with about 31A total on the 12V rails. Still think this is my problem, or is really my CPU not overclockable?

Ata.

[Yawgm0th]

Re: which way to go for OC'ing

The PSU is probably enough, though it's possible something bigger would be needed.
However, looking at your post (I was too busy with my rant to be on-topic), I'd say your problem is obvious. You think you've increased the CPU vcore to 1.45. A 3200 Winchester uses a stock of 1.5V, so that's likely your problem.

Also, you can up the voltage on the RAM to get it to run higher, maybe 215MHz or so, so keep that in mind when choosing the divider.

Also, what kind of temps are you getting? That could be an issue... It won't OC if it's overheating.