The Official OC (OverClocking) Thread!

So it seems that the PC6400 RAM is not to be ignored...but I doubt I'll be pushing the E4300 that hard. at this moment I don't really plan on going past 3GHz...If there's a large price difference between the 6400 and the 5400 I think I'll stick with the latter, unless you guys think its worth the investment.

Re: the Gigabyte DS3, Newegg cannot confirm whether or not their board is rev. 2. However, from the reviews on their website it seems that most people are now receiving that rev. I would have liked if this board had an IEEE 1394 port without having to use up a PCI port. Do you all know of another Mobo that is a good for OC has only a 1x16 PCIExpress and IEEE1394?

EDIT: Is a 4-4-4-12 timing really necessary if I don't plan on going over 3GHz? there is a huge price difference between this and the 5-5-5-5-12 timings. THanks. Just noticed that the E6300 is the same price as the 4300

 

No firewire support is a bit odd, but then I suppose it's not often used. For overclocking the boards people seem to have most success with are:

EVGA/BFG nForce 680
Asus P5WD-H Deluxe
Gigabyte DS3 and DQ6
Don't know whether any of those fit the bill or not. with PC666 RAM you're limited to a 1333mhz FSB, which is an 20% overclock, before you're overclocking the RAM as well, so it'll need to be pretty premium-grade stuff to get more than a 30% OC or so I'd say. PC-6400 RAM allows up to 1600mhz FSB (50% OC) before it needs to be overclocked, and a lot of it does still overclock well. I have to confess that doesn't take into account asynchronous overclocks but the only boards I know that have that are the DS3 and DQ6.

With the 6300 and 4300, depending on what results I see people get, I'm still all for the 4300, because it's practically the same chip but with the FSB changed to 800mhz, so if you put it back to 1066mhz, you've seemingly just bought a 2400mhz Core 2 Duo, not an 1800mhz one.

 

caucano.

I don't know about 1x16 but the Asus P5N-E is SLI, but it has Firewire and 2 PCI slots. Good overclocker too! And yes it will run the E4300 at 1066 so it's essentially a 2.40GHz in it.

Happy Computering,
theone

 

I figure since I won't be in SLI mode there is no point of a second 16x port. I guess its the Gigabyte board then. THanks for the help. About the ram, it seems that the Corsair XMS2 6400C5 is the same price as the 5400C4. The 6400C4 is quite more expensive. I am just trying to figure out if this is worth the extra money. My CPU intensive applications will be video encoding. Unless you guys see the C4 ram being worth the extra 80 bucks, I think I'll stick with the 6400C5.

EDIT: most of these boards have no on board video. I was planning on getting the video card later on, to spread the purchase burden. Any recommendations on a good Video card? I don't need some crazy card as I won't be doing much gaming, but something that will be sufficient for vista and some gaming...I guess at least 256Mb?

 

If you can afford something like a 7600GT that should suffice for anything you need to put the PC through. The CAS4 RAM is significantly better for overclocking, especially if you want extreme overclocks, as you often have to up the latencies to get that far,

 

thanks sammorris.

this is my 1st build and I am unsure as to the use of the thermal paste. As I understand, i must add some good thermal paste (Artic silver) between the cpu and the heat sink. As the E4300 comes with its stock fan, I am unsure if I will be able to add the paste. I mean, will it come all together or will I have the opportunity to add the paste? Also, if for some reason in the future I decide that the stock cooler is insufficient (too loud or too much heat), will it be difficult to remove given that I've already mounted it? In other words, is the thermal paste some sort of adhesive as well?

Any other advice for a 1st time builder/OC would be appreciated.

 

caucano,

No! You just have to clean off the old paste with alcohol. The thing that makes the stock Intel cooler so lousy is it has a slightly rough finish so that dirt and dust sticks to it real easy and I live in a very dusty environment. The one that came with my 3.0 P4 wouldn't get the CPU temp below 60C while encoding, and that was at stock speed! Ran it as high as 3.94 with the Arctic!

Happy Computering,
theone

 

Very good advice from sammorris regarding the video card and the latency on the memory. Buy some good cas 4 memory (I recommend corsair) and it should still run at 4-4-4-12 even when you bump up the cpu frequency/fsb.

The cpu and hsf will not come preassembled. You install the cpu in the mobo and then install the hsf with some good thermal compound (artic silver 5 or the new zalman thermal compound that comes in a bottle with an applicator brush). They do adhere to each other so you need to be very careful if you remove the hsf at a later date to install an after market performance hsf. You will need to remove all the old thermal compound thoroughly before installing the new hsf.

 

thanks guys. About the ram; I understand that you get a great boost, but if I don't plan to OC like crazy (max 3Ghz), is it really worth an extra $88 for 2x1GB PC6400 Corsair?

 

the simple answer is you get what you pay for, if you can get the cas4 i would, if you cant afford it, dont be too concerned but it probably will limit your overclock (unless your bios lets you do it async).

http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm

this link is a easy to follow guide for appling thermal paste to heat sinks.

 

The stock cooler comes with a thermal pad, if you don't ever attach the cooler, you need not worry, but if you do, all you need to do when you remove the old stuff is to use some form of thermal grease remover. I use the official stuff from akasa and the likes, but you can get away with rubbing alcohol and stuff like that, I actually managed to use window cleaner on one of my old PCs, but I wouldn't go recommending it, just in case.
Overclocking to 3Ghz from 1.8 is previously what some would call an insane overclock, and although it's no longer the highest, it's still a very high overclock, and I'd thoroughly recommend CAS4 memory for a job like that. Specifically, Corsair's XMS2 PC-6400 CAS4. You really do get what you pay for with RAM. If you're overclocking to 3.0Ghz from 1.8, then the FSB is looking at at least 1333mhz, so that dictates you should use PC6400 memory to actually support that. Unless you get some incredibly good PC5400, then the RAM isn't going to manage that 25% overclock, and I don't know much extreme-enthusiast grade memory in the 5400 zone.

 

thanks a bunch guys! Really appreciate the help!

 

nice link marsey couldn't tell it better myself

i been wasting it for years groan

if you spread a small amount over the surface of the heat sink and wipe it off again it fills in any imperfections

 

that link came from ddp, so all the thanks should go to him.

 

that link was useful, goes over everything I'll need. I don't know if this question should go here or in the official building thread but here it goes (since I am going to OC ) I am looking for a case. I don't need anything high end, but I guess I'll need good ventilation if I'm going to OC. I was looking at the Antec NSK6500 (here). I am quite annoyed at the fact that most of Antec's cases have a door to blocking the cd/dvd drives, this can become annoying with time. I am not sure what other companies to consider. I checked out thermaltake and their cases are mostly for hardcore games/OCers, with the flashy lights and such. Also checked out Cooler Master, specifically the Centurion 5 (here) but they seem to be a bit lower quality. Do you guys have any suggestions?

Also noticed that some cases come pre-fitted with power supplies. the NSK6500 comes with a 430W power supply...I am not even sure if this enough wattage now a days. any suggestions on PSUs?

Finally, about the Nvidia graphics cards, does it matter which manufacturer I go with, i.e. Asus, Biotech, eVGA (had bad reviews lately), etc?

thanks

 

caucano,

 

cases are cases. if you like its looks all the better. things i look for are air flow (and filters) and how it looks. i wouldnt get a case with the hard drive racks mounted sideways as it will block alot of the airflow from the front vent, and if possible i would get one with filters as it saves having to open it up every month or so to clean out the dust and fluff.

most of the different graphic card makers stick to the refference model given them by nvidia or ati so there isnt normaly much difference from one to the other. pick the one that comes with things you will use, no point getting one that comes with software you already have or connectors you will never use, you get the picture.
what does differ is the after sales care, go with one of the big name brands and you will be ok, go with a name no-one knows and well, its your cash and your risk.

 

With cases, pick whatever takes your fancy, I used to think case doors were very tacky, but mine is somewhat different, so I don't really take that opinion any more. In any case, all I'll stress to you is never to use the power supply that comes with a case, no matter how good the case is, the PSUs are almost always badly made and will all too often destroy your components, and that's not uncommon either. It's not really about the wattage they say they are, most 430W free-with-case PSUs will fail after about 300W, and take your motherboard out with them, instead of exercising the overload protection they supposedly provide. Cheap PSUs are always a bad idea.

 

sounds good. I thought PSUs provided in cases, at least from Antec, were not bad. But it is worth keeping in mind.

@marsey99, what do you mean by "hard drive racks mounted sideways"? is this the traditional case configuration?

At this point I'd like to thank you all for helping. You've been great and have really aided me in choosing components and giving advice on OCing. Really appreciate it!

 

Antec were about the only exception to that rule, but a lot of people I know have fallen out with Antec PSUs as they had a few quality control issues a while back. We insist on using higher end PSUs. Seasonic, Corsair, Hiper, Thermaltake, OCZ and Tagan all seem good quality units.