3700+ San Diego

[Ruroni]

Hi I'm new to computers. I don't know a whole lot about PCs, Hardware, or this overclocking thing you speak of -but it sounds exciting. I've read a thing or two here and there about OC'ing, but I now know, I know NOTHING! (as I destroyed the AGP bus on my NF7S v2.0 -and I have no idea how, or why! )

In any event...

I ordered the ADA3700CFBOX and I got the ada3700dka5cf -I guess that's the same thing; right?

Also, does the heatsink base need to cover the entire CPU or can part of the CPU be uncovered? I have a Zalman CNPS7000-Cu and as far as I can see, the CPU is bigger than the base of the Zalman HS&F. Should I just use the HS&F that came with the CPU, instead?

Lastly... I'm not really crazy about overclocking, as that is how I ended up needing this interim upgrade... But I don't mind pushing a little... (in other words, I like the promise of getting more out of my gear, but I've been scarred by past experience, and being too broke at the moment... I've turned chicken!)

What is safe/reasonable to expect out of this CPU (which is being paired up with a 939Dual-VSTA) and how would I go about it?


Thank you for reading.
And Thank you very much for responding.

 

[adairusmc]

Well, to answer your first question - yes, the whole CPU needs to be covered with the heatsink, and make sure to use thermal paste (unless the heatsink allready has the thermal tape on it, like it should be brand new out of the box).

As far as overclocking, I have never overclocked a 3700+, so I dont know what the max those thing will do is, but I would imagine that you should at least be able to get 2.4 Ghz out of it.

 

[keeleysam]

I got 2.9 out of my 3700+ on air.

 

[Ruroni]

Originally posted by: adairusmc
Well, to answer your first question - yes, the whole CPU needs to be covered with the heatsink, and make sure to use thermal paste (unless the heatsink allready has the thermal tape on it, like it should be brand new out of the box).

awww But why do they say that the Zalman CNPS700-Cu is compatible with the A64 then!

Originally posted by: keeleysam
I got 2.9 out of my 3700+ on air.

2.9?!?!? are you out of your mind?!? What'd you do -tweak the voltage on everything (memory, and CPU and chipset)? What FSB & multiplier?!? Is that stable? Or is that like, you got it to post one time, at band camp... But then when it tried to Load windows it BSOD?

 

[keeleysam]

Originally posted by: Ruroni
2.9?!?!? are you out of your mind?!? What'd you do -tweak the voltage on everything (memory, and CPU and chipset)? What FSB & multiplier?!? Is that stable? Or is that like, you got it to post one time, at band camp... But then when it tried to Load windows it BSOD?

It was like 275x10.5 or something like that. This was with a 4 heatpipe AMD Opteron heatsink. It was 100% stable, but a tad hot, so I ran it at 2.8 or so everyday.

Oh, and right now I'm running an Opteron 165 at 2.8 and an E6600 at 3.8.

 

[adairusmc]

Originally posted by: Ruroni

Originally posted by: adairusmc
Well, to answer your first question - yes, the whole CPU needs to be covered with the heatsink, and make sure to use thermal paste (unless the heatsink allready has the thermal tape on it, like it should be brand new out of the box).

awww But why do they say that the Zalman CNPS700-Cu is compatible with the A64 then!

Originally posted by: keeleysam
I got 2.9 out of my 3700+ on air.

2.9?!?!? are you out of your mind?!? What'd you do -tweak the voltage on everything (memory, and CPU and chipset)? What FSB & multiplier?!? Is that stable? Or is that like, you got it to post one time, at band camp... But then when it tried to Load windows it BSOD?

The zalman should cover the CPU with no problems, I have used them in builds before with Athlon64's. I remember them covering up the whole CPU itself.

 

[Ruroni]

So it's good to run asynchronous from the memory? the whole Running at the same FSB as the memory is a thing of the past?

 

[Ruroni]

Originally posted by: adairusmc
The zalman should cover the CPU with no problems, I have used them in builds before with Athlon64's. I remember them covering up the whole CPU itself.

I'm sizing it up and my Zalman, width wise covers the CPU fine but it is shorter than the CPU, leaving something like a half millimiter on the top and a half millimiter on the bottom of the CPU not in contact with the base. These CPUs are huge, compared to the tiny little chip that was in the Athlon XPs. another instance in which size matters!!! Why me?!?

 

[Ruroni]

Say, do you suppose I can just take my HDD from the current rig and plop it on the new CPU & MoBo or do I HAVE-TO format and fresh install?

 

[adairusmc]

Ok, I wasnt sure how much of a gap you were talking about. That should be fine.

As far as the hard drive, you can give it a shot, and see if it will let you load the new motherboard drivers and everything. If it were me though, I would definatley format the whole machine and start fresh.