939->Massively overclocked Core2 suggestions needed

[Pessimism]

Hi folks,
My system is starting to get long in the tooth and I want an upgrade. It still runs 90% of things acceptably but certain (*cough Sims 2 cough*) games max out the processor. I got shafted in the 939 days buying into the hype that 939 would have some staying power, and managed to get one of the poorest overclocking Opteron 165 CPUs I've ever heard of. Currently I am running:

Asus A8N-E
Opteron 165 S939 @1.8 (MAXES at 2.3 ghz)
2GB DDR400 (4x512 assorted generic/value stix)
2x80GB WD Sata Raid0 system drive
250GB maxline plus II storage drive
BFG geforce 7900GT OC (paid top dollar back in the day, still performs pretty well)
dvd&cdrw
SB audigy2 (currently disabled and soon to be removed.. causes audio stack crashes under vista)
leadtek winfast tv2000XP expert tv/FM tuner
enermax liberty 550W psu
running on vista x64 business edition

all that is crammed into a battle torn inwin mid tower thats hard to work in because its jammed so full, i'm looking at an antec TITAN 650 for some extra elbow room

Anyhow, all I really need is the best bang for my buck motherboard, ram and core2 cpu combo to get maximum possible air cooled cpu speed

I do not require nor care about:

10,000 sata ports, kitchen sinks, back massagers integrated into motherboard
audio (realtek has stranglehold on onboard audio, they are all the same crab chips)
SLI (one PCIE-x16 is fine)
tight ram timings or high perfomance ram in general beyond what is required clockspeed headroom wise for maximum cpu core speed

heatsink wise I'm thinking thermalright ultra 120 extreme or scythe ninja rev B

I live in canada and have the following vendors readily available:
www.infonec.com
www.canadacomputers.com
www.tigerdirect.ca

I can order from www.ncix.com also


Motherboards that seem to be popular include mid-level P5B (base line one overclocks badly?) and gigabyte DS3, correct me if I'm wrong?

Core2s- I need one that will break 3ghz at near stock voltage, ive read the 2100 and 4400 series have trouble with this, 6000 vs 6x20 series?

 

[MarcVenice]

you did your homework. go ds3 or perhaps p5n-e sli, both relatively cheap. If you want some futureproofness, could get a p5k from asus. I kinda like asus btw, but you could go for a gigabyte or msi mobo too. If it's not to hard on your budget, e6320 will be just fine and should do near 3ghz on stock, but why does it have to, if your getting a kick ass heatsink? Pick om some value ddr 800 2gb for little less then 100$ US.

 

[aka1nas]

I'm taking a serious look at the Abit IP35 Pro. You don't get SLI as it's an Intel chipset, but from the XS thread it looks like the board is usually good for at least 500FSB, and not much less with Quads. As it's a P35, it ought to be able to take Penryns later on, too.

For crazy clockspeeds, you probably want a 6xxx chip of some sort. The E4xxx and E2xxx chips have thermal paste underneath their IHS, rather than having it soldered to the core. Evidently this is part of why some of these chips OC so poorly, the thermal paste is either crap or was applied poorly underneath the IHS.

Personally, I am going for a E2160 as it's cheap and I should be able to get it to something faster than my current Opty 165. I'll replace it with a .45nm Quad core at a later date.

The only issue with the E6xxx's is that you might need to spend a bit more money to get one with a high enough multiplier. Otherwise, you might max out the board first.

 

[bryanW1995]

e6320 is 7x and has the full 4mb L2. all you need is 415 to get to 3 ghz, which any of the above mentioned boards will do with tons of room to spare.

 

[GeezerMan]

I don't mean to be rude here, it looks like you know what you are doing, but are your sure your Opty 165 overclock is not limited by the mixed ram? Have you slowed the ram down to see what the max CPU speed is? Have you tried to overclock with just 2 sticks of ram?

 

[SRoode]

Boy, I'm i the same 939 boat as you (bought a FX55 3 years ago, upgraded to a 4400+ 2 years ago). I just think with all these drastic price drops coming up that something big is on the horizon for next year. I'm going to wait till mid 1Q 2008 for my upgrade. New CPUs, new video cards, etc. If only 1 program is p'ing you off, I'd wait 9 more months. If you start saving more now, you'll be golden then!

 

[Mango1970]

New crazy price cuts coming to the Intel line in July... thus a e6600 will be "cheap" and so will the quad core version. I mean cheap in the sense that it will make me cry from what I paid for my current e6600.

I also bought an eVGA 680i board. This board has your kitchen sink and back scratcher but at the time it was pretty much the only bad boy in town for SLI at full speed (though the 650 did it too I think). It also let you play with RAM like nothing else -- running at synced or independent of the CPU speed and multiplier -- a really nice benefit.

Anyhow if you check all the benchmark record holders I believe that most of them were done with the Asus P5B Deluxe. They've had so much time to work the kinks out of that board, you cannot go wrong.

Also the DS3 is right up there... no mistakes there. The new P5K as others mentioned is looking amazing... (think a version of that one is looking good too if someone insists on Crossfire).

In all cases please buy 2 sticks of RAM. On your 939 chip (and my current Asus MVP32 Deluxe), 4 sticks just kills my OC on my X2-4800+. On my eVGA 680i with my e6600 I can still get good OC with 4 sticks of PC2-6400 4-4-4-12 RAM but I had to go to lower timings and 1T as well -- not a big issue.

Just to let you know, when I first got my e6600 (32A) it reached 2800mhz from its original 2400 MHz with NO increase in V. It reaches 3000mhz with 2 or 3 small bumps... totally rock solid. Then when you try and go to 3200 and then 3600 the jumps are insane... not worth it I keep telling myself. But again the e6xxx line is a sure win.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: aka1nas
For crazy clockspeeds, you probably want a 6xxx chip of some sort. The E4xxx and E2xxx chips have thermal paste underneath their IHS, rather than having it soldered to the core. Evidently this is part of why some of these chips OC so poorly, the thermal paste is either crap or was applied poorly underneath the IHS.

Where did you hear this from? AFAIK, they are all mfg'd the same, and all have thermal paste, no soldering involved.

 

[Zardnok]

If you are shooting for 3.0, I would get an Asus P5K board with an e6420. Pick up some decent quality Cas4 PC2-6400 RAM (OCZ Plat Rev 2 in hotdeals for $75/2Gig), and merely crank up the FSB to 375. Boom, Pow, you are now OC to 3.0.

The P35 chipset is the best Overclocking chipset available right now.

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: bryanW1995
e6320 is 7x and has the full 4mb L2. all you need is 415 to get to 3 ghz, which any of the above mentioned boards will do with tons of room to spare.

You need to buy a new calculator, man, because the one you have now is broken. 7x415=2.90 Ghz; 7x429=3.0 Ghz.

Originally posted by: Zardnok
The P35 chipset is the best Overclocking chipset available right now.

No, it isn't. Not unless you buy the DDR3 version, along with $500 worth of DDR3. For DDR2, the P965 is what you want, especially with high performance DDR2 @ $100-150 per 2 GB set.