Barton and Nvidia OC'ing

[psyconius]

My friend suggested I get a Barton 2500+ and an NF7-S for OC'ing to 3200. He claims this can be done with stock fan and decent heatsink compound. Is he crazy?

I assume I should play it safe either way and get a good heatsink/fan combo (Volcano or something).

He also mentioned to me about getting a 5900 N/U and OC'ing it like crazy. Is that safe with stock fan on it as long as I have ample case fans?

Sorry to sound like such a newb, just OC'ing scares me because all my AMD chips have run hot even at stock speeds

 

[Dman877]

Your friend is correct. Many 2500+ bartons reach 3200+ with the right setup (mobo and ram). I suggest you get a mobile barton 2400 or 2500 though, they OC even better, most are doing 2.4+ (equivalent to 3500+?) on air. About the video card, the stock cooler is fine with good case airflow.

 

[psyconius]

Thanks for the reply

Yeah, he stressed getting an NF7-S and PC3200 DDR to get the fsb to 400. So I am not worried about going over 3200+, anything is better than my current setup with an ECS mobo

My case that I will be using has pretty good airflow going through it, so I will just monitor everything when I get it setup

Thanks again

 

[Jeff7181]

XP3200's ship with the exact same retail heatsink/fan as XP2500's. So as long as you don't increase the voltage, the retail heatsink will be fine.

And... Volcano's are not good heatsinks... they suck. You're be better off with a $20 SK-7 and a $2 80mm case fan.

I have my Aopen FX5900 (400/850) overclocked to 490/940 and temps never get above 60 degrees C when gaming. It's based on nVidia's reference design, so it has their reference heatsink/fan on it. I also have an 80mm slot exhaust fan below it to remove the hot air right away.

 

[psyconius]

Sounds good.

Anyone know a good cheap case with airflow in mind? I am building two of the same pc's(one for me, one for my fiance[we are daoc and fps game nuts]), just gonna have different cases of course.

And I just realized that my last post had a smiley after every sentence.. Kill me =P

 

[Mik3y]

you dont even need that great of ram or of a motherboard to oc it to 3200. the old and cheap albatron kx600 (which is $59 at newegg) clocks it great. all you have to do is set the fsb to 200, and ta da, its done. also, u can use just typical pc2100 ram. by ocing the 2500 to the 3200, u are not technically stressing the cpu. all bartons are the same processors besides the fact taht some are locked. in my personal opinion, anything higher then 3200 would be an actual overclock. then that would require a better mobo and ram.

 

[psyconius]

Hmm, I was also told that the ram needed to be PC3200 or it wouldn't work properly. As far as mobo goes, I do want to get a decent quality one after using a low end ECS :/

In any event my generic PC2100 has got to go

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: Mik3y
you dont even need that great of ram or of a motherboard to oc it to 3200. the old and cheap albatron kx600 (which is $59 at newegg) clocks it great. all you have to do is set the fsb to 200, and ta da, its done. also, u can use just typical pc2100 ram. by ocing the 2500 to the 3200, u are not technically stressing the cpu. all bartons are the same processors besides the fact taht some are locked. in my personal opinion, anything higher then 3200 would be an actual overclock. then that would require a better mobo and ram.

PC2100 RAM would severely cripple performance.

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: psyconius
Hmm, I was also told that the ram needed to be PC3200 or it wouldn't work properly. As far as mobo goes, I do want to get a decent quality one after using a low end ECS :/

In any event my generic PC2100 has got to go

If you MUST use PC2100 for now, aim for as high a FSB as you can get, then use a RAM divider to put the memory back down to it's rated speed. For example... 200 mhz FSB with a 66% divider... or 222 Mhz FSB with a 60% divider. Then adjust the multiplier to get as high an overclock as possible.

 

[psyconius]

Cool, thanks a lot.

I will go for PC3200 anyway.. I am tired of cheap components. I've gotten what I have paid for in the past, and this PC will be my baby

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: psyconius
Cool, thanks a lot.

I will go for PC3200 anyway.. I am tired of cheap components. I've gotten what I have paid for in the past, and this PC will be my baby

PC2100 would probably cause overall system performance to be about 10% lower than with PC3200. PC3200 isn't that much more expensive, so there's no reason NOT to get PC3200 if you're buying new RAM... and if you already have PC2100, I'd recommend you sell it on eBay so you can afford to buy PC3200 =)

 

[psyconius]

Seriously? Wouldn't think I could pawn it off.. How much should I ask for it? Perhaps I should sell more of the components I will no longer need..

The ECS K7S5A board, XP 2100 chip(hmm.. tbird maybe), and 2 256's of PC2100(about as craptastic generic as it can get ). And I suppose I have a Geforce2 GTS 32MB lying around that I could try to get rid of

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: psyconius
Seriously? Wouldn't think I could pawn it off.. How much should I ask for it? Perhaps I should sell more of the components I will no longer need..

The ECS K7S5A board, XP 2100 chip(hmm.. tbird maybe), and 2 256's of PC2100(about as craptastic generic as it can get ). And I suppose I have a Geforce2 GTS 32MB lying around that I could try to get rid of

ALWAYS sell your old parts... NEVER chuck them in the trash. There are LOTS of people looking for a cheap upgrade, or a PC for the kids or something like that that doesn't cost too much. I'd say... for PC2100, $40 for the pair of 256's should be easy to get. XP2100... another $40... motherboard, maybe another $25-40. Or... pick up a cheap case and power supply, cheap hard drive and CD-ROM drive... make a complete computer, and sell it for $200 or so.

 

[psyconius]

Oh, I don't chuck ANYTHING! I think I have a 386 chip, 5.25 floppy drive, and some EDO ram lying around somewhere

I just have the bad habit of keeping that kind of stuff lay around and not finding a use for it.

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: psyconius
Oh, I don't chuck ANYTHING! I think I have a 386 chip, 5.25 floppy drive, and some EDO ram lying around somewhere

I just have the bad habit of keeping that kind of stuff lay around and not finding a use for it.

Could have sold a bunch of that stuff back in the day when you pulled it out of the PC =)