changing cpu

[MALIK123]

I am upgrading my system to do some graphic work using premiere, photoshop and building a web page. I will also do alot of word processing and medical research. My thought is to use the amd athlon 1.8 64 3000+ venice, overclock it and use the abit ABIT's Fatal1ty AN8 mainboard with Corsair's Xpert XMS3200XL low-latency memory and run it at its native 2-2-2-5 timings. Also my power source would be OCZ' PowerStream 520w model. (This approac is taken from an article in Hexus http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=1255&redirect=yes) I would like some suggestion on this approach and on these choices and some ideas on how to overclock.

 

[Mogadon]

There's better motherboards out there. The Epox 9NPA (i think it is) for a more budget minded purchase and the DFI Lanparty Ultra-D if you feel like spending a little more. They both overclock well though the Lanparty is superior.

The Corsair memory's good, unless you decide to go with the Lanparty which is picky about memory. Check the official forums on DFIStreet for a thread about the best compatible memory for that board.

Venice is fine although you'll get better bang for buck picking up an opteron 144 or 146 if you have a little more cash, with the right board and right stepping CPU (we can help you out there) you'll basically hit 2.8GHz for sure with a 146.

PSU is good.

Edit - For details of how to overclock you really don't need to go much further than this thread by Zebo which used to be stickied here but seem to come unstickied every so often, god knows why.

 

[996GT2]

Hmmm, are you running high-end graphics cards or such? If not, that PSU is really a bit overkill and you'd be fine with a 450W Fortron AX450.

As for OCing, an Opteron 144/146 can't be beat for Single-core overclocking, while the Athlon X2 and Opteron 165 can't be beat for dual core overrlocking. Both single core processors should hit 2.8 GHz given a good stepping and both dual-core pcoressors should hit FX60+ speeds.

For overclocking, definitely get a DFI Lanparty Ultra-D or an EPoX 9NPA+ Ultra. The EPoX is cheaper, but the DFI is a slightly better OCer and can be modded to SLi with just a bit of paint if you want to add a second graphics card.

If you get one of the single-core processors or the X2, you need to get an aftermarket Heatsink for OCing. The ThermalRight XP90 is a good, not too costly choice ($28 at SVC w/o fan). The Scythe Ninja or ThermalRight XP120 are probably the best heatsinks, but you probably won't need them. Get a nice Panaflo of decent output with your heatsink

And also for memory, just get valueRAM. Low latency RAM won't show much difference in terms of performance.