Cheap cpu/motherboard combo for overclocking?

[quadomatic]

I've been looking into trying to get a new dual core cpu and motherboard that would overclock well.

I saw the Core 2 Duo 4300, which is selling for $110 on newegg now. Does anyone know of a motherboard that would go for around $50 that would get me a nice overclock out of the 4300?

Or does anyone think it would be wiser to get an Athlon 64 X2 to overclock? What would you recommend out of X2s to buy and what motherboard to get (cheap, but good please)?

Thanks a bunch

 

[BlueWeasel]

From a cheap standpoint, it's hard to beat the AM2 X2 3600+ Brisbane with an AM2 Biostar T-Force MB. From what I've read the 3600+ chips overclock like crazy, and you could both as a combo for $130 or so.

 

[quadomatic]

Wow that sounds great! Thanks a lot!

 

[quadomatic]

If I overclock the Brisbane, how long could I expect it to last?

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: quadomatic
If I overclock the Brisbane, how long could I expect it to last?

That's a hard call because your usage and needs don't reflect mine, nor anyone elses. SO I'll just say that it would probably last a while. I'm not gonna try giving a time frame because you could theoretically upgrade the video card and keep your same CPU for quite some time.

 

[stevty2889]

There aren't likely any motherboards that cheap for c2d that will give you a good OC, so I'd say go with the AMD X2 3600+ as well. As for how long it will last, again, thats impossible for us to know, but I have never had a chip die on me, including my P2 266's that have been overclocked to 300mhz for about 7 years now.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Chip lifespan is mostly a matter of voltage, cooling, and luck in that order. If you leave vcore alone or don't raise it above the "safe" level, which is usually +10% of the stock vcore, you'll be fine. Most chips last 10 years or more at factory settings unless you're running it close to the chip's maximum rated temperature for too long. With extra voltage, you may see 3-5 years out of the chip, and even then, what you may see is the chip becoming less overclockable over time rather than a complete chip failure.

 

[kmmatney]

For the E4300, the Arock 4CoreDual-VSTA allows for decent overclocking at a $60 price. The board was easily able to run my E4400 at 2.7 Ghz, which was the ost I attemp5ted with that motherboard. You shouldbe able to hit a 290-200 FSB. Not a huge overclock, but not bad for how cheap the motherboard is:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157107

If you want to overclock more, you'll need to spend around $100 at least for the motherboard.

The AMD X2 processors are also a very good price, and will overclock quite well. I had an X2 3600+ overlocked to 2.4 Ghz on an inexpensive Biostar motherboard.

 

[DrMrLordX]

The only downside to the dual-vsta is that it has terrible support for PCI-e graphics cards. If he wants to squeeze every ounce of performance out of his video card without taking video card overclocking into account, he needs a board with a 16x PCI-e slot. The dual-vsta has a 4x slot. In at least once instance, I've seen an E6300 + dual-vsta+ GeForce 7600 lose a 3dmark competition against an X2-3800+ with the same video card on a good s939 board w/16x PCI-e slot.

 

[nyker96]

Originally posted by: BlueWeasel
From a cheap standpoint, it's hard to beat the AM2 X2 3600+ Brisbane with an AM2 Biostar T-Force MB. From what I've read the 3600+ chips overclock like crazy, and you could both as a combo for $130 or so.

that's the one baby!

 

[manimal]

If you have a Fry's near you you can get some good deals with Core duo processors with essentially free motherboards. The motherboards arent very good but they get the job done.