cpu upgrade, help me decide

[snarfbot]

ok i have a ga-p35-ds3l, right now i have an e2160 @3ghz.

i need something that will overclock to 4ghz to be worth while.

my mobo is only good to about 380mhz fsb, so the e8400 doesnt work for the money.

that leaves me with the e5300, 6300 or 7500.

theyre all pretty similar except that the 7500 has 3mb of l2 as opposed to 2.

i have a true 120 so temps shouldnt be a problem.


so what my best bet?

 

[Shmee]

OR you could pick up a cheap quad and OC it. Even better. Q9550 for instance.

EDIT: 380x8.5 will only get you to 3.23, but since it is a quad and has a large cache, this may still be best.

Also, you could pick up a Q6600 or Q6700 if you are really that FSB limited. Will probably save you money too.

With a good true, you could might be able to max that Q6700 at 380x10, or 3.8 GHz. Just watch your temps. Is the TRUE lapped and with push pull?

 

[vj8usa]

Originally posted by: snarfbot
my mobo is only good to about 380mhz fsb

How'd you reach that conclusion? If it was with the E2160, you were probably hitting the CPU's FSB wall and odds are the mobo is capable of more.

 

[snarfbot]

its possible that its the cpu thats limited at 380mhz, i havent used anything else, but even with a multiplier of 6 it doesnt post at 400mhz so thats where i got that number.

the problem is most likely the motherboard, it tends to reset the settings seemingly randomly before it posts.

for instance if i set it to 400x8, it posts half the time, completely stable, but it fails to boot at those settings on a cold reset.

its a pretty widely known issue for the motherboard. anyway rather than buy a new motherboard, id just as soon work around its limitations and buy a cheaper processor that will overclock within its range ya know, as it doesnt exhibit the problem at fsb frequencies less than 400.

 

[error8]

That motherboard is capable of a lot more then just 380 mhz FSB. Anyway, regardless of this potential issue, if you don't want to be FSB limited in your overclocking session, you can get a Q6700 and a good cooler to take it to 3.6-3.7 ghz. That would prove faster then any of the duals you've listed there and it will probably not cost you too much, since it'll be a second hand hardware. I did the same thing and it will, hopefully, keep me gaming for another year, until prices of DDR3 will be as high as today's DDR2. Dual cores don't have a future anymore.

 

[Schmide]

I'm with error8. Is your System Memory Multiplier (SPD) set to 2.0?

If it's set to 2.4 (5:4) at 380fsb you're memory is holding you back as it's running at ddr2 950. (very doable for ddr800).
If you set it to 2.0 (1:1) at 380fsb your memory will be running at ddr2 760.

I really bet you have another few hundred mhz in that chip. Just make sure the System Memory Multiplier is always set to the lowest number possible.

 

[snarfbot]

my ram will do 500mhz at cas 5 timings. i have it set 1:1 for my normal overclock, so its running at ddr750 effective. ive had this setup for over a year, so ive had plenty of time to tinker with it.

it can run at 3.2ghz if i give it lots of juice, and set the fsb and memory controller voltage to +1. now heres where things get silly.

half the time it wont even post at those settings, it will just reboot, the optical drive will spin up, the fans will kick on, and then it will reboot again. sometimes it reboots 3 or 4 times. then the bios resets the overclock settings, so i have to go back in set them all again, and retry it, again and again until it actually posts.

once in windows it runs fine, but i cant restart it, or the bios will reset, its really not worth the hassle for 200mhz.

if i set it to 8x375 i can restart the pos all day without a problem, so there ya go its weird.