Help me build a bitchin OC'd P4. The Dark Side awaits!

[BatmanNate]

Well, the time has come at last. My dual Athlon rig has served me faithfully and flawlessly for 2+ years, and is starting to show its age. (1500+'s on an AMD 760) Clearly the choice for performance right now is the P4c/865 from what I have read, the only two problems being 1) I have not built an Intel rig since my p3 700e@1200 with the exception of this Quad PPro that I'm posting from D) and 2) I am on a budget.

I am merely asking for recomendations as far as:

- Which P4 is the best value overclocker; the 2.4c?
- What type of memory would be needed to hit around 3 GHz with stability?
- What cooling would be appropriate and not overkill?
- Which motherboards are most highly regarded at the moment?

Also, I'm a little confused about if I get an 800MHz FSB processor at 2.4GHz will I still be able to reach around 3.0 GHz through cranking up the FSB without maxing out my memory? TIA,

Nate

 

[sman789]

my rig is completely stable with a cheapo psu
you set the fsb to 250 but have a divider of 5:4 and that makes the ram run at default ddr400 speed
you could always buy higher speed ram, 433, 466, 500, 533 and run the fsb 1:1 with the ram speed i.e
ddr433/2=216fsb

 

[BatmanNate]

Originally posted by: sman789
my rig is completely stable with a cheapo psu
you set the fsb to 250 but have a divider of 5:4 and that makes the ram run at default ddr400 speed
you could always buy higher speed ram, 433, 466, 500, 533 and run the fsb 1:1 with the ram speed i.e
ddr433/2=216fsb

Awesome, thanks for the info. Do you run just the stock cooling and voltage on your setup?

 

[jhites]

Currently running (3) P4C rigs. If all you are looking for is 3.0Ghz, then the stock heatsink will serve very well. I did remove the pad and use ASIII in place of the pad on the rigs that are running stock sinks. Below are some specs on my rigs. Maybe they can help you decide.

Rig 1 2.6C@3397Mhz; Asus P4C800; 1Gb HyperX-PC3500 (5:4)(2-2-2-5)
Air Cooled - SLK900U - Panaflo 92mm 57cfm (vcore=1.60v)

Rig 2 3.06@3312Mhz; Asus P4G8X; 512Mb Corsair Value PC2700 (1:1)(2-3-2-5)
Air Cooled - Alpha 8942 - Sunon 80mm 50cfm (vcore=1.525)

Rig 3 XP1600@Stock; ECS K7S5A; 512Mb Crucial PC2100
Air Cooled - SK6 - 80mm 32cfm

Rig 4 2.4C@3084Mhz; Abit IS7-E; 512Mb HyperX PC3500 (5:4)(2-2-2-5)
Air Cooled - Zalman 7000-CU (vcore=1.575v)

Rig 5 2.4C@3096Mhz; Asus P4P800; 512Mb Corsair PC3500C2 (5:4)(2-2-2-5)
Air Cooled - Stock 3.06 Heatsink/Fan (vcore=1.60v)

Rig 6] 2.8C@3249Mhz; DFI PS83-BL; 1Gb TwinMos PC3700 (1:1)(2.5-3-3-7)
Air Cooled - Stock Heatsink/Fan (vcore=1.60v)

 

[BatmanNate]

Originally posted by: jhites
Currently running (3) P4C rigs. If all you are looking for is 3.0Ghz, then the stock heatsink will serve very well. I did remove the pad and use ASIII in place of the pad on the rigs that are running stock sinks. Below are some specs on my rigs. Maybe they can help you decide.

Rig 1 2.6C@3397Mhz; Asus P4C800; 1Gb HyperX-PC3500 (5:4)(2-2-2-5)
Air Cooled - SLK900U - Panaflo 92mm 57cfm (vcore=1.60v)

Rig 2 3.06@3312Mhz; Asus P4G8X; 512Mb Corsair Value PC2700 (1:1)(2-3-2-5)
Air Cooled - Alpha 8942 - Sunon 80mm 50cfm (vcore=1.525)

Rig 3 XP1600@Stock; ECS K7S5A; 512Mb Crucial PC2100
Air Cooled - SK6 - 80mm 32cfm

Rig 4 2.4C@3084Mhz; Abit IS7-E; 512Mb HyperX PC3500 (5:4)(2-2-2-5)
Air Cooled - Zalman 7000-CU (vcore=1.575v)

Rig 5 2.4C@3096Mhz; Asus P4P800; 512Mb Corsair PC3500C2 (5:4)(2-2-2-5)
Air Cooled - Stock 3.06 Heatsink/Fan (vcore=1.60v)

Rig 6] 2.8C@3249Mhz; DFI PS83-BL; 1Gb TwinMos PC3700 (1:1)(2.5-3-3-7)
Air Cooled - Stock Heatsink/Fan (vcore=1.60v)

Thanks for the post, it was very helpful. That is quite a fleet you have there as well. Is PC3500 necessary for 3 GHz or would 3200 do? How much would I have to relax the timing? At this point I'm just vaguely considering a 2.4c retail, an Abit IS7 (not the E), and the retail HS/F. Haven't decided on RAM yet. Or HSF if the stock one doesn't cut it.

 

[sman789]

^^3200 is great if you just run 5:4 with 250fsb. the stock hsf is good enuf but the zalman did bring down load temps
when using 5:4 i can still use the max timings my mem is rated for 2-3-3-6

 

[jhites]

Originally posted by: BatmanNate

Originally posted by: jhites
Thanks for the post, it was very helpful. That is quite a fleet you have there as well. Is PC3500 necessary for 3 GHz or would 3200 do? How much would I have to relax the timing? At this point I'm just vaguely considering a 2.4c retail, an Abit IS7 (not the E), and the retail HS/F. Haven't decided on RAM yet. Or HSF if the stock one doesn't cut it.

You don't really need PC3500 to run 3Ghz. I wanted the HyperX KHX3500 in order to get the BH5 (5ns) Winbond chips and tighter timings. Most 3200 and below use the (6ns) chips.