HELP NEEDED: Stock HSF how good for overclocking A64 3000+ Winnie? Plus PSU and IDE lock question

UzairH

Senior member
Dec 12, 2004
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The only A64 mobo here in Pakistan is costing me way too high - $300 for Asus A8N SLI. The only logic I can use for getting this over a much cheaper P4 530 is that I would be able to oc the A64 to almost FX55 levels, from what I read on the forums here. But I can't get any aftermarket HSF here... so how good is the stock HSF on the Winchesters? The ambient temperature in summer is about 28C to 33C (80F to 90F) in summer and 20C in winters etc. So in these ambient temps does good overclocking require a good aftermarket HSF also? Will the stock HSF allow at least 2.4GHz on a 3000+? Even in summer? What about 2.6GHz?

Another question I have is regarding the power supply. The best I can get here is for $45 500W which claims regulation of ±5% and ripple/noise of ±1% on all lines. Is this is good enough for an OC'ed A64 system and 2 6800GT's?

Finally, is it true that on the A8N when the IDE channel is not locked like the SATA and PCI channels, which would mean that raising the HTT to say 270 would raise the IDE freq also. In that case is it possible to use an IDE drive? I have a Seagate 120GB PATA and want to keep that.

I appreciate all help. :)
 

Sentential

Senior member
Feb 28, 2005
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Ok. Here are a few things you *need* to know.

#1 The PSU wattage doesnt mean anything. What are the individual amps on each voltage rail?

#2 The A8N SLI requires the use of an ATX2.0 / BTX power supply. Most generic PSUs only come with 20 pin power connection for the motherboard. You *must* get one that has 24pins. Your board will not work well at all without one.

The stock sink for A64s is decent enough I suppose but to be honest its not very good. It gets the job done and nothing more. As for the overclocks it depends on the CPU. Some do higher with less volts than others. Its basic luck of the draw. Your CPU will what it can and nothing more :-/

The A8N does indeed have a locked PCI bus. The only one that has a shaky / nonfunctioning bus is VIA based chipsets. Since the A8N is nVidia Nforce4 based you are fine

As for the P4 setup to be honest that isnt a good deal either. The 5xx series will be discontiuned very soon and lack 64bit support (for when Windows64 arrives in a month)

Are there any other boards you can get ahold of? What about a 6xx series Pentium4?
 

Leper Messiah

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Dec 13, 2004
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Originally posted by: Sentential
Ok. Here are a few things you *need* to know.

#1 The PSU wattage doesnt mean anything. What are the individual amps on each voltage rail? true

#2 The A8N SLI requires the use of an ATX2.0 / BTX power supply. Most generic PSUs only come with 20 pin power connection for the motherboard. You *must* get one that has 24pins. Your board will not work well at all without one. not nessiarly, but a good idea if you're buying a new PSU

The stock sink for A64s is decent enough I suppose but to be honest its not very good. It gets the job done and nothing more. As for the overclocks it depends on the CPU. Some do higher with less volts than others. Its basic luck of the draw. Your CPU will what it can and nothing more :-/ [/b]Its actually rather good, just as long as you don't go over about 1.6v it can get a little loud also at load.[/b]

The A8N does indeed have a locked PCI bus. The only one that has a shaky / nonfunctioning bus is VIA based chipsets. Since the A8N is nVidia Nforce4 based you are fine [/b]KT800pros should be alright, but non-pros only have dividers (and not very good ones at that[/b]

As for the P4 setup to be honest that isnt a good deal either. The 5xx series will be discontiuned very soon and lack 64bit support (for when Windows64 arrives in a month)

Are there any other boards you can get ahold of? What about a 6xx series Pentium4?

EDIT: Forgot to answer the OP question. Depending on the date and stepping, your oc will vary. Generally the best regarded ones are the 0448s i believe, after that, the results are as good. Still, alot of people are still getting 2.5ghz or so, depending on their setup.
 

UzairH

Senior member
Dec 12, 2004
315
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Originally posted by: Sentential
Ok. Here are a few things you *need* to know.

#1 The PSU wattage doesnt mean anything. What are the individual amps on each voltage rail?

#2 The A8N SLI requires the use of an ATX2.0 / BTX power supply. Most generic PSUs only come with 20 pin power connection for the motherboard. You *must* get one that has 24pins. Your board will not work well at all without one.

The stock sink for A64s is decent enough I suppose but to be honest its not very good. It gets the job done and nothing more. As for the overclocks it depends on the CPU. Some do higher with less volts than others. Its basic luck of the draw. Your CPU will what it can and nothing more :-/

The A8N does indeed have a locked PCI bus. The only one that has a shaky / nonfunctioning bus is VIA based chipsets. Since the A8N is nVidia Nforce4 based you are fine

As for the P4 setup to be honest that isnt a good deal either. The 5xx series will be discontiuned very soon and lack 64bit support (for when Windows64 arrives in a month)

Are there any other boards you can get ahold of? What about a 6xx series Pentium4?

I have not seen the PSU itself, only talked to the rep on the phone. He says its brand is "alpha". Not sure but I found only one power supply company called alpha on the net - its in US making supplies for PCs and medical equipment. Maybe its better-than-average generic Chinese one, or maybe it IS the one from the US firm. In that case the specs on the website _says_: 3.3V: 35A ; 5V: 65A ; 12V: 35A ; all three max. 480W combined.

If these amps are true I suppose its good enough, but the regulation as I said is ±5% on all lines, with ±1% ripple/noise.

Anyway if the A64 core is good enough to Oc to say 2.6GHz, will the HSF be up to that?I really need to know the answer to that, please.

Thanks Sentential and L3p3rM355i4h for the help :D :thumbsup:
 

Sentential

Senior member
Feb 28, 2005
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Those amps look pretty solid. Make sure that it has a 24 pin ATX connection. As for the A64 overclock, heat will not be your limiting factor. If it does not do 2.6 on stock cooling it will never do 2.6 even with good cooling.
 

paladiin

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Oct 23, 2001
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For me, my 0503 3000+ craps out before temps become an issue on the stock HSF. I have good case temps and I used AS5, and the stock HSF works great for me.

At 1.55v with the CPU at 2.5Ghz (unstable in Prime95 in under 2 minutes) I topped out at 43C. Heat was not the issue. The CPU simply wasn't stable.
 

UzairH

Senior member
Dec 12, 2004
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Originally posted by: paladiin
For me, my 0503 3000+ craps out before temps become an issue on the stock HSF. I have good case temps and I used AS5, and the stock HSF works great for me.

At 1.55v with the CPU at 2.5Ghz (unstable in Prime95 in under 2 minutes) I topped out at 43C. Heat was not the issue. The CPU simply wasn't stable.


So paladin what speed are you running your 3000+ now? 2.4? Is it completely stable at that?