I would appreciate you looking at my E5200 OC part list

Castaa

Junior Member
May 4, 2005
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Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L

Memory: OCZ OCZ2RPR800C44GK PC2-6400 DDR2 800MHz Reaper HPC Edition CL4 4GB Dual Channel Kit

CPU: Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200

Hi all. Does anyone have an opinion about the part list above. This is the core of a cheap gaming PC and hobbyist HD video rendering box. I'm looking to maximize the overclocking potential, while keeping the cost low. I don't need an upgrade path since I'll be probably building another machine in 2 more years. I'm ordering through Amazon because I live in California and am attempting avoid playing the CA sales tax.

Can someone also recommend an inexpensive 775 socket CPU cooler? I am reading the stock Intel cooler isn't up to snuff.
 

Denithor

Diamond Member
Apr 11, 2004
6,300
23
81
If you're doing much HD video work at all you'd be much better served spending some extra bucks and grabbing a cheap quad (Q8400). Your encoding will go much faster even at stock speeds than with an overclocked e5200.
 

Castaa

Junior Member
May 4, 2005
9
0
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Originally posted by: Denithor
If you're doing much HD video work at all you'd be much better served spending some extra bucks and grabbing a cheap quad (Q8400). Your encoding will go much faster even at stock speeds than with an overclocked e5200.

Thanks. Ya, I realize 4 cores would help a lot but I'm really on a budget with this one.
 

Lonyo

Lifer
Aug 10, 2002
21,939
6
81
Main concern would be the motherboard, you might want to check what CPU voltage options it gives, but really the E5200 doesn't require much from anything except the cooler. Any mobo should be able to handle the FSB, as will the RAM (even without a divider).
You would just need to check what sort of voltages the board offers (although I expect if it has any adjustment it would be plenty in the upwards direction).
 

Castaa

Junior Member
May 4, 2005
9
0
0
Originally posted by: Lonyo
Main concern would be the motherboard, you might want to check what CPU voltage options it gives, but really the E5200 doesn't require much from anything except the cooler. Any mobo should be able to handle the FSB, as will the RAM (even without a divider).
You would just need to check what sort of voltages the board offers (although I expect if it has any adjustment it would be plenty in the upwards direction).

Good point. Will do, thanks.

I believe it does. It's an OC friendly board it looks like.
 

faxon

Platinum Member
May 23, 2008
2,109
1
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i should mention that the quality of the board does play a major role in how easy it is to overclock even with an e5200. i just switched from an XFX 680i LT to another UD3P in my second rig cause the 680i was dying on me slowly, and im running the same 3.2ghz overclock at 1.33vcore instead of 1.39vcore. i needed 1.38 just to boot into windows on the old board at 3.2ghz. testing it overnight with OCCT, but i suspect i just unlocked another 200MHz of overclocking headroom just by swapping the motherboard out lol

ed: okay so i still need to increase the voltage a tad bit more (failed OCCT after 45 min) but the point still stands!
 

Castaa

Junior Member
May 4, 2005
9
0
0
Originally posted by: faxon
i should mention that the quality of the board does play a major role in how easy it is to overclock even with an e5200. i just switched from an XFX 680i LT to another UD3P in my second rig cause the 680i was dying on me slowly, and im running the same 3.2ghz overclock at 1.33vcore instead of 1.39vcore. i needed 1.38 just to boot into windows on the old board at 3.2ghz. testing it overnight with OCCT, but i suspect i just unlocked another 200MHz of overclocking headroom just by swapping the motherboard out lol

ed: okay so i still need to increase the voltage a tad bit more (failed OCCT after 45 min) but the point still stands!

Yes. I read that the board while budget has a reputation as a pretty good overclocker.
 

RussianSensation

Elite Member
Sep 5, 2003
19,458
765
126
Looks like the total cost of your setup will be about ($70 cpu, $58 mobo + $55 ram once you factor in free shipping) and add in the $20 aftermarket cooler = $203

$70 BIOSTAR TA790GX XE AM2+/AM3 AMD 790GX HDMI
$130 AMD Phenom 9950 Agena 2.6GHz Black Edition
$44 OCZ Flex EX 4GB

$244

- 4 Dimm slots vs. 2 on intel setup
- will be able to upgrade to socket am3 cpus for a while (so this will allow you to delay upgrading longer)
- that processor will overclock on stock cooler + unlocked multiplier (since amd stock coolers are better)
- better onboard gpu

Well worth the extra $41
 

PieIsAwesome

Diamond Member
Feb 11, 2007
4,054
1
0
For video rendering I would go for a tri core or quad core Phenom II.

But I have an e5200 and G31M-ES2L setup, and here's a few things about the board.

The G31M has a 1 more divider option than most other G31 boards, and I was able to get my CPU to 3.75ghz with DDR2-800 ram.

The overclock would not go beyond 3.2ghz if done from the BIOS, and CPU voltage increases in the BIOS did not seem to actually raise the voltage.

I got to 3.75 ghz by OC'ing to 3.2ghz in BIOS then doing the rest from Gigabyte's software OC tool. Voltage increase works.

I set the CPU voltage to 1.375 but CPU-Z only reports 1.328 at idle and goes between 1.328 and 1.312 under load.
 

PieIsAwesome

Diamond Member
Feb 11, 2007
4,054
1
0
Originally posted by: RussianSensation
Looks like the total cost of your setup will be about ($70 cpu, $58 mobo + $55 ram once you factor in free shipping) and add in the $20 aftermarket cooler = $203

$70 BIOSTAR TA790GX XE AM2+/AM3 AMD 790GX HDMI
$130 AMD Phenom 9950 Agena 2.6GHz Black Edition
$44 OCZ Flex EX 4GB

$244

- 4 Dimm slots vs. 2 on intel setup
- will be able to upgrade to socket am3 cpus for a while (so this will allow you to delay upgrading longer)
- that processor will overclock on stock cooler + unlocked multiplier (since amd stock coolers are better)
- better onboard gpu

Well worth the extra $41

Why not this for a bit more?

Oh wait the 2.8ghz version is only $15 more. But then the 3.0ghz version is only $10 more than that. Curses, difficult to choose.
 

Castaa

Junior Member
May 4, 2005
9
0
0
Originally posted by: PieIsAwesome
For video rendering I would go for a tri core or quad core Phenom II.

But I have an e5200 and G31M-ES2L setup, and here's a few things about the board.

The G31M has a 1 more divider option than most other G31 boards, and I was able to get my CPU to 3.75ghz with DDR2-800 ram.

The overclock would not go beyond 3.2ghz if done from the BIOS, and CPU voltage increases in the BIOS did not seem to actually raise the voltage.

I got to 3.75 ghz by OC'ing to 3.2ghz in BIOS then doing the rest from Gigabyte's software OC tool. Voltage increase works.

I set the CPU voltage to 1.375 but CPU-Z only reports 1.328 at idle and goes between 1.328 and 1.312 under load.

Oh ok. That's good information to know. Thanks.