Need help choosing Intel CPU for overclocking

[LiQiCE]

Hey, I've been out of the Intel scene for awhile (last Intel chip was a PIII 600E o/c'ed to 800EB) ... I'm looking to get something in the $160-200 price range, and there are a bunch of choices so I'm not really sure what to get.

I was originally considering getting a 2.0A 400Mhz P4 because I figured I should be able to easily bump it up to 2.66 @ 533Mhz, but a lot of people are saying the 2.26/533 are a better buy or the 2.4/533 chips. What do you think will yield the best overclocking potential? I'm planning on pairing the chip with the Epox EP-4PEA+ and 1x512MB Corsair PC3500 CAS 2 ... Does this sound pretty good? I chose the Epox motherboard because I wanted something that could support 4 separate IDE devices (1 per channel), the ASUS board in the same price range would only support 3 IDE devices because it only has 1 port on the Promise RAID controller (unless I doubled up the channels) ... Any help that can be provided would be appreciated.

I think I should be able to run at 166Mhz with the PC3500 memory and a 4:5 ratio without any problems (effective 415Mhz DDR), with the 2.4/533 and retail heatsink fan is it possible to hit 3Ghz fairly easily? I have a full tower case with pretty good cooling in it, so if I needed to bump the voltage a bit it shouldn't be a huge problem.

Also, who should I buy from online to help to ensure I get a newer stepping of the P4? c1 steppings are probably hard to guarentee, but b0 steppings seem to be doing pretty well with overclocks too.

Thanks again!

 

[ChampionAtTufshop]

1.8a
2.26b
2.4b
those are the consistently good overclockers

dont bump the voltage higher than 1.7v actual in windows...gate oxide breakdown i believe is the technical term of what happens should you venture past 1.7v, in english: cpu will be dead in no time

2.0a was not a good overclocker

www.newegg.com seems to sell quite a bit of stock, so possibly the older B0 steppings are gone and C1 steppings are starting to appear
ikonw that 2.66ghz and some 2.53ghz and higher are all C1 for the most part

theres a guy selling in the forsale/for trade forum, maybe check his deals out? (C1 stepping 1.8a i think, its gotten to around 3ghz from what ive seen on air)
//edit
link
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=45&threadid=919989
seems like hes sold them....but theres still a chance of someone backing out

 

[LiQiCE]

Hey thanks for the help. I ended up ordering two 2.4Ghz 533Mhz FSB P4's from Googlegear, hopefully one of the two will be a nice overclocker (the other one will go into my parent's system and 2.4Ghz is already overkill for them!) 🙂

Hopefully the Epox board and Corsair PC3500C2 will prove to be good overclockers for the chip!

 

[Toymaker]

I f you order on the phone or buy it locally you can have the vendor check the last five digits of the product code.

Intel Processor Spec Finder

 

[LiQiCE]

Originally posted by: Toymaker
I f you order on the phone or buy it locally you can have the vendor check the last five digits of the product code.

Intel Processor Spec Finder

Toymaker,

Thanks for the link. I already took my chances and ordered two of them from Googlegear. Hopefully I'll be able to get the stepping I want, if not then I won't be too upset with a 2.4Ghz processor I'm sure 🙂

 

[ChampionAtTufshop]

Originally posted by: LiQiCE

Originally posted by: Toymaker
I f you order on the phone or buy it locally you can have the vendor check the last five digits of the product code.

Intel Processor Spec Finder

Toymaker,

Thanks for the link. I already took my chances and ordered two of them from Googlegear. Hopefully I'll be able to get the stepping I want, if not then I won't be too upset with a 2.4Ghz processor I'm sure 🙂

of course
its not like you absolutely NEED to have a specific stepping to overclock 😉