just received my OEM desktop a64 3000+ (CG rev) from newegg. also had ordered the msi k8n neo nf3 250 board and an slk 948 heatsink. >>>could not get the slk installed because the retention mechanism was too small to fit the plate of the heatsink.<<< the stock backplate on the msi is held with double sided sticky tape and was not coming off. was going to cut down the plastic but decided against it and went to the local computer shop and picked up the thermaltake silent boost (ughhh). wanted to stick with thermalright but this heatsink is doing a decent job as is.
coming from a mobile xp with a soltek nv400 board at 2.4ghz i was hoping for at least 2.2ghz with this new chip. applied a very thin layer of arctic silver to the heatspreader and an even smaller layer to the heatsink.
at default voltage got the chip up to 2.45ghz (10x245fsb) with 1gb of OCZ pc3200 rev 2 at 2.5-3-3-11 timings. ram voltage is at 2.7v and stable.
HAVE NOT had any problems with the cpu temperature readings as others have posted elsewhere on this forum. reading 43C idle and ~50C under load. as anandtech had reviewed the nforce 3 chip gets eXtremely hot. before installing the board i took off the chipset heatsink and noticed there was an uneven amount of silicon paste. cleaned off with rubbing alcohol and applied a very thin layer of arctic silver. wanted to install the zalman nb heatsink but the arctic cooler (rev 3) i have on my 9800pro is too close to the stock heatsink as is. less than 1/2" i would say and no way around it. kind of bummed about that so be warned those of you with this gpu cooler.
i know alot of you are coming from mobile xp chips and ive been playing some americas army, definitely faster than the mobile xp @ 2.4ghz. windows xp 64 trial is decent but im going to install winxp and fedora 2 as my main OS's. noticed in the ATI display options clicking DCC off would cause a dll crash in xp64 so im not going to bother with running this beta too long.
good luck overclocking and hope my experience helps you decide on your next cpu upgrade!
peace.
coming from a mobile xp with a soltek nv400 board at 2.4ghz i was hoping for at least 2.2ghz with this new chip. applied a very thin layer of arctic silver to the heatspreader and an even smaller layer to the heatsink.
at default voltage got the chip up to 2.45ghz (10x245fsb) with 1gb of OCZ pc3200 rev 2 at 2.5-3-3-11 timings. ram voltage is at 2.7v and stable.
HAVE NOT had any problems with the cpu temperature readings as others have posted elsewhere on this forum. reading 43C idle and ~50C under load. as anandtech had reviewed the nforce 3 chip gets eXtremely hot. before installing the board i took off the chipset heatsink and noticed there was an uneven amount of silicon paste. cleaned off with rubbing alcohol and applied a very thin layer of arctic silver. wanted to install the zalman nb heatsink but the arctic cooler (rev 3) i have on my 9800pro is too close to the stock heatsink as is. less than 1/2" i would say and no way around it. kind of bummed about that so be warned those of you with this gpu cooler.
i know alot of you are coming from mobile xp chips and ive been playing some americas army, definitely faster than the mobile xp @ 2.4ghz. windows xp 64 trial is decent but im going to install winxp and fedora 2 as my main OS's. noticed in the ATI display options clicking DCC off would cause a dll crash in xp64 so im not going to bother with running this beta too long.
good luck overclocking and hope my experience helps you decide on your next cpu upgrade!
peace.
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