An idiot's impression.
Loads of us novices are very interested in Nforce 4 - because the long awaited PCI express meets AMD 64. It's got about a year's lifespan as the best gaming mobo\processor out there, untill AMD bring out socket M2 this time next year (or if Intel do something dramatic) But even then M2 will cost an arm and a leg, there will be dual core support for socket 939, and it'll be the new budget platform - where the overclocking opportunities often arise.
Nforce 4 Mobos seem to overclock well - hence a lot of amateur attempts and questions.
Boards
THere are 4 main brands making these boards
Gigabyte - of little is said, which isn't a ringing endorcement. But it's been overclocked successfuly, from what I can see.
MSI - Whisch seems OK, but not a brilliant overclocker, and the sound doesn't work with new PSU's which lack a -5v connection (or rail as you lot would call it.)
Asus - Which again seems reasonable, but can't run the memory faster than 240Mhz - which puts a limit on it's overclocking - It won't run PC 4000 at full whack.
DFI - of which more gets known every day, and seems the best of the bunch. (according to the hype)
PSU
Overclocking needs a nice stable PSU - which you find mainly through experience\recomendation. Propper reviews are rare - but this article is an exception. So I plumped for a Tagan.
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/custompc/labs/15/psus/products.html
CPU
Us novices will want a reasonably priced chipset . The more recent the processor, the better the probabilities of fast overclocking. If it's >week 46, they have better memory controllers, which also helps things a bit.
so it's
3000+ 512MB cache 1.8Ghz x9
3200+ 512MB cache 1.8Ghz x10
3500+ 512MB cache 1.8Ghz x11
All three max out at 2.4-2.6Ghz- depending on luck - not all chips are the same.
To achieve a 2.4 Ghz processor you need to increase your memory's speed from 200Hz (=DDR400) to 266Hz in a 9x 3000+, or only to 240Hz with the 3200's higher x10 multiplier.
With a 3500+ ,2.6GHZ = 236 Hz less than DDR 500. So it's unlikely to be clockable a lot faster than a 3200.
Memory
But running memory at 266Hz is likely (if not guaranteed) to fail - and absolutely certainly does fail with the asus + MSI boards - because the motherboard can't cope with such high clock speeds
So then you need to use tricks to get around the problem
a.Giving the memory more voltage
b. Using expensive memory - that is designed to run at 250Hz (sounds good to a novice like me)
c. Make the memory run slower - by reducing the memory timings (called Cas) -good idea or reducing it's command rate (called 1t and 2t - generaly systems run slower when you do this and it aint worth it.)
d. Use the motherboard's clever trick of running memory and cpu cycle speeds at different rates. Using a .75 multiplier will run the memory at three quarters of the CPU's base speed
e. Use a load of esoteric trics with memory settings that I won't pretend to have the vaguest idea about.
Cooling
Running things faster creates heat, so you need decent airflow within the case, and to get hot air out of the case.
Oh yes, and then there's SLI. Many have an SLI board because that's all that's out there right now of decent quality.
In theory double the cards= double the quality; buy one now, another later.
It ain't quite that easy. SLI doesn't seem universally supported, performance gain is at best 70%, at worst zero. It strains the PSU's out there, you need 2 cards with the same bios to get it to work - and finding a card that'll take the same bios a year from now might not necessarily be easy. But still - they do run very very fast.
Please correct my misconceptions.
This is written so that I can be clear in what I think I know - and so that you all can tell me what bits of what I think I know is wrong
Loads of us novices are very interested in Nforce 4 - because the long awaited PCI express meets AMD 64. It's got about a year's lifespan as the best gaming mobo\processor out there, untill AMD bring out socket M2 this time next year (or if Intel do something dramatic) But even then M2 will cost an arm and a leg, there will be dual core support for socket 939, and it'll be the new budget platform - where the overclocking opportunities often arise.
Nforce 4 Mobos seem to overclock well - hence a lot of amateur attempts and questions.
Boards
THere are 4 main brands making these boards
Gigabyte - of little is said, which isn't a ringing endorcement. But it's been overclocked successfuly, from what I can see.
MSI - Whisch seems OK, but not a brilliant overclocker, and the sound doesn't work with new PSU's which lack a -5v connection (or rail as you lot would call it.)
Asus - Which again seems reasonable, but can't run the memory faster than 240Mhz - which puts a limit on it's overclocking - It won't run PC 4000 at full whack.
DFI - of which more gets known every day, and seems the best of the bunch. (according to the hype)
PSU
Overclocking needs a nice stable PSU - which you find mainly through experience\recomendation. Propper reviews are rare - but this article is an exception. So I plumped for a Tagan.
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/custompc/labs/15/psus/products.html
CPU
Us novices will want a reasonably priced chipset . The more recent the processor, the better the probabilities of fast overclocking. If it's >week 46, they have better memory controllers, which also helps things a bit.
so it's
3000+ 512MB cache 1.8Ghz x9
3200+ 512MB cache 1.8Ghz x10
3500+ 512MB cache 1.8Ghz x11
All three max out at 2.4-2.6Ghz- depending on luck - not all chips are the same.
To achieve a 2.4 Ghz processor you need to increase your memory's speed from 200Hz (=DDR400) to 266Hz in a 9x 3000+, or only to 240Hz with the 3200's higher x10 multiplier.
With a 3500+ ,2.6GHZ = 236 Hz less than DDR 500. So it's unlikely to be clockable a lot faster than a 3200.
Memory
But running memory at 266Hz is likely (if not guaranteed) to fail - and absolutely certainly does fail with the asus + MSI boards - because the motherboard can't cope with such high clock speeds
So then you need to use tricks to get around the problem
a.Giving the memory more voltage
b. Using expensive memory - that is designed to run at 250Hz (sounds good to a novice like me)
c. Make the memory run slower - by reducing the memory timings (called Cas) -good idea or reducing it's command rate (called 1t and 2t - generaly systems run slower when you do this and it aint worth it.)
d. Use the motherboard's clever trick of running memory and cpu cycle speeds at different rates. Using a .75 multiplier will run the memory at three quarters of the CPU's base speed
e. Use a load of esoteric trics with memory settings that I won't pretend to have the vaguest idea about.
Cooling
Running things faster creates heat, so you need decent airflow within the case, and to get hot air out of the case.
Oh yes, and then there's SLI. Many have an SLI board because that's all that's out there right now of decent quality.
In theory double the cards= double the quality; buy one now, another later.
It ain't quite that easy. SLI doesn't seem universally supported, performance gain is at best 70%, at worst zero. It strains the PSU's out there, you need 2 cards with the same bios to get it to work - and finding a card that'll take the same bios a year from now might not necessarily be easy. But still - they do run very very fast.
Please correct my misconceptions.
This is written so that I can be clear in what I think I know - and so that you all can tell me what bits of what I think I know is wrong
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