Overclocking a 3.0 ghz p4.

smashp

Platinum Member
Aug 30, 2003
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I am currently in the process of building a Cad station for my brother in laws Arch firm. Although I am generally against overclocking, in the particular situation we are in, I feel it calls for it. The machine is going to be primarely built for redering and we are looking at getting as much CPU power that we can.

My question is,

Has anyone tried vapor cooling like they have over at Iceepc or any other extreme cooling method.

Our target range is right aroung 3.8 - 4.2 ghz.

The only other option we have een considering is a duel Xeon machine.

Any recomendations.
 

o1die

Diamond Member
Jul 8, 2001
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Many of the extreme overclocking results are short term only. Any long term overclocking will generally result in system instability or premature failure. Some water cooled systems are reasonably priced, and you might get results in the 3.5 range, if that's adequate. If you go that route, I would mount the radiator outside the case with a conventional fan cooling it. A small desktop fan would cost 5-$10 and do a far better job than any standard heatsink fan. I haven't seen results for the amd opteron, but the motherboards are quite expensive, similar to the xeons. And vapor cooling isn't cheap.
 

smashp

Platinum Member
Aug 30, 2003
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The Vapor cooling units sit outside the PC and you route the cooling unit inside the case onto the CPU. they Run around $700-1000. It is costly to do, but some of the research that we have done shows this is really effective. The problem we have with duel Xeon systems is mostly cost based, but after the cooling cost to overclock the difference is only slightly more. We primarly want to stay with Intel on this unit do to the critical nature of the applications and programs this unit will run. There just arent enough test cases out yet of how autocad2004, arc destop, premiere, studio max or studio viz perform on these systems. Athalon Xp's worked ok, but the same intel models performed slightly better in these intensive programs.
 

Shimmishim

Elite Member
Feb 19, 2001
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Originally posted by: o1die
Many of the extreme overclocking results are short term only. Any long term overclocking will generally result in system instability or premature failure. Some water cooled systems are reasonably priced, and you might get results in the 3.5 range, if that's adequate. If you go that route, I would mount the radiator outside the case with a conventional fan cooling it. A small desktop fan would cost 5-$10 and do a far better job than any standard heatsink fan. I haven't seen results for the amd opteron, but the motherboards are quite expensive, similar to the xeons. And vapor cooling isn't cheap.

maybe liquid nitrogen...

but things like vapochill or prometeia will give you that performance boost you are looking for...

and your system won't die prematurely...

phase change is going to cost you a hefty amount though...

if you go visit the xtreme forums, you can check out the people using extreme cooling to get some killer overclocks...

visit here

:)
 

smashp

Platinum Member
Aug 30, 2003
2,443
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Originally posted by: Shimmishim
Originally posted by: o1die
Many of the extreme overclocking results are short term only. Any long term overclocking will generally result in system instability or premature failure. Some water cooled systems are reasonably priced, and you might get results in the 3.5 range, if that's adequate. If you go that route, I would mount the radiator outside the case with a conventional fan cooling it. A small desktop fan would cost 5-$10 and do a far better job than any standard heatsink fan. I haven't seen results for the amd opteron, but the motherboards are quite expensive, similar to the xeons. And vapor cooling isn't cheap.

maybe liquid nitrogen...

but things like vapochill or prometeia will give you that performance boost you are looking for...

and your system won't die prematurely...

phase change is going to cost you a hefty amount though...

if you go visit the xtreme forums, you can check out the people using extreme cooling to get some killer overclocks...

visit here

:)



Would you trust a vapor cooling unit on a overclocked p4 to be reliable at such speeds, or is it just going to give peak performance ocasionally.

Part of me want to build this vapor unit just to try it out and push the envelope, Yet another part of me says to go the xeon route just to be safe.