Overclocking Athlon XP What's the bottlneck?

[Mattlock]

I am thinking of upgrading to the following systems:

Athlon XP 2400 (rev B)
SLK800 with 80m smartfan2
Asus nforce2 board (or Epox)
Corsair 2x256mb RAM (3200)

Out of curisosity what are the bottlnecks on this type of system?

Always been a little fuzzy on max FSB for each. Can some summarize for a newbie Ocer?

thanks,
Mattlock

 

[Mattlock]

Looks like I ought to think of getting a 2100 instead, lot cheaper and overclocks well (assuming rev B). Can save up for the Barton later.

Any thoughts?
Mattlock

 

[CoolLight]

Make sure you get a good Powersupply, Antec TruePower 330 or better.

 

[HaVoC]

Looks like I ought to think of getting a 2100 instead, lot cheaper and overclocks well (assuming rev B). Can save up for the Barton later.

I agree 100%. Save your money. You can easily hit 2400+ speeds with the SLK 800 and Nforce mobo. The mobo should support Barton when it arrives later this year.

 

[Anubis]

make sure you have a good powersupply. a Antec of somesorts. and the other main bottel necy will be the vid card. but if you run teh onboard off of the Nforce board you can avoid that

 

[Mattlock]

I've got an Antec SmartPower 350 watt...Will this suffice?

Mattlock

 

[BigJ]

Originally posted by: Mattlock
I've got an Antec SmartPower 350 watt...Will this suffice?

Mattlock

How many IDE devices are you running? What kind of PCI cards do you have? Whats the video card?

If you're running 4 or more IDE drives, any type of SCSI, 4-6 PCI cards, and have a Ti4200 or greater, you may need a new PSU.
Especially if you're running a Radeon 9700 or better, considering that sucks some major juice. This will be the main bottleneck of your system in terms of overclocking if you have too many devices. Anandtech just did a damn good review of 4 PSUs, with the Antec TruePower 430w and the Enermax 460w PSUs coming out on top.

You're ram shouldn't limit you, considering I doubt you'll get very much higher then a 200mhz FSB, maybe 205-208, probably 211 at max, which your RAM should be able to handle it, if not relax some of the timings and you'll be good to go.

I'd definitely got with a 2100+. I've currently got a 2400+ in my system that will OC to 2.22ghz with a $6 heatsink until my watercooling reservoir arrives, but I'm anxious to see if I can get the 2100+ to that level or higher using the same heatsink. Regardless, my parents are getting the one that overclocks lower, be it the 2400+ or the 2100+.

That heatsink is damn good. Weighs a ton though, so be careful with it. Hopefully you got it from SVCompuCycle for just $30 Also, you can have the best heatsink in the world, but without proper case ventilation, its crap. Coolerguys.com is running a special with a nice selection of 80mm fans, buy 2 get 1 free.

 

[MrC4]

I've got an Antec SmartPower 350 watt...Will this suffice?

Yeah, that PSU will work just fine!

 

[Mattlock]

I've got a Sound Card, GForce2GTS Vid Card, a Zip Drive, 2 Hard Drives (each on seperate controller)a DVD player and CD Burner.

(My 2nd phase of my upgrade will good combo video/capture card for gaming and converting hi8 tapes to digital)


I have an Enlight case with a 80mm fan in front and 80 mm exhaust fan in rear...Thinking of adding blowhole fan.

thanks for feedback

Mattlock

 

[Metalloid]

If you are insane and can stand the noise like me, go for a Delta 80mm on that SLK-800. Also if you do add blowholes, go with 120mm. You can move a lot more air at low RPM's. I suggest putting an intake on the side blowing between the video card and CPU HS/F. And put an exhaust in the top between cd-rom and PSU (although if your case isn't big enough you might have to move cd-rom down to 2nd 5 1/4" slot.

Your video card will probably be your biggest bottleneck. But I suggest waiting for Geforce FX cards to come out so that prices for everything else will drop.

 

[Mattlock]

re: video card

Already seeing some video card issues. Currently when playing Medal of Honor, I get some "bright spots" when I hit the pause button. I think it may be on the brink... I assume a Radeo 9500 pro will handle overclocking better...is that correct?

Mattlock