Planning on OCing

[Stg-Flame]

I am building a new gaming PC tomorrow or Friday (depends on UPS) and I had planned on OCing my CPU and GPU as much as possible without resorting to liquid cooling and/or a new heatsink.

My specs will be:

Intel C2D e8400 3.0GHz
eVGA GTX 260 576/2000
Corsair 520W PSU
ASUS P5K PRO 775 P35 RT
Mushkin 4GB DDR2 (PC2-6400) 5-4-4-12
Samsung Spinpoint 750GB
Antec 900 Case
Vista 64-bit

For now (due to lack of time) I just need to know if anyone sees any problems that I may run into while attempting to overclock? Also, based upon opinions or personal experiences, what could I hope to achieve for my CPU and GPU (stable) through overclocking??

 

[Markfw]

Your ram won't get you much past 3.6, and with a stock HSF, you will be lucky to get to 3.6 with decent temps anyway. Other than that, it looks fine.

 

[Stg-Flame]

Thanks. Do you have any idea to the extent of what my GPU can take? I really want it to perform well (I hate comparing games to Crysis, but the CryEngine seems to be popular these days) and I have seen my roommate's 9800GTX shine on all high at 1400X900. Judging from benchmarks, I know my card is better than his, but the margin was not satisfactory to me - hence the eagerness to overclock.

EDIT: Before I forget, does Anandtech have any good tutorials for overclocking a CPU? I know there are some stickied topics, but they are quite lengthy and I do not have the time to read through pages and pages of posts (not yet at least). For my GPU, I plan on using RivaTuner as I have only heard good things about that program so I think I am set on that front..

 

[Markfw]

Read the sticky. Page one is all you need.

 

[DSF]

Originally posted by: Markfw900
Read the sticky. Page one is all you need.

QFS.

(Quoted for stickiness.)

Most of the posts in that thread are either thank yous, small additional tips, or little mentions of typos and things in the article, which were subsequently edited in the original post.

Read the original post in the sticky and you should be all set for the kind of mild overclocking you're doing.

 

[Stg-Flame]

Well, I had planned on 3.9 or higher on my CPU, but I guess I didn't pick the correct parts for that type of overclocking.

Either way, thanks for the help. This weekend when my PC is up and running, I should have some time to read through the stickies.

 

[DSF]

Originally posted by: Chaoticpenguin666
Well, I had planned on 3.9 or higher on my CPU, but I guess I didn't pick the correct parts for that type of overclocking.

Either way, thanks for the help. This weekend when my PC is up and running, I should have some time to read through the stickies.

It depends. Considering that the Mushkin kit does 5-4-4-12 at 1.8V, you might have some decent overclocking room. If - and this is an if, not a guarantee - you can get it to DDR2-900 you have the potential to take your chip up to around 4GHz.

 

[Stg-Flame]

Originally posted by: DSF

Originally posted by: Chaoticpenguin666
Well, I had planned on 3.9 or higher on my CPU, but I guess I didn't pick the correct parts for that type of overclocking.

Either way, thanks for the help. This weekend when my PC is up and running, I should have some time to read through the stickies.

It depends. Considering that the Mushkin kit does 5-4-4-12 at 1.8V, you might have some decent overclocking room. If - and this is an if, not a guarantee - you can get it to DDR2-900 you have the potential to take your chip up to around 4GHz.

I assume there is a sticky detailing how to turn that '800' into a '900'?

 

[Jyve]

Wouldn't he be able to use a memory divider to keep the ram running @ spec? That's what I'm doing with my e7200. I'm running 400mhz bus w/ a 2 divider to keep the ram running @ 800mhz.