Please review and critique OC build

[Greg04]

OK,

I bought everything:

MB $69.95AR ABIT IP35-E
CPU $139 E4500
COOLER $46.99 TUNIQ TOWER 120
VIDEO $65AR EVGA PASSIVE GS7600
RAM $57AR OCZ 2GB 6400
CASE $39.95AR ANTEC NSK4400
FANS $2eax2 80mm x2
OS $105.90 VISTA PREMIUM

~$540 with OS, AR

My goal was to build a cheap but decent quality setup for light video editing and general use. I was going to just buy a cheap dell, but I didn't like the idea of buying a cpu capable of a 50% OC and leaving it at stock speed. I'll post results next week when the build is complete.

I was kinda surprised that Mwave beat out the egg for stuff (MB, CPU) being in stock and being cheaper. It's been years since I strayed away from the comfort of newegg.

UPDATE: After some arctic silver and some bios tweaks, 3.5ghz on 1.5v and 3.3ghz stable at 1.4v . Smokin' fast for a $139 chip.

UPDATE 2: dropped the voltage to default, and it runs 3.3(1.4v) fine all tests, and 3.5ghz(1.5v) is still the high end. Weirdly, it boots at 3.6 and gets into windows, but collapses at that point...guess that's the end of the line. But a bargain at $139.

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: Greg04
MB: ABIT IP35-E $75 AR

CPU:C2D 2.33ghz $178

RAM: OCZ 2GB KIT $56.99AR

CPU cooler: Zalman 9500

Case: Antec $40AR

I have a good PS, is the ram good enough, should I get different/better RAM? Looking for a mild (3Ghz?) OC here, nothing miraculous...or is that too much?

BETTER COOLER FTW!

Tuniq Tower, or Thermalright Ultra120 Regular. Thats my first recomendation.

That board is a great crunching board. But its kinda limited. If possible i would recomend the gigabyte P35-DS3P or the Abit IP35-Pro.

 

[myocardia]

If you're wanting 3 Ghz, I'd spend $20 more, and get an E6750. That E6550 has a 7x multiplier, so from 2.8 Ghz and up, you'd be completely limited by how well your RAM overclocks, and by how good you are at overclocking RAM. With an E6750, you wouldn't have that problem.

 

[zach0624]

If you want 3ghz I would get a 4500 which is 146(atleast that is what I got mine for) and has a 200mhz fsb (800 quad pumped) and 11x multi so a 266mhz fsb(1066 quad) will give you 2.93 so you would not have to overclock your mobo or ram at all and 3.3ghz seems very easy.

Also I would recommend a tuniq tower or thermalright ultra 120(you whould have to lap the ultra), both are about the same price for as a zalman.

 

[Greg04]

Originally posted by: zach0624
If you want 3ghz I would get a 4500 which is 146(atleast that is what I got mine for) and has a 200mhz fsb (800 quad pumped) and 11x multi so a 266mhz fsb(1066 quad) will give you 2.93 so you would not have to overclock your mobo or ram at all and 3.3ghz seems very easy.

Also I would recommend a tuniq tower or thermalright ultra 120(you whould have to lap the ultra), both are about the same price for as a zalman.

Thanks- I know the ultra beats the tuniq, but I'll give up a few degrees just so I don't have to lap .

Thanks on the RAM/CPU info.

 

[Greg04]

Originally posted by: aigomorla

Originally posted by: Greg04
MB: ABIT IP35-E $75 AR

CPU:C2D 2.33ghz $178

RAM: OCZ 2GB KIT $56.99AR

CPU cooler: Zalman 9500

Case: Antec $40AR

I have a good PS, is the ram good enough, should I get different/better RAM? Looking for a mild (3Ghz?) OC here, nothing miraculous...or is that too much?

BETTER COOLER FTW!

Tuniq Tower, or Thermalright Ultra120 Regular. Thats my first recomendation.

That board is a great crunching board. But its kinda limited. If possible i would recomend the gigabyte P35-DS3P or the Abit IP35-Pro.

I'll check out both boards - thanks

 

[kmmatney]

The system is overall very good, but the E4500 processor will be hit or miss. The Tuniq is WAY probably going to be way overkill for your processor (as is my cooler for my E4400), but it will be very quiet at least. You may need to bump up the voltage a bit, in which case the tuniq will serve you well.

I'm guessing that you will hit 3.3 Ghz, but you will have to bump up the voltage to 1.4+V to do so. It will still be a very fast system for the money spent. If you can get higher that is great, but don't be disappointed if you dont...

With my E4400, I was only able to hit 2.9 Ghz at stock voltage. I could hit 3.1 Ghz with the voltage above 1.4V. However I have a quiet system with no case fans, so I really didn't want the extra heat from the voltage increase, so I had to settle for 2.9 Ghz.

Edit: I just read your post again and noticed your looking for a mild 3 Ghz overlock. You should be able to achive this, at stock voltage with a very cool and stable cpu.

Edit: You didn't mention what PSU you have...If you care about noise, you should be OK with one case fan, in the back.

 

[Greg04]

Originally posted by: kmmatney
The system is overall very good, but the E4500 processor will be hit or miss. The Tuniq is WAY probably going to be way overkill for your processor (as is my cooler for my E4400), but it will be very quiet at least. You may need to bump up the voltage a bit, in which case the tuniq will serve you well.

I'm guessing that you will hit 3.3 Ghz, but you will have to bump up the voltage to 1.4+V to do so. It will still be a very fast system for the money spent. If you can get higher that is great, but don't be disappointed if you dont...

With my E4400, I was only able to hit 2.9 Ghz at stock voltage. I could hit 3.1 Ghz with the voltage above 1.4V. However I have a quiet system with no case fans, so I really didn't want the extra heat from the voltage increase, so I had to settle for 2.9 Ghz.

Edit: I just read your post again and noticed your looking for a mild 3 Ghz overlock. You should be able to achive this, at stock voltage with a very cool and stable cpu.

Edit: You didn't mention what PSU you have...If you care about noise, you should be OK with one case fan, in the back.

I have a good 500Watter from an older build - I'll swap it out and keep the antec as a bench unit. Yeah - I'm not looking to have the fastes, just a decent computer (thus the passive sink video card). It should be very quiet.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Originally posted by: aigomorla

Originally posted by: Greg04
MB: ABIT IP35-E $75 AR

CPU:C2D 2.33ghz $178

RAM: OCZ 2GB KIT $56.99AR

CPU cooler: Zalman 9500

Case: Antec $40AR

I have a good PS, is the ram good enough, should I get different/better RAM? Looking for a mild (3Ghz?) OC here, nothing miraculous...or is that too much?

BETTER COOLER FTW!

Tuniq Tower, or Thermalright Ultra120 Regular. Thats my first recomendation.

That board is a great crunching board. But its kinda limited. If possible i would recomend the gigabyte P35-DS3P or the Abit IP35-Pro.

Crunching board??? IP35-E lacks RAID. The Pro has a lousy 1394 port (15MB/s top). Not sure what are the other major limitations.

 

[AkumaX]

IP35-E just as good an o/cer than IP35-Pro?

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: SerpentRoyal

Originally posted by: aigomorla

Originally posted by: Greg04
MB: ABIT IP35-E $75 AR

CPU:C2D 2.33ghz $178

RAM: OCZ 2GB KIT $56.99AR

CPU cooler: Zalman 9500

Case: Antec $40AR

I have a good PS, is the ram good enough, should I get different/better RAM? Looking for a mild (3Ghz?) OC here, nothing miraculous...or is that too much?

BETTER COOLER FTW!

Tuniq Tower, or Thermalright Ultra120 Regular. Thats my first recomendation.

That board is a great crunching board. But its kinda limited. If possible i would recomend the gigabyte P35-DS3P or the Abit IP35-Pro.

Crunching board??? IP35-E lacks RAID. The Pro has a lousy 1394 port (15MB/s top). Not sure what are the other major limitations.

and why would a crunch board require RAID?

The definition of crunch board to me is somethign that does number crunching or folding non stop. All it would need is a CPU, RAM, VideoCard, Hard Drive, PSU. For a Q6600 @ 3.375 thats about 13k points on Bionic Each Day.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

I KISS. No RAID. IP35-E is also a very cheap board with good oveclocking capability.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Originally posted by: AkumaX
IP35-E just as good an o/cer than IP35-Pro?

Both were able to push my E6320 up to 488MHz FSB (stable). I don't have any chip that could top 500MHz FSB.

 

[bryanW1995]

no, the ip35e is not as good of an overclocking board as the ip35 pro. serpent's experience is very good, but the pro is a much better board overall. now, if you want to do a price/performance comparison it is tough to pick the pro over the ip35e.

 

[Greg04]

Originally posted by: bryanW1995
no, the ip35e is not as good of an overclocking board as the ip35 pro. serpent's experience is very good, but the pro is a much better board overall. now, if you want to do a price/performance comparison it is tough to pick the pro over the ip35e.

In a day to day operation, does your 36gb raptor make a diff vs. a good 7200rpm drive?

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Originally posted by: bryanW1995
no, the ip35e is not as good of an overclocking board as the ip35 pro. serpent's experience is very good, but the pro is a much better board overall. now, if you want to do a price/performance comparison it is tough to pick the pro over the ip35e.

IP35-E is stable up to 500MHz FSB. How far do you want to go for a 24/7 rig? IP35-E = $70. IP35 Pro = $180. IP35-E lacks RAID. Anyone can add a $15 1394 card. Final cost is still $85 vs $180. Perhaps you can educate us why the Pro is a much better board.

I have evaluated both, and the IP35-E currently has a more stable BIOS (also supported by an AT MB evaluator). Do you own an IP35-E?

http://www.navig8r.net/pics/e6550.jpg

 

[Greg04]

3.5ghz on 1.5v bump.
3.3 on 1.4v.