Quick question...3000+ v. 3200+, Motherboard, and HSF

[jdogg707]

I am trying to get a new system setup and am looking to get a fair overclock out of it, but have a few questions.

Which is going to give the better overclock, 3000+ CG Newcastle or 3200+ CG Newcastle. The difference in price between the two is $210 (3200+) v. $169.00 (3000+), both in the retail box. Is it worth the extra cash going with the 3200+? Or will the 3000+ overclock just as well, while also allowing me to achieve a higher FSB?

I am also trying to decide between the Solte SL-K8AN2E-GR and the Epox EP-8KDA3J motherboards. I will be pairing either of these up with some Kingmax TSOP PC4000 RAM. I have heard from a few people about the Epox giving trouble during setup, but that it overclocks extremely well. The only thing that bothers me about the Soltek is the 1.55V vCore limit and the 250MHZ FSB limit, other than that it seems like a pretty solid board.

I have been looking at HSF's and am having a hard time deciding between just using the stock heatsink with a little AS5 or going with the Zalman CNPS7000A-Cu for an extra $40.00 Shipped. Any opinions on this?

I haven't tried overclocking an A64 since they first came out, and with the nForce3 250Gb, things have changed a lot! I appreciate the advice!

 

[Jhatfie]

Both the CG 3000+ and 3200+ should overclock about the same. Most newcastles are reaching similar limits in the 2.5-2.7ghz range. Of course nothing is gauranteed, but you have a good chance to reach those speeds. The bonus of the 3200+ is the 11x multiplier that allows some flexability in overclocking if you have less than cooperative ram. However I keep going back to the 10x multi myself since I have been pretty lucky with ram.

For motherboards I'd go with the Epox out of those two choices. It has better options for overclocking and I've had great luck with Epox in the past. I am personally partial to the Chaintech VNF3-250 as I have had good luck with both of mine in terms of overclocking and stability.

The stock HSF is actually decent if you use near stock voltage. If you go over 1.6v, you might want to look at getting the Thermalright slk-948u, the zalman or Alpha as all three should perform very well (I have the alpha with a 48cfm 80mm fan and it cools about 10-12C better than the OEM cooler with the cpu at 1.7v).