Recurrent Question...

[rbenq]

I´m planning to buy a Duron 750Mhz.
What are my choices of mobos to (easily) reach 900-950 Mhz ?
As I´m going to overclock my next CPU, is AMD (Duron) the best choice ?

Thanks in advance, Ben.

 

[phantom505]

I'm not sure about prices but by the time you fool around with it, buy a better HSF, artic sliver or compound, epoxy or a pen (unless you are going to go cheezy and use a pencil) and all that jazz you could just buy a 900 with something cheap like an Orb.

Its been my experience that O/C isn't worth the time and money unless you are either clocking so high the product is not even on the market yet, or there is a huge price gap between CPUs to were the next processor has a price gap much greater than the cost of having to upgrade HSFs and so on. The only other possibility is that really want to use a 266FSB.

If you are die hard about O/C the Asus (A7V133? whichever has the KT133A) I heard was very good for O/C. The K7T Turbo has issuses with using the 266FSB, so I would pass on it for O/C. However, it is a rock solid board with next to no crashes. I have one and I love it, but for O/Cing its not so good.

 

[Boonesmi]

heheeh dont listen to phantom. ive run my 600 duron (that i bought almost a year ago) at 950mhz i already had a conductive ink pen and the fop32 hsf unit was only $20 +$5 shipping. the cpu was $99.

at that time a 900 athlon was like $300.

i use the powersupply that came with my case

i often hear people say that overclocking is a waste of time if your doing it to save money, but i disagree

as for mobo's i also like the asus a7v133. people seem to have good luck with the iwill board also.

make sure you get a good hsf(heatsink fan) to keep the cpu cool

 

[hovenas]

Learn and be consumed by the dimension called overclocking. For some it makes no sense, I for one can't grasp why people spend countless hours wathching football and using their brains to memorate every detail that comes along with their chosen fav team/match/world championship
Get the ABIT KT7A, can't go simpler than that as you change all and everything from BIOS.
It is I suppose a way of life, some just uses computers...I say

 

[osun]

In my opinion, overclocking is useful as a hobby and if you are curious to see what you can get with a minimum of trouble.

However, you should not rely on it to give you a CPU which you NEED to do real work.

The time messing with cooling, heatsink compound, different fans, voltages, and making sure that it's completely, 100% stable can add up. If you are already being paid to mess with computers all day at work...well, you can do the math. In any case, there is no guarantee that your 900 MHz proc will work at 1 GHz, even if everyone else's seems to.

Also beware, it seems that a sizeable group of overclockers are willing to live with "mostly stable." I had a CPU which would run 3dmark all day at a very high speed, but there was a large margin in which every normal benchmark would run, but Prime95 would reveal rounding errors, etc. It seemed to work fine for Quake, but if I am writing a mission-critical program, I don't want to risk that error.

In all, it seems that there is a fair degree of "optimism" when it comes to o/c'ing reports.

My suggestion is, if you need a 900 MHz CPU for something important, then buy a 900 MHz CPU. You will be assured that it works. If you want to o/c for fun (it is a lot of fun, I admit) then do it in your spare time.

If it's a gaming machine, then by all means clock it up to the breaking point.

And yes, a 750 Duron seems particularly eager to o/c. Before you make a final choice, also check out the prices for cheap Athlons, right now the lower-speed T-birds are incredibly cheap!

Good luck!

oms

 

[WarCon]

At PCnut.com they sell combo's already put together. Like they have a mobo(KT7A(no raid) or for $10 less the Iwill KT266) a Duron 600 (guaranteed to run at 933) and a vantec hsf with delta fan on it all for only $259+$16shipping.

 

[rbenq]

I think Phantom505´s arguments are good.

But, lets take another point of view:

Consider a place where a Duron-700 costs US$100.00 and the Duron-900 will take 3-4 months to arrive...

O´C is the answer!

Thanks everybody for the opinions and suggestions!

Regards, Ben.

 

[DaddyG]

The 'Wolf' and the Platipus have valid points. Processors are as cheap as candy, relatively speaking. Anybody here make their own Peanut Brittle to save a few bucks, or maybe like the flavor of 'roll your own' ??????.

OCing is in the same groove. If you want to save a few $$$s, learn more about your system and risk burning up you rig so that you spend more $$'s go ahead.

You need 'balls of steal' and a steady hand for 'Bridge Work', (eyes like an Eagle go a long way also). If stability is important, OC at your risk. Been their, done that, bought the Tee-Shirt and BURNED IT !!

'G' out

 

[phantom505]

Boonesmi: Uh, I think you made my point. You got a cheap processor with a cheap HSF way before a 900 MHz Duron chip was even available.
He's planning on using 750 to a 900. Now if they price difference is only $20 or so..... let's see..... possibly trash CPU, waste time, and void what little warranty it has. It was just an alternative way of thinking.

BTW to get a Duron 900, try early next month. Athlon 850 is about $100 also.

 

[kgraeme]

Folks, the question wasn't whether to overclock or not. The question was what motherboards are good for it.

I can only say that my experience with the IWill KK266-R has been generally positive. Once I got the ram in the right slot it overclocked quite nicely.

From other people's comments, I think that most of the big-name boards are going to overclock fairly equally. After that, a lot of it depends on other factors like what you do for cooling and whether your Duron wants to perform.

Have fun with it. And if you're not satisfied with the speed, just buy a faster chip.

 

[ku]

i'd personally get the 800. For a few bucks more, you'd might as well get a chip where the majority of it can reach ghz+

as for the motherboard, there are a lot of them. If you are on a budget (like me), go with the MSI K7T Turbo. If money is not a factor here, get the Iwill KK266, Asus A7V133, or the ABIT KT7 KT133a... I would personally get the MSI. if i had more money; the kk266.

 

[DaddyG]

REMEMBER !! VIA does not have their own FAB facility if memory is good. They lay down the design on the masks and get them fabbed by various facilities. Henry has belled VIA and he may have the scoop. Don't know how many revs the chipset is at right now (Thats the North).