should I overclock?

[spanner]

I am getting an epox 87ka and a 1.2ghz 266fsb athlon a thermaltake volcano II heatsink, and 256mb of PC2100 ram. My current mobo and 700mhz cpu died so instead of spending cash on a new vid card I just ordered the above. My question is since I am stuck with a tnt2 will overclocking achieve anything? would overclocking make a diff even if I had a geforce 3? I am also not so sure about my case, its a new generic full tower with four fans apart from the cpu fan and power supply, at the moment I have no way of checking temperatures.

 

[Boonesmi]

overclocking will help the system perform faster obviously, but in games your probably right the card will slow you down.

as for temp monitoring..... your motherboard is capable of monitoring the case temp, motherboard temp, and cpu temp just download and install motherboard monitor 5

 

[danii8]

Are you talking about gaming performance?
in heavy 3d gaming area, overclocking will be better, I think.
otherwise, tnt2 is good enough, I will go with 1.2ghz for a while.

 

[eLiu]

if you can afford it...you might want to upgrade that HSF unit, to a Thermalright SK-6 is one of the best. OCZ Gladiator has good performance as well. However these are more expensive units, and the OCZ is LOUD.

If those are a bit too much, these parts can be found for under 30 bucks: Globalwin FOP 38, WBK38, and FOP32-1. The 32-1 is a bit weaker (smaller, quieter fan) than the other two.

Also, the ThermoSonic Thermalengine seems to also be a good HSF, especially if you upgrade the stock fan to a larger, more CFM part.
And, the Taisol CGK742092 recieved some good ratings, but it does cost a little over 30 bucks.
also-Vantec FCE-6254OD is supposedly a fairly good part for the price.

-eric

 

[eLiu]

oh...and if you do OC, do it right away.

Details here

see OCnMan's first reply there...good info

btw...im gonna upgrade to virtually the same setup... (cept i have the $ for a newer vid card...hehe)

 

[Dan]

spanner: Overclocking is an unwritten membership requirement. You must overclock if you want to remain a member in good standing with the AnandTech community. (j/k)

I have an EPoX 8KTA3+ mobo and a T-Bird 1.33 running at 1.54GHz. The day before yesterday I ordered an SK6/Delta 60mm HSF combo from plycon to replace the crappy Volcano II HSF I'm using now. I urge you to consider replacing yours as well.

As others have noted, the TNT2 will be the bottleneck in your new setup but take things one step at a time. After you get a few dollars saved up you can replace that as well.

 

[IdahoB]

Should you overclock? Do bears go "sha-la-la" in the woods? Jeez. Of course you should overclock - even if it's by 1MHz it's the damn principal of the thing

 

[xroyal]

For the FUN of it!