Suggestions for AMD 64 3500 OC

[Yangia]

alright, I'm going to be getting my AMD athlon 64 3500 soon and I was planning to OC it. First off, I've been looking at cases and the cmstacker or the lian li V-1000 are the two casses I've thought about so far. Now, what I'm wondering is if there is any other cases that would be better suited for fan cooling (price range is up to 250 ish) I was also thinking of doing water cooling but I'm not sure at this point. I know water cooling is considerably better but I have very little understanding of what the best combinations are. So if anyone has a good suggestion on what water cooling system I should get that would be great too.

 

[Michael10]

I would suggest joining the Extreme Overclockers Forums and reading the tutorials on water cooling. I have never tried water cooling myself so I can't offer any personal advice. I think it depends on your manual/mechanical skills. If you are good with your hands and are willing to risk damaging your system then watercooling is the best solution.

I am using what I think is a good heatsink with artic silver 5. It will not cool anywhere near the level of a water cooling system but it is easy and relatively idiot proof. I have read other folks accounts of breaking processors because they used one of the other thermal pastes which might provide 1/2 degree (celius) better cooling?

How much are you going to overclock? I have an older Lian Li case (P-61 or something like that) and have been very happy with it.

I have not tried o/c my 3500+ yet.



Michael

 

[gotensan01]

I would go with CM Stacker because you have more room inside the case, unless I am mistaken. I love the look of the v1000 but in terms of versatility, I'd prolly say stacker. Watercooling is easy. You may have to put in a lot of time to research, pick out parts, and modify your case slightly to fit the components but there isn't anything difficult to understand about watercooling. If you are interested, I can give you some good links.

 

[HardWarrior]

Originally posted by: Michael10If you are good with your hands and are willing to risk damaging your system then watercooling is the best solution.

Water-cooling does NOT represent and automatic risk of damage to your system, and for the sake of clarity and fairness it should not be represented as such. That's doubly true when coming from an individual who freely admits to having never tried it.

 

[Squally Leonharty]

Originally posted by: gotensan01
I would go with CM Stacker because you have more room inside the case, unless I am mistaken. I love the look of the v1000 but in terms of versatility, I'd prolly say stacker. Watercooling is easy. You may have to put in a lot of time to research, pick out parts, and modify your case slightly to fit the components but there isn't anything difficult to understand about watercooling. If you are interested, I can give you some good links.

I agree with that, especially since I own that case. My CPU runs 28 - 32 degrees C idle and 40 - 44 degrees C under load. The crossflow fan really does help here. And in overall, there's little noise coming from the case with its 4 fans, including the crossflow one. I also used Arctic Silver 5, by the way.

In other words: I recommend this case to anyone who wants a good air cooling solution.

Edit: Improved the airflow inside the case. The CPU now tends to idle at 27 - 28 degrees C more often. Haven't checked the temperature on load yet, though. Cool 'n' Quiet is also responsible for that.