WANTED: Your thoughts on my overclock

[rhawk79]

I have the Asus P4P800, 512MB of XMS3500 and a p4 3.0C...case: Coolermaster ATC-201

From reading forums and reviews it seems the 3.0 overclocks top out anywhere from 240-250 fsb. I can currently hit 245 max bootable, with 240 being my max stable boot. Tomorrow I was planning on purchasing the following: (total cost = $110)

SLK-900
4 80mm Panaflo High output fans (double the rpm at the same noise level of my current cheapo fans)
1 92mm Panaflo High Output fan

Question: If I can already get to the speeds that others are reaching, and I'm only using stock cooling, do you think this is a waste of money? Even now at 240 I have never seen my CPU or Northbridge temperatures hit 40C...which is in part due to the great cooling of my case. What's your opinion? Waste of $110 or will this help me go further?

 

[Corporate Thug]

wow, $110 is a very large amount of money to spend on cooling...

 

[rhawk79]

that's what i'm thinking...i'm looking for opinions on what will help me push the system higher and what would be a waste...

 

[Overkiller]

i believe the slk-900 w/ a good 80 or 90 mm fan on it along w/ artic silver 3 would be ur best bet. and quiter fans...110 IS too much for just a lil. bit more though...

 

[Detselom]

I have 4 case fans also and if you could double the cfm i'd go for it. Having a cool case is a very good thing for your overclock. Keeps the videocard, north bridge, hd cool.

 

[Jeff7181]

I don't think heat is the issue... with a 240 Mhz FSB, you're running at 3.6 Ghz... that's up there... way up there. Intel was nearing the limits of it's manufacturing processes already, which is why they're looking at using a strained silicon technique to go higher.

In short, "waste of $110"

 

[d33pblue]

Hawk, deepblue here. I think you know who I am

To answer your question, I dont believe spending $110 is worth getting another 15Mhz or so out of your FSB. I'm not even quite sure if you would notice such an increase in anything but prolonged CPU intensive tasks. Unless you consider this purely a hobby, want the biggest numbers you can, and have money to spare, I wouldnt recommend doing it. I say be happy with your 3.6Ghz (!! 15x240MHz) computer.

3.6Ghz wont feel slow for quite some time.

 

[bgeh]

imo, the limit is already at around 3.5-3.7GHz
so i don't think you can go much higher
so keep your $110

 

[BadThad]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
I don't think heat is the issue... with a 240 Mhz FSB, you're running at 3.6 Ghz... that's up there... way up there. Intel was nearing the limits of it's manufacturing processes already, which is why they're looking at using a strained silicon technique to go higher.

In short, "waste of $110"

Exactly.

 

[GtPrOjEcTX]

Originally posted by: rhawk79 Even now at 240 I have never seen my CPU or Northbridge temperatures hit 40C...which is in part due to the great cooling of my case.

that should answer your question right there. if your cpu isn't overheating at that OC, why spend more money on trying to keep it cool? It won't help at all.

 

[rhawk79]

thanks deep and everyone else for the replies. my opinion was that i didn't need it but i wanted some second opinions. i'll save this money and apply it elsewhere

 

[Corporate Thug]

Originally posted by: rhawk79
thanks deep and everyone else for the replies. my opinion was that i didn't need it but i wanted some second opinions. i'll save this money and apply it elsewhere

good call

 

[batmang]

hehe, 3.6ghz, nice. im only at 3.12 and i have pretty much everything you were going to purchase, i spent a lot and got my 2.6c at 3.12ghz. I wanted more, but that seems to be my max 100% stable oc. You could buy a nice sata hd or something with that $110.

 

[rickon66]

Wise decision

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: batmang
hehe, 3.6ghz, nice. im only at 3.12 and i have pretty much everything you were going to purchase, i spent a lot and got my 2.6c at 3.12ghz. I wanted more, but that seems to be my max 100% stable oc. You could buy a nice sata hd or something with that $110.

The only SATA hard drive worth buying is the Raptor... otherwise SATA is pointless... well... unless of course you like to make your computer pretty, in which case SATA cables would clean it up a little.

 

[Slammy1]

Hmmm, running the stock cooler at 3.6GHz might be risky. Instead of the Thermalight solution, you might consider a Zalman with some Ceramique. If you're running above 60C CPU, I'd recommend better cooling than stock. I have a similar (albiet the budget version) of your system:
P4P800-D
2X256 HyperX3500
2.4C@3.38GHz
ATC-201C
If I had your system, I'd try for my highest o/c on a 1:1 divider rather than maxing out my CPU on a 5:4. My HperX maxes out around 450DDR, I'd think yours should reach that or higher.

 

[solofly]

Originally posted by: batmang
hehe, 3.6ghz, nice.

Not as nice as a 2.4C at 3.5Ghz... One thing to consider. CPU may not go any further but the temps will drop without a doubt. I found about 9C difference between SLK900U and a stock HSF.

 

[solofly]

Originally posted by: batmang
im only at 3.12 and i have pretty much everything you were going to purchase, i spent a lot and got my 2.6c at 3.12ghz. I wanted more, but that seems to be my max 100% stable oc. You could buy a nice sata hd or something with that $110.

Now in your case as you're already using the best air-cooling setup possible, going back to stock HSF would lower your current overclock of 3.12GHz. It happened to me when I removed the SLK900U off of my 2.6C and gone back to stock.

 

[stevejst]

imo, the limit is already at around 3.5-3.7GHz
so i don't think you can go much higher

Talking about air cooling. Now if you have $200 you can move to the next step, which is either Peltier or watercooler. Corsair, Thermaltake, and Koolance all have a complete out of the box solution for about $200 (anything cheaper than that is either self made or junk) which will give you another 100-200 MHz, say up to 3.8 GHz. If you have $600 you can get Prometeia which will push the beast up to 4 GHz. For anything more than that you'll need liquid nitrogen.
The question is how much money you have?