What to OverClock? Making the X2 AMD plunge!

[88NovaTwincam]

As much as I wanted to go C2Duo, I coundn't justify the cost/early state of the market.
With new chipsets right around the corner I don't want to be an early adopter flashing my mb bios like a guinnypig
Normally I would wait to see how this C2D muli unlocking and bios situation would pan out..

Don't want to have to spend $240 for an 8-phase power C2D MB nor do I have DDR2

Aiming for a poweruser multi/mulitmedia/gaming (mostlyAOE3) rig
Any opinion about going from an opty144 to an x2 manchester?

Normally I would wait to see how this C2D muli unlocking and bios situation would pan out..
I've allready got the rig in my sig, but I got an offer I couldn't refuse to sell it so I'll be replacing everything except
I'll be reusing the CH-5 DDR now being able to give this ram the volts it needs
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DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 SLI-DR Expert Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
Item #: N82E16813136166 $144.99 + $6.41 shipping = 150.40 (deal over)

OCZ OCZ600ADJSLI ATX12V 2.01, ATX, BTX, SATA, P4, and EPS12V 600W Power Supply - Retail
Item #: N82E16817711001 $139.99 - 40 rebate = 99.99 free ship

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Manchester 2.0GHz Socket 939 Dual Core Processor Model ADA3800BVBOX - Retail
Item #: N82E16819103562 $152.00 free ship

ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 64 Pro Cooling Fan with Heatsink - Retail
Item #: N82E16835185125 $23.99 free ship! (deal over)

BFG Tech BFGR76256GTOCE Geforce 7600GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
Item #: N82E16814143049 $144.50 - 30 rebate = 114.50 free ship

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS (Perpendicular Recording Technology) 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
Item #: N82E16822148140 $94.99 - 5 buybarracuda = 89.99 free ship

Pioneer 16X DVD±R DVD Burner With 5X DVD-RAM Read Black ATAPI Model DVR-111D - OEM
Item #: N82E16827129001 $31.99 free ship

LIAN LI PC-7B plus II Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
Item #: N82E16811112099 $89.99 free ship
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So I chose to cut costs on Intel MB/CPU/RAM but still have top of the line AND new drive/burner/vidcard, so I used my newly
opened newegg preferred account to order a new rig using the same as cash 6months >$500 deal!

Not bad for $752.85 total shipped after rebate (and only a few hundred bucks out of my pocket)
I'm estimating it would have been an extra: $50 for c2d, $100 for 8-phase mb, and $150 for ddr2= extra $300 for intel+headaches

I will order a few 120mm yate loons and a few customs cables from Nexfan once it's up and running..

 

[Bobthelost]

Well you could get a good C2D overclocking motherboard for the same price as that DFI (Gigabyte 965P DS3) and the 6300 is only $40 more so it'd be a $190 increase in price. Then you'd flogg off your current RAM and make back some of that. Up to you if it's worth it. For gaming alone it isn't, but if you want to encode movies then i'd be thinking hard about it.

You're wasting a bit of money on that PSU, it's a good deal, but you don't need more than a 400W for that.

 

[88NovaTwincam]

I do want great encoding performance, yet I figure going from a single core to a
dual core will subjectivly be just fine..

Yea PS is nice a big and only $99 after rebate
and I want the adjustable rails to go give that utt ch-5 like 3.3 volts or so +
DFI won't even give you tech support unless you give these boards 480w +
the ocz 520adj is 135-25rebate and the 600w is 140-40rebate! No brainer there..

 

[Pabster]

No offense, but the DFI board has issues too. Check their forums.

In fact, all boards do.

$750 for an X2 machine doesn't sound like a bargain... The X2 (IMHO) is only a good choice right now as a drop-in replacement on an aging machine with an old single core 939. Once you start over with a new board, you may as well go Conroe.

 

[Bobthelost]

Oh you'll get a nice speed boost going to dual core, but an OC'd C2D will knock a 1/3rd or so off the X2.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2802&p=8

Adjudtable rails are a gimmic, but it's a very good price for a decent PSU so i dare say a few gimmics won't go astray.

 

[88NovaTwincam]

Thx for the input, I do have the option of refusing the shipment..

But I figure that the 8-phase power and mature support were enough to
overtake a 25-35% hit in encoding performance..

I'm hoping to o/c to 2.8 with this setup..

Plus ram prices are so high right now..

 

[88NovaTwincam]

Anybody think this was a decent way to go??

That is a good point that I can get a DS3 and 6300 for only $40 more..
sell my ram for $100 and i'd be on my way...

HELP!

 

[Crescent13]

I had a dfi board for a week. It was my worst nightmare. nothing but problems!!!! I RMA'ed it and now I have a Asus A8n-32 Sli Deluxe. I will never EVER toutch another dfi product again. Also, you'll get ALOT more bang/buck with a DS3 and E6300!

 

[JEDIYoda]

Originally posted by: 88NovaTwincam
I do want great encoding performance, yet I figure going from a single core to a
dual core will subjectivly be just fine..

Yea PS is nice a big and only $99 after rebate
and I want the adjustable rails to go give that utt ch-5 like 3.3 volts or so +
DFI won't even give you tech support unless you give these boards 480w +
the ocz 520adj is 135-25rebate and the 600w is 140-40rebate! No brainer there..

No offense but you don`t need adjustable rails if you get yourself a quality video card.
At best adjustable rails are a gimmick!

 

[88NovaTwincam]

You guys are killin' me! lol

Yea I thought I need the adj. rails to overvolt the ram (board goes up to 4v)
these ch-5 are like the old redlines... If this isn't the case (please explain) then
I would have gone with the oczgamextreme 600 or 700 with 120mm fans instead of
the dual 80's in this one.. AT used the 520powerstream as a bench thought they where the best avail....

 

[Twsmit]

X2 is a great chip as someone else said, as a drop in. I just upgraded from a venice to manchester and love it. That being said getting a new mobo + CPU just to run your old ram is ridiculous, especially since the NF4 Ultra-D is the same chipset as the Expert, just a slightly newer design. You can mod your ultra-D to support SLI if you really want, but otherwise your wasting $150 on a new mobo.

Also another thought, 2GB ram is now quickly becoming mainstream with gamers, your CH-5 i believe is 2x 512MB, further putting you behind the curve. I would sell off your current parts and go Conroe or AM2 (I would recommend conroe though...)

 

[Bobthelost]

Originally posted by: 88NovaTwincam
You guys are killin' me! lol

Yea I thought I need the adj. rails to overvolt the ram (board goes up to 4v)
these ch-5 are like the old redlines... If this isn't the case (please explain) then
I would have gone with the oczgamextreme 600 or 700 with 120mm fans instead of
the dual 80's in this one.. AT used the 520powerstream as a bench thought they where the best avail....

You dont' need the adjustable rails to overvolt the RAM, the motherboard will step up the voltages if it needs to. If you tried to put the 3.3V rail @ 4V it'd probably fry the thing.

Just making sure you're not confused on this one

 

[88NovaTwincam]

Yea this is a hard fact to face in light of the fact it has shipped..

Damn this old ram!

I justifyed that i could spend 150 on a DS3 or an 8-phase DFI
(which used to cost over $200)..

Doesn't 8-phase allow for better overclock?


BTW: Now the P5B Deluxe and Gigia DQ6 are $227 shipped at the egg...

 

[88NovaTwincam]

Yea I plan to go under 3.4v on the ram...

I guess on the DFI ultra-d there was a sweet spot where you could
set it to 3.2 and not have to jumper it for 3.3-4v and just overvolt the rail to about 3.3
so that the ram actually got a full 3.2

 

[1N0V471V]

People who say the DFI Expert is nothing but a nightmare are either:

A) total n00bs
B) Have not bought a proper power supply (i.e. >480w minumim)
C) Have not bought the proper memory

Come over to DFI-Street.com and we'll help you out!

 

[Bobthelost]

Originally posted by: 1N0V471V
People who say the DFI Expert is nothing but a nightmare are either:

A) total n00bs
B) Have not bought a proper power supply (i.e. >480w minumim)
C) Have not bought the proper memory

Come over to DFI-Street.com and we'll help you out!

D) Run into the ledgendary DFI compatability issues
E) Got a duff board.

From all i've read they overclock well and are rock solid if they work at all (which they normally do). Lets not pretend it's a perfect board, good, not perfect.

 

[customcoms]

You had a single core AMD Opteron and an Ultra-D before, correct? In your case, (I have the same rig basically, so have been considering upgrade options as well), you made a poor decision IMO. I would have done one of the following:

A) I would have kept your current board. The Expert doesn't really improve upon the Ultra-D enough to justify buying it. The Ultra-D can provide the neccessary ram volts using a jumper and proper air cooling.

1. Buy a proper PSU unit for your current rig, don't change anything else.
2. Get 2gb of ram, a dual core 3800+ and a new psu. wait for directx10 or get a 7900GS (the 7600GT is NOT a big enough upgrade over a 6600Gt to justify the price)
3. Then buy a cheap board and drop the rest of your old rig into it.

B) Just keep your current computer. Buy a C2D rig instead. I'm holding off until their are some serious mobo's available for C2D. At that point, I'll probably make 2 rigs out of one by upgrading my S939 processor to an X2, dropping the old one in a cheap board with some value ram and I'll have three rigs at a very very reasonable price, all of which would be more than capable of gaming.

I like DFI motherboards. Why? Because no other board has been as reliable as the DFI nForce4 series has been to myself and my best friend. It took me a month to get my rig stable; this cheap twinmos CH5 512mb stick would not work in this board. I also bought the board when new bios's came out every 3 days. These board's were NOT meant to be paired with value ram or low end power supply's; these board's demand more power than any other board on the planet (excluding servers) because they were designed FROM THE GROUND UP to be the best overclocking S939 mobo's, period. They were intended to be used with overclocking ram (BH5 and TCCD/TCC5 specifically). Until the users who paired the board with value (I didn't say cheap, I said VALUE) ram starting complaning and a new bios was released for them. I ended up buying CHEAP ram (OCZ GOLD for $120), not value ram.

 

[88NovaTwincam]

I was hoping my twinmos utt ch-5 would be able to go 270 or so 1:1
with the expert and new p/s