• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Best AMD64 for OC?

D

dbunder

n00b
Joined
Sep 11, 2005
Messages
54
Working on getting parts together (slowly, as money comes in), and am wondering what the best AMD64 CPU is for overclocking. I plan on using the Thermalright SI-120 + a decent fan for cooling, so temps shouldn't be an issue. Using an MSI mobo (haven't decided which yet), but MSIs are extremely good for overclocking in my experience (I've owned two, I've installed/OCed several for friends), so that shouldn't be an issue.

Any suggestions? Just want a single core chip, and nothing too outlandishly expensive. Currently have my eye on the San Diego 3700.
 
Is the extra $100 for the 4000+ Claw worthwhile, or just insane overpricing?
 
Clawhammerss do not oc well at all and run far too hot compared to the San Diego and Venice core cpu's. They are old tech 130nm architecture and reguire 1.5v stock. The Venice/San Diego core is 90nm SOI (silicone on insulator) architecture and require 1.4v stock. Opterons require even less if I am not mistaken,. The lower the voltage, the lower the heat. Heat is the enemy of overclocking. I have Clawhammer socket 754 cpu's and they don't oc anywhere near as well as my socket 754 3000+ Venice. The Venice can take more voltage and still run cooler too.
The 3700+ San Diego is one of the best single core oc A64 socket 939 cpu's right now. Don't overlook the 144/146 skt939 Opterons though. They can really crank it up.
 
Looks like my gut feeling was right then!

Now, any recommended motherboards? I don't *need* to go MSI. I just want a mobo that overclocks nice, has SLI capability, 4 SATA ports, and a firewire port (why is FW so rare on PCs? blah!). RAID capabilities aren't a concern. 3 PCI slots would be nice, one for an Audigy, and one for that sexy Thermaltake Tidewater cooler. :)

Price limit about $120, give or take $20. I've been looking for components and have nearly everything nailed down, but the motherboard selection is absolutely overwhelming.

Bio, thank you for the VERY informative post. What do you think I'd get more OC mileage out of? The San Diego or one of the Opteron choices? Also, what're the differences between the plain Athlon 64s and the Opterons? Look more or less the same to me.
 
for a single core chip you could consider an opteron 14x or 3200+ venice. They are both cheap and generally oc decently. I haven't really looked into how the most recent single core chips are oc'ing so maybe someone else could chime in here.

for an OC'ing mobo I would think DFI is the way to go. This one appears to have what you need.

Edit -- opps, lol, I should learn to read. Missed your price limit. In that case maybe this would work. I think these can still be modded to SLI capability, but it only has 2 pci. The 120-ish price is going to limit you a bit for getting a full-featured SLI board :/

If you're not dead set on getting the maximum omgwtfbbqOC, just get the board that has all the features you want from a good company.
 
prtzlboy said:
for OC'ing I would think DFI is the way to go. This one appears to have what you need.

Edit -- opps, lol, I should learn to read. Missed your price limit
Click to expand...

It's a possibility. It *is* a beautiful board.

One question though. Where in the hell did DFI come from? I've been ignoring hardware for a while since I've been satisfied with my rig, then I go looking and DFI appears out of nowhere and everyone *loves* them. Instantly wary of such a new company, unless DFI is an older company that changed their name. Now excuse me while I drool over that board. ;)
 
DFI has been around for a while, but they've recently come to fame with their lanparty series of motherboards with a ludicrous amount of tweaking options that you'd want your grandma to stay far away from.

For some reason, the other manufacturers are content to let DFI have the super-OC crowd for the moment, as they've not released any boards with comparable capabilities.

And, for what it's worth, I think the DFI motherboards are sinfully ugly--their beauty lies in their technical splendor :p
 
prtzlboy said:
DFI has been around for a while, but they've recently come to fame with their lanparty series of motherboards with a ludicrous amount of tweaking options that you'd want your grandma to stay far away from.

For some reason, the other manufacturers are content to let DFI have the super-OC crowd for the moment, as they've not released any boards with comparable capabilities.

And, for what it's worth, I think the DFI motherboards are sinfully ugly--their beauty lies in their technical splendor :p
Click to expand...

Sorry if I'm bugging, but what kind of extra tweaks can you do with them that you can't with other boards? I've been looking at DFI for a while. It's just they're not so sinfully ugly as they are sinfully expensive... heh.
 
Moble CPU's on 754's such as Newark cores OC the best. And opterons on 939's. Venice cores for A64's with early E6 E3 or E4 vers... newer ones don't OC as well.
 
dbunder said:
Sorry if I'm bugging, but what kind of extra tweaks can you do with them that you can't with other boards? I've been looking at DFI for a while. It's just they're not so sinfully ugly as they are sinfully expensive... heh.
Click to expand...
Many more voltage tweaks are available, lots more memory divider and timing options, its really staggering how much different they really are. If you really want to get the max. from your overclock get a DFI, just be aware that sometimes DFI mobo's can be picky about ram. Get what they recommend (Geil, if I remember correctly) and you shouldn't have any problems at all. IMO stay away from Asus. They are nice boards but they limit you cpu voltage to a max. of 1.55v which isn't enough for a cranking A64. It would be ok with an Opteron, though.
 
Does anyone else have any other recommendations? I've found a couple nice looking Asus boards, and a couple of my friends swear by them. Other than DFI (man, if they were only like $20 cheaper I'd be all over one), MSI, and Asus, I just don't know what's good. It's been 3 years since I've bought a mobo. MSI has a *nice* mobo on newegg, but it's even more expensive than the nicer DFI's. The rest of the MSI offerings don't impress me much.

Gonna get at least one component tonight... just want a bit more input.

And if anyone has the time and knowledge, can they hop aboard another thread I posted earlier? It'd be very, very helpful, as it's the most confusing point of building out a new system for me at the moment. So much has changed in 3 years. :) http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1051638

Thanks much guys. You've been extremely helpful.
 
Sorry about bumping this so much, but I'm excited about my new build. It's been three years, almost.

So I bit the bullet, and this is my motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813136158. I'm a big tweaker, and if these DFI boards have as many options as you guys say, I'll be one happy camper. If it's gonna overshoot my budget by a bit, so be it. You get what you pay for. Think I'll get good mileage out of this board? It has everything I need + more, and I'm not really willing to spend more than that on a mobo.

Haven't purchased it yet, cause I'd like input from all you wonderful helpful people on what processor you think would overclock the best on it. Like I've stated, I'm leaning towards the AMD64 3700+ San Diego. But if there's something else that'll outperform it at a similar price, I'm all over it.

Planning on using the Thermalright SI-120 sink with a good 120mm fan atop it. I'm betraying my beloved Zalman, but the Thermalright outperforms anything Zalman has out there right now, and it's quite affordable. Haven't seen anything suggesting it won't fit the board, and I know for a fact that it'll fit in my case if I get a thinner 120mm fan.

Not going to SLI immediately, but I want the option open, because eventually I'd like to. Getting the XFX PV-T71G-UDE7 GeForce 7900 GT EXTREME and doing the simple core volt mod with the conductive ink (up to 1.55v if I can pull it off), and possibly the pencil lead memory mod. You absolutely cannot beat the price.

Any suggestions on coolers? I very recently (as in last week) got a Zalman VF700-Cu and the performance is absolutely amazing. Dropped idle and load temps by 20C compared to the cruddy eVGA stock cooler on my 6800GT. The memory sinks could use some help, but I haven't used my AS epoxy on them yet. So I'm leaning towards the Zalman GPU cooler that fits the 7900GT. Shame the one I just got won't fit. :( Anything better out there that you'd suggest at a similar price point? I'm not going for the Thermaltake self-contained liquid cooling solution until I go SLI. The volt mod should do me quite well until (and hell, even after) I go SLI. Fan noise - not really an issue.

This isn't gonna be an instant build. I'm doing it gradually as I earn extra money (I'm a contractor - no steady income), but I plan on getting the processor and motherboard within the next couple of days, providing I'm confident that I'll be able to get a good OC on it. Unfortunately, no PCIe cards laying around to test things out before I get the video board, so I'll just have to rely on faith until I get a video board (or steal a friend's board for a few hours, heh heh).

Ok, this got too long too fast. I'm planning on keeping my current memory (Mushkin 2-3-3-6 PC3500 - I've pushed it to 2-3-2-5 before, but it's been bitchy lately and just won't do it for some odd reason). Think the DFI wouldn't be too pissy about that? It's pretty old memory, but compatible. May pop in another gig of PC3500 eventually, but 1GB for me right now is good enough. That's my last question for now. And as stated in my previous post, I'd REALLY appreciate PSU suggestions, as it confuses me retarded. In the PSU post, I have everything I'm running off my PSU listed, so you can judge from that. Not adding anything else any time soon.

Once again, thank you guys a million times over.
 
Go for an Operton 144/146 instead of the 3700+, the opteron series is known for overclocking well and that seems to be what your going for.
 
highonv8splash said:
Go for an Operton 144/146 instead of the 3700+, the opteron series is known for overclocking well and that seems to be what your going for.
Click to expand...

They look good and are easier on the wallet, but the obvious question is - why are they so much cheaper than the Athlon64s? They look exactly the same, save for the 200mhz difference on the 146.
 
dbunder said:
They look good and are easier on the wallet, but the obvious question is - why are they so much cheaper than the Athlon64s? They look exactly the same, save for the 200mhz difference on the 146.
Click to expand...
This is likely because AMD wants people to get these low end chips, for low end servers.. Then, a company will be impressed with them, and integrate the more expensive 2xx and 8xx chips in to their bigger servers.. Something like that..
 
id say the opteron 144 is a very good chip for overclocking and value.
 
dBTelos said:
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103931

Should keep you great throughout your SLi road map. If you want modular calbles then the Enermax Liberty 600W is great.
Click to expand...

Anywhere I can find this for less than newegg? It's about 30-40 bucks over my PSU budget. Love the Enermax and have for years, but that price is hefty.

As far as modular cables, yes, I love the idea. I found this beast http://www.frozencpu.com/psu-163.html but I don't know the brand, and I don't want a bunk PSU. More affordable than the Enermax Liberty, problem is it's not an Enermax. :)

dBTelos said:
HS: You may want to consider a Scythe Ninja w/ 120mm. Will get you GREAT overclocks and keep you ice cold. Get some Arctic Silver while your at it.
Click to expand...

I'm all about the AS5 :)

I've done a few measurements and the Ninja would only *barely* fit in my case, and from what I've read thusfar, the Thermalright SI-120 does a bit better job cooling and would fit perfectly. I wish I had the scratch to pick both of them up and test them myself, but for now, I've gotta choose between the two, and I'm leaning heavily towards the Thermalright.

Have any links that test both and compare results? Every review on each varies so much in hardware testbeds that it's hard to judge, really.

edit: as far as CPU goes, I've done a bunch of research and I'm fairly sold on the Opteron 146. Very overclockable, inexpensive, and it'll offset the cost of the spendy mobo I chose.
 
If you are ok with modding the Ultra D to SLI (easy) you can get it from monarch computer for $110 plus you can pick up your opty with a $70 coupon from Monarch as well.
 
dbunder said:
I've done a few measurements and the Ninja would only *barely* fit in my case, and from what I've read thusfar, the Thermalright SI-120 does a bit better job cooling and would fit perfectly. I wish I had the scratch to pick both of them up and test them myself, but for now, I've gotta choose between the two, and I'm leaning heavily towards the Thermalright.

Have any links that test both and compare results? Every review on each varies so much in hardware testbeds that it's hard to judge, really.

edit: as far as CPU goes, I've done a bunch of research and I'm fairly sold on the Opteron 146. Very overclockable, inexpensive, and it'll offset the cost of the spendy mobo I chose.
Click to expand...


check overclockers.com for hs/f comparo. i'm pretty sure that the xp 90 and xp 90cu cool as good or better than the xp120, but because of the 92mm fan, it will be louder. but smaller. and cheaper.
 
Hey, that coupon is hot stuff. I better hop on that ASAP. Thanks *much* for the pointer there.

As far as coolers, I've combed every damn site I can find, and I think I've decided on the Scythe Mine. Excellent price for the performance (about the same as the Ninja) and it has variable fan sizes for more cooling options. When it comes to cooling, I don't eff around (well, I'm not into liquid cooling, but back to the point), so paying $50+ for a quality HSF solution is an easy choice. I actually think it's a steal.

edit: hrm. just noticed the mod mention a few posts up, and it seems that the board i chose (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813136158) is an sli-d. doesn't need a mod, since it's true sli. are there any glaring differences between the ultra-d (modded to an sli-d with the pencil lead mod) and the sli-d? if not, i don't see a reason to skip that coupon and mod the ultra-d, as long as the ultra-d is a) comparable and b) the mod is reliable. also, does the sli-d run both cards at 16x whilst in sli mode, or does it knock them down to 8x? can't find the info anywhere.
 
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2322

An article that covers the modding and benchmarking of an Ultra-D to SLI. For the most part they found that the true SLI board does perform better than a modded Ultra-D. The biggest difference was cost savings - the Ultra-D is typically cheaper than the 'real' SLI board. As of that article though Nvidia has vowed to mod the Ultra chipset so that it cannot be run in SLI mode and DFI no longer ships the SLI-Bridge with the Ultra-D board.

As for your SLI 8x/8x or 16x/16x question: The nForce4 SLI32 chipset is the only one that supports true 16x/16x operation, thus both the Ultra-D nor your current SLI board will allow for that mode of operation. The SLI-D runs an SLI configuration as 8x/8x and a modded Ultra-D would run it at 16x/2x.

Boards with the nForce4 SLI32 chispet are few... and expensive... but here's a link to what Newegg offers: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...70907495+1071918920&Submit=ENE&SubCategory=22

And the board I'd recommend would be: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130037

Hope that answers your question... :)

Oh and the Opteron 146 is quite nice... see my sig. 2.7GHz/2.8GHz results are very typical with that processor. Opteron 165 or 170's are nice if you want to go dual-core.
 
I have the Ultra D board and I love it. I haven't tried the SLI D board but the mod to SLI was very easy to perform. I cannot however recommend the NInja. There are just as effective and much more elegant solutions out there. The Big Typhoon is one (thats what I have) but the SI 120 is I think a better one to get (the one I wish I had). I bought a Ninja installed it hated it snatched it out put in the BT. Don't plan on ever using the Ninja again. Also I don't know if you look there for prices but ZZF has sometimes better pricing than NewEgg and Monarch is awesome too.
 
On a whim, I checked out epox boards last night on newegg and found http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813123246. I think I'm in love. I went looking for other options after looking at dfi-street.com and seeing how picky DFI's are with hardware (especially memory - i'm planning to reuse mine, as it's good stuff, still holds up to prime95 and memtestx86, and hell, i think it's still even under warranty after about 2 1/2 years).

I'm a tweaker, and generally know what I'm doing, but I think the DFI is just too much, and is prone to too many problems. The epox looks pain free, is cheaper, requires less power, and has everything I want/need, plus more. And *outstanding* reviews all around. Apparently extremely overclockable as well.

So much back and forth. Like I said, I remember the days where if you wanted a new pc, you went to the mom n pop computer shop, picked anything you wanted, and it'd just... work.

Still on the fence with PSUs.

Now, we gotta go to the mom n pop store to get my housemate a new HSF. She's suddenly running at 80C idle. Bad news bears!

Thanks for all your help again, guys.

(i should get an award for most edited posts): going to the store today, and i'm gonna give the enermax liberty 500W a whirl in my current box. once i go SLI,. which won't be for a good, long while, if the 500W liberty doesn't handle it, i'll have enough $$$ for a better PSU as well as the extra video card. if i'm unsatisfied with the liberty's modular design, i'll return it and get the EG565P-VE FMA. and see if that makes me happy. i have a feeling, though, that the liberty will be fine now, and fine when i go sli. if i could get the 620W, i would, but eh, i just can't justify the cost. and maybe the 500W will give me a bit overhead on my current setup to up some voltages and get some good clocks to hold me over until i get all the components for my new rig. (double posting this edit, since i have two similar threads going on my build - please forgive)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top