Cooling solution for 2.4b Northwood

[bigjenkie]

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that my processor (2.4b northwood, stepping 7, socket 478) is a good candidate for overclocking. I am, however, extremely new to the overclocking arena and am a bit overwhelmed. I was hoping I could bother you folks and see if you could answer a couple questions for me.

I currently have it overclocked and stable at 2.7 with the standard heatsink/fan that came with it. I haven't touched the voltage yet, have just upped the fsb from 133 to 150. It runs like a champ this way, but I was looking to get as much out of it as I could. I would really appreciate your help here:

1. Which air cooling fan is typically thought to be the best bang for the buck? Ease of installation is also a factor for me as I am a complete noob in this arena. Currently I am considering either a Thermalright or a Coolermaster. This is my biggest concern.

2. I just wanted confirmation here. I currently have about 1.5 gigs of 2100 ram on my Asus p4b533-e mobo. If I happen to get the fsb up to 166, I need to upgrade the ram as well to pc-2700, ya? The specs on the board don't mention supporting pc 2700, but the "guy at the store" assures me it'll be fine.

3. Bonus: Any idea what sort of numbers I should shoot for as an upper bound on this processor? I have read a couple blogs that say they got their 2.4b up to 3.6 but I sorta find this hard to believe.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[CellBlock]

I have a 2.66b, so my OC'ing experience has been similar to yours.

#1 I'm not sure what's the best. I use a Thermal Integration HSF, and it's far from the best, but it works for me. Without a doubt, someone will have a suggestion that should kick a good quantity of ass. Just from reading other threads, another name to check out is Zalman.

#2 Your mobo only "officially" supports DDR 266, so getting DDR 333 out of it might be a stretch. I wouldn't be that surprised if it worked, but I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't work, either. If you want the assurance, get a new mobo that supports DDR 266/333/400. Then you could, theoretically, go beyond 166 FSB. If you hit 166 FSB, you will probably need PC-2700 RAM. If you'd like, you could do PC-3200, which would be roughly the same price. (PC-2700 is less common of a niche speed, so it's priced a bit higher for its performance.) I suggest that mainly because some PC-2700 you'll find is actually just overclocked PC-2100, and can get a bit sketchy at or around 166 MHz. (I had some Corsair Value Select RAM that ran ok at 160, but at 166 it got messy, especially if PAT kicked in.

#3. If you're using air cooling, I would say a good upper bound might be 3 GHz, but depending on your chip, you could possibly go well above that. You'll probably need to up your VCore to get there, which is fine, just keep it under 1.7v.

 

[350zdanny]

I use an Alpha PAL with a vantec Tornado on top and it hasn't broken a sweat at over 3.0 ghz.