New to overclocking... please recommend

[Scootel2]

Im sure this has been asked alot but I wanted to post my own thread and watch it. I am entering the world of overclocking. I have read great things about the Core 2 Duo E4300.
Please recommend:

1)Case
2)Power supply
3)CPU Heatsink/Fan
4)Motherboard
5)Memory
6)Hard drive

Please give as much input as possible. I really appreciate it. I have between $650 - $1000 to spend. Thanks

 

[wdn]

If you are looking at the typical range of a good E4300 overclock, that is 3000 to 3200 MHz. So you should base it on that. For that you can get DDR2-667 memory and you don't need to spend a lot on that. You can get that for about $120 for 2 GB if you look through the hot deals section. You don't need DDR2-800 memory for example saves you a good piece of money right there.

Take your time, do not rush in to buying components. A lot of stuff is on sale and can be bought cheaply but not all the same day, if you know what I mean. If you are willing to spread out your purchase over 3-4 weeks you can save a lot.

For the case and power supply that's easy. Get the Ultra Wizard case and the Ultra V-Series power supply, if you get them from Fry's on any given week chances are good that they are both free after rebate. Free, as in you pay no money for the case or power supply when you mail in the rebate.

For a motherboard a very good choice is the Gigabyte GA965P-S3 which are about $107 dollars or so. If you were going for high frequency I would get the DS3 or maybe an ASUS brand but with the 4300 you don't need it. You will be under 400 MHz front side bus (FSB) on the E4300 anyway so you don't have to pay a lot for a motherboard with really fast bus speeds.

For a disk wow there are a number of good choices out there . I recommend the Seagate 7200.10 models which are their newer models, because they are very fast disks, the 320 GB one is about $95 at newegg. Another good choice is the Western Digital 250 GB which are cheaper than the Seagate but still pretty good drives'

For a cooler depends on price, leave that towards the end. If you wind up with $60 for one I think the Zalman 9700 is a very good product If you have $25 the Arctic Cooler Freezer 64 Pro has gotten a lot of good word in this forum;

You left our a video card, can we assume you already have one?

You also left out a DVD burner.