New to the OC Scene. Help?

D

DonMega2k

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 1, 2006
Messages
222
Let me start off by saying Happy New Year to all :D

I'm in the process of building a new PC to replace my tired PII 300 (circa. 1997) I'll be ordering all of the components next Friday, but have some more research to do before hand. I was in IT 8 years ago, but am now in Network Engineering. As such, my knowledge in PC design and technology is dated at best.

My main question for the OC&C forum is about overclocking for DDR2 bandwidth. The following the meat and potatoe of my planned system:

Gigabyte GA-8I945-Pro M/B
Intel P4 630 Prescott 800MHz FSB LGA 775 EM64T
Antec TruePower 2.0 TrueControl II-550 ATX
Gigabyte or EVGA GeForce 7800GT GDDR3 PCIEx16

I understand I can O/C the processor to 3.6GHz on air with no worries. Given the above setup, what is the fastest RAM I can run? After researching, I'm fairly confident I should be able to utilize DDR2 667 - but I'm not sure how I need to set things up to get there. With a stock, non-overclocked, system I think I'm limited to DDR2 533. Is there truth to this, or can I run DDR2 667 with a non-overclocked 630 chip? Further, what it be worthwhile to use Corsair XMS2 Pro DDR 533 and O/C the piss out of it? From what I've read, this particular stick should be more than capabile of hitting 667 speeds if clocked.

Of course I'd rather OC for the additional 600MHz, but at this point I want to make sure I'm getting the correct RAM.I've been researching all day, and I just can't seem to find a suitable answer.

I'm sure there will be many questions to follow. Any help is much appreciated.
 
First - get the P5WD2 board from Asus - one of the best lga boards out there (or at least try to get a 955x board, the 955x chipset is better)

Second - yes you can run the ram at a higher than the fsb speed with the 4:5 divider
most ppl recommoned ddr2 with d9 chips, here is a complete list of ddr2 ram with d9 chips http://xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=77442

Third - get a good after market hsf and you may be running 4.0ghz in no time

Happy New Year ! :)

D
 
Thanks for the response, I need all the help I can get right now. I can't believe I used to do this for a living, and now am having trouble getting up to date with the latest.

One question. What's the functional difference between the P5WD2 and P5WD2 Premium? Side by side they look identical stat wise, yet Premium is about $30 more. What am I missing here?

For CPU cooling I was going to get a Ninja, or maybe the Artic Freezer 7. Suspect the ninja is better though. Will either of those cut it? Case will have 4x 80mm fans up front and I'm going to cut a port hole in the top of the case with another 80mm. Of course the Antec fan should also help on the exhaust. The last time I built a computer, this cooling would have been completely overkill lol...
 
DonMega2k said:
Thanks for the response, I need all the help I can get right now. I can't believe I used to do this for a living, and now am having trouble getting up to date with the latest.

One question. What's the functional difference between the P5WD2 and P5WD2 Premium? Side by side they look identical stat wise, yet Premium is about $30 more. What am I missing here?

For CPU cooling I was going to get a Ninja, or maybe the Artic Freezer 7. Suspect the ninja is better though. Will either of those cut it? Case will have 4x 80mm fans up front and I'm going to cut a port hole in the top of the case with another 80mm. Of course the Antec fan should also help on the exhaust. The last time I built a computer, this cooling would have been completely overkill lol...
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You're welcome :)
yeah the tech sector has been moving really fast lately, gotta stay in the loop

the difference is prolly something small like firewire or something like that, look at the detailed specs

I would recommend the Zalman 9500 or the Thermalright XP90/XP120/SI120

did you already get the case ? if not, look for one that has 120mm fans, life's easier with 120mms :)

D
 
Hrmm, funny you say that. I was just going through NewEgg again and upgraded my case to the Thermaltake Swing w/ front & rear 120mm fans. Also decided on the Zalman CNPS7700 for the CPU, which also uses a 120mm fan. The 9200 is quite rediculous lol, would it be worthwhile going from the 7700 to the 9200? There are 2 large holes above the CPU slot in my case, so having an up firing 120mm may not be so bad. Plus I'm concerned with using such a vertical unit, I've been reading a lot about coolers cracking boards from weight and that the vertical units are even more susceptible. I'm not sure though, what would you say?

Also, it looks like the difference between Premium and non-premium is that the former has the 7.1 sound. I was planning on getting an Audigy2 to replace my Live!128 with, so that's not a huge deal. I have decided to go with the P5WD2 though so I can upgrade to dual-core later. May even go with the SLI version so I'm dual-core and SLI ready. Not sure on that as this build is all ready 3x the amount it was originally going to cost me. Now I remember why I stopped upgrading my PC!
 
DonMega2k said:
Hrmm, funny you say that. I was just going through NewEgg again and upgraded my case to the Thermaltake Swing w/ front & rear 120mm fans. Also decided on the Zalman CNPS7700 for the CPU, which also uses a 120mm fan. The 9200 is quite rediculous lol, would it be worthwhile going from the 7700 to the 9200? There are 2 large holes above the CPU slot in my case, so having an up firing 120mm may not be so bad. Plus I'm concerned with using such a vertical unit, I've been reading a lot about coolers cracking boards from weight and that the vertical units are even more susceptible. I'm not sure though, what would you say?

Also, it looks like the difference between Premium and non-premium is that the former has the 7.1 sound. I was planning on getting an Audigy2 to replace my Live!128 with, so that's not a huge deal. I have decided to go with the P5WD2 though so I can upgrade to dual-core later. May even go with the SLI version so I'm dual-core and SLI ready. Not sure on that as this build is all ready 3x the amount it was originally going to cost me. Now I remember why I stopped upgrading my PC!
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which 7700 ? the 7700CU is actually almost twice as heavy as the 9500
take a look at the TR sinks, they are alu (light) and quite good

yep told ya it was probably a small thing

D

P.S. check out svc.com, good prices on sinks
 
Damn, you wern't kidding, they have some crucial prices. The CNPS7700-Cu is actually a full $10 cheaper. That's the one I really want to go with. Guess I need to read up and see if it's a) Going to fit and b) if anyone has had weight issues with it on a P5WD2. Surely someone out there is running a similar setup. My second choice would be he Thermaltake Big Typhoon. Looks like a solid choice with copper heat tubes, aluminum fins, and is 100g lighter than the Zalman. Either way I'm going to also pick up the Zalman NB sink and a tube of Artic Silver 5 as well.
 
Ok, scratch the Zalman NB Sink. The MB doesn't have mounting holes for it, factory uses 2 wires and loops.
 
DonMega2k said:
Damn, you wern't kidding, they have some crucial prices. The CNPS7700-Cu is actually a full $10 cheaper. That's the one I really want to go with. Guess I need to read up and see if it's a) Going to fit and b) if anyone has had weight issues with it on a P5WD2. Surely someone out there is running a similar setup. My second choice would be he Thermaltake Big Typhoon. Looks like a solid choice with copper heat tubes, aluminum fins, and is 100g lighter than the Zalman. Either way I'm going to also pick up the Zalman NB sink and a tube of Artic Silver 5 as well.
Click to expand...

IMO the 7700CU is way too heavy, especially when going with a $200 board

D
 
Do you think the Typhoon, at 813g w/fan, would be much better? 100g difference isn't a whole lot in the grand sceme of things I suppose. Especially heavy compared to the 493g w/fan XP120.

I guess part of the problem is that I don't know at what level my cooling will be sufficent. Maybe I could get away with the XP90 since I'll have 2x 120mm case fans?
 
DonMega2k said:
Do you think the Typhoon, at 813g w/fan, would be much better? 100g difference isn't a whole lot in the grand sceme of things I suppose. Especially heavy compared to the 493g w/fan XP120.
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well I never even mentioned the Typhoon
so why not go with the 493g XP120 ?

D
 
You didn't mention it, it was just one I was also looking at. It's settled though, I'll just rock the XP120 and see how it goes.
 
DonMega2k said:
You didn't mention it, it was just one I was also looking at. It's settled though, I'll just rock the XP120 and see how it goes.
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first make sure it fits (check TRs page), xp120s have a clearance problem, thats why I also recommended the SI120

D
 
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