Oem Sempron 3100+ & ECS Nforce3 combo for $79 + S/H (no rebates)

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Doctor Carta said:
get a thermalright xp-90 series cooler the best out for this socket
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I've got a Scythe Ninja on there - awesome heatsink and VERY quiet.
 
If you're building a budget rig then most of the previous mentioned heatsinks are total overkill. First off the chip is sorta cool running to begin with. Second, the overclocks aren't dramatic enough to warrant a $40 heatsink. Thirdly, people report decent oc temps on stock heatsinks so for budget builds you're better off investing the extra $30 or so into other needed parts.

Obviously if your not concerned with budget, or are building an htpc, then by all means go with a better heatsink ;)
 
BTW I have mine up and running now. The first combo I got had a DOA MB. 250x9.
 
Great deal, smoking little combo...

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:( I dont need it nor do I have the space for it but I bought it. :D Thanks for the link! *you bastage* The combo I just got (slightly better board but its a 2800 cpu) cost me 140. When it goes out someday, I can just pop this one in and use all the same parts :) Now tomorrow ill see another deal....
 
I have two of these setups now and I love 'em. ;) Only "problem" I have with both of them is that they are picky about memory. I originally had 2x512Mb in each, and absolutely no problem running 2.3GHz on the CPU. Now with 1x1Gb + 1x512Mb in each, they only like to be run ~2.0GHz. I swapped back in the 2x512Mb and it goes back to 2.3GHz no problem. I tried playing with memory timings and dividers and there is just something holding it back when I add a 1Gb stick.

At any rate, great deal for $80!
 
I started to overclock, and the machine wouldn't boost (I had the HT set to high, I guess; my first thought was to boost HT to 5, and FSB to 220). I want a safe, easy overclock that doesn't overclock my (now old) Ti4200 128MB video card and doesn't put too much strain on my memory.

How do I lock the memory bus to DDR3200 speeds (I'm assuming locking it at 166 Mhz?) and the AGP (lock it at 66, right?) while getting a nice, easy overclock of say, 300 Mhz?
I also REALLY would like to not have to up the voltage to the memory or AGP; if I keep them stock, I know I don't need to do that. I don't want to overvolt the CPU much either since she seems to be running at a nice, cool 47C at full load, and I'd like to keep it close to that (49ish is as high as I'd like to go).

I know, LAME in the extreme to ask, but I don't have huge experience overclocking NF3 (or any NF boards; my last machines were all KT266A and KT333 boards, and I overclocked them an easy 10%, no sweat).
 
Change your HT multiplier to 3, you want it lower, not higher. HT * FSB < 1000 is what you should be aiming for.
 
How does the HT multiplier effect the memory clock? In otherwords whats the best way to keep the memory clock around 200 mhz?
 
Yeah thats something i've never been clear on... how do you keep the RAM from being affected from the overclock... like can't you just do the CPU?
 
brycejones said:
How does the HT multiplier effect the memory clock? In otherwords whats the best way to keep the memory clock around 200 mhz?
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The HT link can only support ~1000mhz, and your HT link frequency can be calculated by FSB * HT multiplier. So that's one thing you will need to change (but never a limiting factor, as you can use multipliers down to 1x).

The memory clock can be controlled by the force memory clock option in BIOS. This is how you figure it out:

(Forced Memory Speed)/(200) = memory divider

Actual memory speed = FSB * memory divider

So 166mhz "forced memory speed" in bios = 166/200 = .83, or 5/6
133 mhz forced = 2/3 = .66 and so on.

So lets say you're going with a FSB of 250mhz for 2.25ghz (250 * 9, this cpu's multiplier).

a 5/6 divider (forced 166mhz) will get you: 250 * (5/6) = 208 mhz for your memory speed. Now, you also need to make sure the HTT link doesn't limit you, so 4x * 250 is 1000mhz. That's okay, but I'm not sure what this nForce3 chipset can handle, 800? Once again, you'll have to do your own testing. 3x, maybe 4x will work for 2.25ghz.
 
Talonz said:
That's okay, but I'm not sure what this nForce3 chipset can handle, 800? Once again, you'll have to do your own testing. 3x, maybe 4x will work for 2.25ghz.
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I've found the HT limit to be around 800 for this chipset, so 3x is most appropriate. I'm running at 266 (using clockgen) which gives me a memory speed of about 220 and a HT of 800. I wanted this PC really quiet, so I've got a Scythe Ninja and a couple of 120mm fans. Mid 30's for temperature, depends on room temp. I also found that the nVidia 5.11 drivers (specifically LAN) would hose my XP install every time. I had to go to the older 5.10 drivers, but they work great.
 
Fenris_Ulf said:
I've found the HT limit to be around 800 for this chipset, so 3x is most appropriate. I'm running at 266 (using clockgen) which gives me a memory speed of about 220 and a HT of 800. I wanted this PC really quiet, so I've got a Scythe Ninja and a couple of 120mm fans. Mid 30's for temperature, depends on room temp. I also found that the nVidia 5.11 drivers (specifically LAN) would hose my XP install every time. I had to go to the older 5.10 drivers, but they work great.
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The 5.11s worked fine for me, but I recently, I've also been hitting that 800 HT wall. I'll try a HT multiplier of 2x and see how much further I can get. It's wierd because I was able to run a 272 FSB (817 HT freq) for 2.45 ghz initially with a solid 7hr prime, but now it's "only" stable at 2.4 :p
 
Talonz said:
The HT link can only support ~1000mhz, and your HT link frequency can be calculated by FSB * HT multiplier. So that's one thing you will need to change (but never a limiting factor, as you can use multipliers down to 1x).

The memory clock can be controlled by the force memory clock option in BIOS. This is how you figure it out:

(Forced Memory Speed)/(200) = memory divider

Actual memory speed = FSB * memory divider

So 166mhz "forced memory speed" in bios = 166/200 = .83, or 5/6
133 mhz forced = 2/3 = .66 and so on.

So lets say you're going with a FSB of 250mhz for 2.25ghz (250 * 9, this cpu's multiplier).

a 5/6 divider (forced 166mhz) will get you: 250 * (5/6) = 208 mhz for your memory speed. Now, you also need to make sure the HTT link doesn't limit you, so 4x * 250 is 1000mhz. That's okay, but I'm not sure what this nForce3 chipset can handle, 800? Once again, you'll have to do your own testing. 3x, maybe 4x will work for 2.25ghz.
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Ok, so let me see if I've figure this out:
Set HT to 3.
Lock the AGP bus at 66Mhz.
Turn off AGP Sidebanding (it's already off, but I want to be thorough).
I have this Patriot 2x1GB PC3200 memory; since is 200Mhz (times 2 of course, since it's DDR), I can lock it at 166Mhz.

That allows a 66Mhz FSB overclock of the CPU and Motherboard without running the AGP card or the memory out of normal spec, right? So 266Mhz FSB would still be in spec for my memory if I've locked it at 166Mhz. And that would be almost exactly on spec for the HT bus, if the bus maxes at 800 (but it doesn't; I was able to get 220x4, for 880Mhz on the FSB with a quick test, but I was overclocking my memory because I had it going at Auto; that was my second try to overclock, just to see what was going on, without any tuning to see where it could wind up).

(EDIT: OK, I see the problem here! I'd need to lock it at 133Mhz, not 166Mhz).

What about the PCI slots? Would I be overclocking them, or are they still stock speeds if I've put the 66Mhz lock on the AGP slot?

And realistically, what's the chance of getting a 66 Mhz FSB overclock with this without raising voltages? That would then be a just under 2.4 Ghz, a HUGE increase from the stock 1.8, but everything else would still be in spec, right? :confused:

Hmmm, maybe I should have gone for a better than stock cooler! :eek:

EDIT: Just noticed that everyone else is reporting they're having trouble getting past 800Mhz; I hit 4x220 on my first time, no voltage increase... does that mean I've got a REALLY good board? Have to admit I didn't stress test it; I just used CPUZ, FanSpeed, and the AMD Dashboard to check speeds and temps, and when I saw that I had NOT locked the memory down properly, I rebooted and dialed it back to stock for now.
 
not everyone, im able to get up to 960htt (@4x 240fsb) without problems. The only thing i have problems with is that I need more voltage for the cpu.
 
Your chances may not be good if you don't raise voltages, but using the same method, I'm pretty sure you can hit 2.25 with no sweat.

Here are the only options you really need to change:

memory @ 166
HT @ 3x
FSB @ 250

Everything else will be alright by default. Clockgen reports that AGP and PCI frequencies are locked by default. AGP sidebanding/fast writes has had no effects on my overclocking.

As a side note, HT multipliers 2x and 1x don't seem to work well for me, I can't even hit 2.37 ghz at those multipliers but I can run all day at 2.4 with a 3x mult. Does anyone have any ideas? I've tried lowering the memory frequency (shouldn't matter, still running in spec) and turning agp fastwrites/sidebanding off in bios with no effect
 
I know this is still going on (at least as of yesterday, so I'm doing a double; I'm bumping it back on the first page, and reporting that I talked to my BIL on Sunday (we were out celebrating my turning 40), and he's now buying one of these combos.

Also, last night, I gave it a whirl with the directions given.

Cranked the FSB to 250.
Dropped HT to 3
Locked the Memory speed at 166.
Locked the AGP bus speed to 66.
No voltage bumps whatsoever.

System booted and started stress testing fine; System was stable under idle, stable (enough) under "normal" load (for almost an hour), with temps of 44 at idle and 50 at full, slightly too high for my tastes, but I'm using the OEM stock cooling, and this particular case is not known for good airflow (but it's what I've got :( ) When I put it in a sustained two hundred percent utilization loop, after about 10 minutes, I hit the wall, and the machine just shut down. I could probably give it a voltage bump, but.... I might just slap HT back to 4, raise the FSB to 220 (10% overclock) and let it overclock the memory and call it a day, but it's nice to see a 25% boost in the CPU; that was impressive, especially when I pulled up Sandra and saw it outperforming an X64-3400+ on the benchmarks.
 
My server would crash every 30 minutes with my old socket a board couldnt figure it out

Put this smoking deal in my pc and lo and behold 2 weeks of uptime and counting with server03-x64

W00t!
 
I have two of them being delivered tomorrow, glad I was able to get em, thanks!

** I just checked it, shows its still good, in stock, 79.99
 
doox00 said:
I have two of them being delivered tomorrow, glad I was able to get em, thanks!

** I just checked it, shows its still good, in stock, 79.99
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Try to add it to your cart....;)
 
Deal is dead... it wont' let me add to cart. (been on hold trying to see if I can order, but no one is answering) grrr... I wants it when I can't have it. LoL

*Edit... just got off the phone with outpost, FINALLY!! I ordered 3 Sempron Combos and one 3000+ combo. I am going to be building a pc for my sister in LAW & stuff... cool.
 
noobtech said:
Deal is dead... it wont' let me add to cart. (been on hold trying to see if I can order, but no one is answering) grrr... I wants it when I can't have it. LoL

*Edit... just got off the phone with outpost, FINALLY!! I ordered 3 Sempron Combos and one 3000+ combo. I am going to be building a pc for my sister in LAW & stuff... cool.
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Ya, says "in stock, same day shipping" but it doesn't get added to the shopping cart.

Phone orders may be necessary at this point:

Need help placing your order? Let us help!
1-877-OUTPOST (1-877-688-7678)
INTL: 1-860-927-2050 <---- i wonder if they ship to Canada?
 
Yup, you gotta do it on the phone... I called back after i cooled off from my impulse buy and just got one of each... the 3000+ & 3100+ combos... the Athlon 64 3000+ is going to be going in my sister-in-laws computer i'm building her.
 
Just got my combo today

SDA3100AIP3AX
CBAEW 0524CPDW

Ordered maybe 3 days ago.
 
SJetski71 said:
Ya, says "in stock, same day shipping" but it doesn't get added to the shopping cart.

Phone orders may be necessary at this point:

Need help placing your order? Let us help!
1-877-OUTPOST (1-877-688-7678)
INTL: 1-860-927-2050 <---- i wonder if they ship to Canada?
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Really? It adds to cart for me still, maybe its back up? I click add to cart and it goes right to shopping cart.
 
Nice, I can get combo #4....(then I'm done for real)....these make nice folding boards.
 
silentnswift said:
Really? It adds to cart for me still, maybe its back up? I click add to cart and it goes right to shopping cart.
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They fixed it... it wasn't like that even for the people at uhmm... outpost
 
I can't believe how fast it came. I ordered Mon 7pm and had it Wednesday 1pm. Crazy.

Anyway thanks for the heads up. Apparantly I've been living in a cave though as this deal has been going on for months and months and I just happened to randomly bump into it hear. :p


Edit - Which HSF for this for some light OCing?

This one stock
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6868815894&rd=1&sspagename=STRK:MEWA:IT&rd=1

This one stock but with 4 pipes?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6869828141&rd=1&sspagename=STRK:MEWA:IT&rd=1
will the above one even fit? Thanks.
 
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The one with the four pipes is a good HSF. Definitely great for the price ($18 shipped). Roughly comparable to a XP-90. And it will fit, socket 754 and 939 use the same heatsinks.
 
Has anyone been able to get MBM5 to work on this? It freaks out and thinks my system is like at 150 C. Also I can't even find this board listed. Also, any one get cool and quiet to work for this board, are these CPUs 90 or 130 nm, and are there any other hidden goodies for this chip? Thanks.
 
Fenris_Ulf said:
The one with the four pipes is a good HSF. Definitely great for the price ($18 shipped). Roughly comparable to a XP-90. And it will fit, socket 754 and 939 use the same heatsinks.
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Thanks Fenris_Ulf, that underside pic of the 4 heat pipes makes the thing look huge.
 
MiXdNuTs said:
Has anyone been able to get MBM5 to work on this? It freaks out and thinks my system is like at 150 C. Also I can't even find this board listed. Also, any one get cool and quiet to work for this board, are these CPUs 90 or 130 nm, and are there any other hidden goodies for this chip? Thanks.
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I've got MBM to work, but only for one sensor (CPU). I can't remember which sensor it was, so just try all six until you get one that isn't at 0 C or 150 C. Chips are 130nm, but will probably have 64bit enabled despite being of the AX designator.
 
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