Overclocking Noob

L

LoserXLeet

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 16, 2005
Messages
173
Hello everyone!

I have built about 6 PC's in the last 3 years, so I'm not a complete noob as hardware goes, but I have no clue how to overclock or what's involved/needed.

Here's my situation. I want to buy a new rig in the next 1-3 months, and I have a basic idea of what I want. Because of a budget of around $1200, however, I'm thinking about buying a Venice CPU (3000+) and overclocking it (I hear they perform around an fx-55 after OC). My problem, though, is that I don't know what special hardware/cooling I need to attain that. This rig will hopefully supply great gaming for the next few years.

If anyone could link me to, or explain to me IN DETAIL (seriously, I'm an idiot) how to overclock, and what I need to overclock the venice (and if the venice 3000+ is the right choice), I would GREATLY appreciate it.

Thanks for reading!!!!
 
getting FX-55 performance out of a 3000+ is going to be some rough going. You'd probably have better luck going with a lowend Opteron. But if you want maximum overclocking potential, your going to want to go with a DFI motherboard. With all the BIOS options you'll have, you can tweek to your hearts delight. As for cooling, given your budget, i would consider watching the FS/FT forum, and try to find some good deals on watercooling parts. And since your looking to OC, your going to have better luck if you get some quality ram.
 
seniorpaul said:
getting FX-55 performance out of a 3000+ is going to be some rough going. You'd probably have better luck going with a lowend Opteron. But if you want maximum overclocking potential, your going to want to go with a DFI motherboard. With all the BIOS options you'll have, you can tweek to your hearts delight. As for cooling, given your budget, i would consider watching the FS/FT forum, and try to find some good deals on watercooling parts. And since your looking to OC, your going to have better luck if you get some quality ram.
Click to expand...


How will it be rough getting that quality out of a 3000+? Should I go with 3200+?

Any DFI Mobo in particular?

How do I overclock exactly? Is it all done in the bios options? (I seriously have never done this before)

Is water cooling my only option seeing as how I want to overclock? Given my budget, do you think I would be better off buying a higher quality CPU so I don't have to spend more money on a water cooled system?

What kind of RAM should I get?
 
Buy a Opteron 144, a DFI ultra D, and G.Skill HZ Pc4000 (black ones)

Enjoy
 
If you're not a big overclocker, I would recomend the A8N32-SLI. It's got a feature on it called AI N.O.S. - AI Non-delay Overclocking System.

It's got settings of 1,3,5,8 and 10%. Tell the BIOS how high you want to overclock and you're done! Just have the stock cooler for my CPU, and I was able to set the NOS to 8%, and I'm running rock solid at 2592, bacilly stock FX-60 speeds with no effort, expect testing of course, which involved me playing F.E.A.R. and CoD2, so it wasn't much work.

Of course, I don't know how it would work with a lower end CPU, but I have to admit this is a cool little overclock feature. I'm not aware of it for other motherboards.
 
I'm not sure how high the lastest 3000+ venice cpus are going, if you can even find one at the moment, but mine did very well. (2901mhz on water)
You don't need water cooling to hit good speeds. I got 2.8ghz with my scythe ninja hsf and asus sli-dlx mobo.
I'd suggest getting the dfi sli-dr expert mobo. As for ram, youy don't have to break the bank. OCZ ram is quite good, as is crucial and patriot....be sure to get 2x1gb sticks with the best timings you can afford, and there's no need to get anything faster than pc3200.
 
Thank you so much for the responses!

"It's got settings of 1,3,5,8 and 10%"
I don't really understand what those numbers stand for. Could you explain them to me? (I don't know what RAM times are, actually)

A few quick questions before this thread gets wrapped up. What are the disadvantages of overclocking? How much time would you say it takes to effectively overclock something if you're new to overclocking? What difficulty/time sink should I expect for setting up a liquid cooling system? If you had to suggest a liquid cooling system for the needs I have specified, what liquid cooling system would that be?

Thanks again for all the input!
 
The 1,3,5,8 and 10% settings are how much of an overclock you want done to your computer in percent. Instead of adjusting the different settings yourself, you just select the option to overclock by 10%, your computer will calculate all the variables and voila, your computer is overclocked by 10%. It sounds a bit like ntune (which came with me DFI board), which I wouldn't touch with a barge pole!!! Maybe Asus did a better job than DFI.

The disadvantages to overclocking. Well, the more you oc, the more heat your parts generate and if you don't have proper cooling, you could shorten the lifespan of your components by a few years or kill them completely. It's not just idiots who do things like that. It can happen to anybody, even if you know what you're doing.

It'll probably take you about a week. There's loads of oc guides on the net. Just google the word and you'll find em. Read a few of em if your serious about overclocking. Don't just go into this blindly.

There's a watercooling guide on this page. Check it out.

http://www.over-clock.com/ivb/index.php?showforum=24
 
see if you can find your self an Opteron. Those things have really good OC potential and I can personally claim OC's of 800Mhz+ over stock ( And I consider my self a intermediate OCer at best). I recommend the DFI boards too. ABit is good too but when it comes down to online support at a great community it can not be beat. I learned most of my OC skillz at DFI-street.com. Definetly check out some of their guides. Also read up. A good 4-5 hours of reading should bring you knowledge up to speed. Also knowing what you want to achieve before you buy the hardware will save you money and mental aggrevation.
 
as for general information as to where to get started for overclocking, grab a drink and give this thread a read. it will walk you through overclocking your new setup.
 
You don't need watercooling. If you get an AMD 64 you can probably stick with stock. If you get an Opteron you may need a thermalright heatsink.

OC guide http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1027479689&postcount=2

You need a good cpu, good ram, good board, good psu.

CPU if you can find one an Opteron but I hear theyr'e going to skyrocket in price if they haven't.

Good ram G.skill previously mention also depends how much ram u want. If you want 2 gigs do that if not you can go crucial ballistix 2 x 512.

DFI board

PSU- I have an XFINITY 500w but I believe you should look around and make your own judgement. Enermax are very good as well.
PSU - http://jonnyguru.com/ratethebrands.html

Let us know wat you decide. With 1200 you can build a really nice system. Mine is a tad more than that.


Opteron 146 @ 2.7
X-Finity 500
DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D
2GB G.Skill @ 3 4 3
NEC 3550A DVD Dual
EVGA 7800GT+Zalman VF700cu @ 485Mhz
Thermalright SI 120 + Silverstone
Raptor 74GB
Seagate 160GB
M-Audio Audiophile 2496
Cooler Master Aerogate 3
 
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