which mobo and RAM should I go for my A64 3200(939, 90nm)?

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GizmoC

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As the title says, I am soon going to buy a new PC with the A64 3200 chip (939, 90nm, Winchester).

I definately intend on overclocking (but not much) since I have a good heatsink (Thermalright SLK948U)

My budget is kinda tight.

Anyway, I need advice on which mobo and RAM should I go for? (please be specific)

I want 1 gb of RAM. So, is it better/cheaper to get 1 stick of 1gb or 2x512 sticks? I think I heard somewhere that for overclocking and taking advantage of dual channel memory its best to go for 1 stick?

While we are at it, I dont understand overclocking at all... all that stuff about RAM timings, Vcore, etc. because, quite honestly, I dont have the resources to have that kinda hobby. Anyway, I would appreciate it also if someone could tell EXACTLY what setup/config/timings etc I should use while overclocking. Ofcourse, I will not be doing the overclocking myself... so... you can be as technical as you like so that the person who is doing the OCing for me understands.





Thanks!
 
Overclocking is not an exact science... There are no exact settings that magically allow you to overclock to the moon.

I would recommend the MSI k8n neo2 motherboard...

As far as ram, I dont follow pricing closely enough but something using Samsung TCCD (sp?) would probly be the best economical solution. And go for 2x512. The s939 proc's are duel channel, you want to take advantage of any performance increase you can. Before you go on your spending spree why not LEARN about what your buying. Hop into the memory forums there is a sticky that will bring you up to speed.
 
Going with a amd 3000 will save you same cash and will o'c just as well as the 3200
 
I love my abit av8, currently priming at 2.5 ghz, 280 x 9 1.6 volts with the ram at 180.

Heres a pic of my last prime run which was burning in at 2.4, 267 x 9 1.55 volts(I think I was a bit liberal on the voltage) with the ram at 220.
primestable.JPG


Sure it's via chipset, but it's been a great board so far.


^all with stock cooling btw: I think I'll put in a thermalright xp 120 for phase 3 of my overclocking plan(2.6 ghz)
 
Lee Enfield said:
Motherboard:

MSI "K8N Neo2 Platinum" NVIDIA nForce3 ULTRA Chipset Motherboard For AMD Socket 939 CPU -RETAIL

Memory:

OCZ EL Platinum Revision 2 Dual Channel Kit 184-Pin 1GB(512MBx2) DDR PC-3200 - Retail

The memory may be to expensive for your taste but it performs like no other.
Click to expand...
Can't argue with that; good choice of memory (TCCD with Brainpower PCB; can't go wrong with those) and a decent board. I'd wait till DFI rolls out their own nF3Ultra board; but that's just me...
burningrave101 said:
Samsung TCCD is the brand of chips on the memory modules.
Click to expand...
TCCD is a revision of DDR SDRAM memory chips made by Samsung. And a very good one at that. I've newfound respect for Samsung since they came up with TCCD.
 
I have had problems overclocking on my MSI K8N Neo2 board. I raise the FSB and lower the HTT and it's not budging. I'm just at default settings 2ghrz for my 3200+

It's getting frustrating. Although, I've never worked with an Athlon 64 before so I don't know what else I need to change to make it go. These are different from their Athlon XP counterparts. There's more features to the 64s then the XP's had.
 
ShepsCrook

make sure you ram isnt running to fast... change it down to 166 and 133 later if you get high enough
166 is a 5:4 ratio of htt:ramclock
133 is a 3:2 i believe
 
See, that's what is confusing. You have to lower the ram's speed, so that you can overclock it? *shakes head* this is a whole new level of overclocking now. lol
 
ShepsCrook said:
See, that's what is confusing. You have to lower the ram's speed, so that you can overclock it? *shakes head* this is a whole new level of overclocking now. lol
Click to expand...

You shouldn't need to lower your RAM ratio if your using that OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev2 in your sig. Up your vDIMM voltage if you think its the RAM.
 
It only gives him 2.85; and that ram wants upwards of 3.0 to OC well... just a strange thing about Brainpoer PCB sticks; such as those. And, before you do anything; go to MSI's forums, I'm sure people will give you a good overclocking BIOS there... for Neo Platinum; there are only a couple releases that make the board a good overclocker.
 
I'm not sure what it is to be honest. I have tried a lot of different settings and none seem to work.

What do you think would help? I'm not looking for a massive overclock, maybe take it to 2.4ghrz tops. I'm at 38c idle in the bios.

I don't know what my rams default voltage is. So I'm not sure what raising it up would be.

Plus I found earlier that if I overclocked I had to turn on all of the aggressive modes of the motherboard to actually see the mhz increase on the fsb in the post. But it wouldn't work.
 
Yeah, so I raised the voltages too the memory to 2.6 and raised the FSB to 220. It posts, but after that it sits on a blinking _ for a while. Looks like I'm going to have to clear the cmos and reset everything.
 
ShepsCrook said:
I'm not sure what it is to be honest. I have tried a lot of different settings and none seem to work.

What do you think would help? I'm not looking for a massive overclock, maybe take it to 2.4ghrz tops. I'm at 38c idle in the bios.

I don't know what my rams default voltage is. So I'm not sure what raising it up would be.

Plus I found earlier that if I overclocked I had to turn on all of the aggressive modes of the motherboard to actually see the mhz increase on the fsb in the post. But it wouldn't work.
Click to expand...
what psu do you have?
set the ram to something like 2.75v. i know it flashes red in the bios.. don't let it ward you off, most high peformance ram has "stock" voltage of 2.75-2.85v.
and do a search in this forum on how to overclock a64's. i know there have abeen quite a few posts giving a detailed description on what to do to oc a64's.
 
I tried a search before and had no luck. I guess I'll try again.

I have a Thermaltake XaserII 480W PSU. So I'm pretty sure it's not a powersupply problem. That thing is a beast. I have 2 of them I liked it so much. :)

But I'll try the ram voltage a little higher and try for another overclock.
 
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