I'm looking to build myself a rig to overclock over either christmas or summer break. It'll be the 2nd computer i've built, and the first one to overclock.

Budget: absolutley no more than $2000

Here's what I'm thinking so far
Proc: Athlon 64 (somewhere around 3200 methinks)
Mobo: I've heard that the DFI Lanparty series is pretty good OC bang for the buck...
Tower: Full or Server (nothing excessive, but looking decent is a plus)
Graphics: GeForce 6800 GT (brand?)
Pow Supply: OCZ 520w
RAM: 2-3 sticks of 512mb DDR400/PC3200 (OCZ or Corsair)
Optical Drives: DVD + and - R & 52x CD (two separate drives)
Hard Drive: 200GB or more (not sure what format would be best for an oc system)
Cooling: found this beast of a CPU heatsink, any other suggestions? (I'm thinking air cooling for now, and nothing hideously loud... *sees 54db fans on newegg* ... )
monitor: 17" - 19" CRT

I'd just like to see if any of you OCing veterans out there have any advice / part reccomendations / guides you could pass on to me that'd aid in the planning process.

Thanks

If you want a quiet cpu heatsink/fan I would go with a Zalman.
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 109&depa=0

Thats a good heatsink, but ive always had better performance with copper. Look at the sp-94 or AMD equivalent from thermalright. Good shit.

With your graphics card, ive always had good luck with oc'ing MSI and Sapphire boards. Some of the others actually come OC'd, so be careful.

As for your mobo of choice, ive heard bad things. If you use the auto oc built into the bios, it actually underclocks your FSB to improve stability, but slashes your performance. Ive had good luck with both ASUS and Abit. Asus more so. Also, become a member at http://www.ocforums.com. They always have good advice and topics on there.
Good luck.

Yea, go with MSI motherboard. Easily overclockable and stable as a rock. If you are going to OC it is a good idea to get the highest FSB RAM as possible, allows you to OC to higher speeds.

Go SATA if at all possible, faster transfer rates. And Seatgate for the brand if you can (however they only make up to 160gb SATA), I have never had a problem with seagate and from other people I have talked to they have never heard of a person using a Seagate drive under normal conditions and having a problem. And OCing won't affect your hard drive (unless you electrocute it).

If you are OCing, get as many case fans as you can, quiet as possible, and then cut some holes to put more in. Because with OCing, you are dramatically increasing the heat. And if you live in the dorms your room can heat un quite quickly, reducing the amount of heat the cooling can put into the open air. Which then increases the risk of you frying your CPU.

All good choices, haven't heard one bad thing about that DFI Lanparty board. You could also consider an MSI K8N Neo Platinum. Just make sure that you get the Nforce 3 250 chipset, and that your board has a working AGP/PCI lock. Most of the Asus and Abit A64 boards don't have a working lock.

6800 GT brand, I'd say go with the Gainward Golden Sample. The all copper heatsink is far superior to the other brands that just use that crappy reference cooler. It will take up an adjacent PCI slot, so keep that in mind.

RAM, I'd go with some Crucial Ballistix. I've seen reviews that the 3200 sticks can get to 240 MHz with 2-2-2-5 timings, which is damn good.

Case: I have the Chieftec Dragon Mid-Tower, and I love it. Even though tons of people have this case, it just works well. Any Lian-Li is another case that you can't go wrong with.

One more thing, be sure and check on Thermalright's website about motherboard compatibility with the XP-120. It won't fit some boards, and you may have to bend some capacitors out of the way. I think the XP-90 will work just as well if the XP-120 is incompatible.

if I' were you...I'd pick up Zerf's 2 x 256MB of PC3000 BH-5 Kingston HyperX chips. tose things will go up to 200+ at 2-2-2-+ timigns

DFI all the way...got myself a NFII Infinity..love it.

if you arent' sure you need 64bit, get a 2400+ 35watt moble proc....nice nece processors for overclocking.

SATA, PATA...doesn't matter. I'd go SATA...I love mine.


</End drunken ramblings>

I had a DFI lanparty board and it was the most unstable piece of shit I've ever used. I wouldnt recommend it at all. Get Asus or Abit, you cant go wrong with them

Yeah you can. Asus hasn't put out a good board in a long time. The vcore fluctuates like mad. Neither Abit nor Asus have a working AGP/PCI lock on their A64 boards.

I've already blown up my NF7-S board. The DFI has a hell of a lot more settings...just gotta know how to get them set. That's the ticket.

Edit: That's why peeps are getting 240+ FSB on the Infinity/Lanparty NF2 Ultra 400. I myself have gotten 230 with my PC3000 Kingston HyperX memory. Perhaps its the quality of parts.

If you really want to play around, take a look at this review from Anandtech. They took one of the new S939 A64 3000+ processors and were able to do a 45% overclock.(90nm processors only) Quite an overclock and the processor is currently only $190 at Newegg. With the overclock, it even bypasses all of the FX chips in performance. I'm not sure on the cooling they used, but they used a couple of different commercial sources for the chips so many of them should be able to do this. They also used the MSI K8N Neo2. Heck, if you are new and want to play, just duplicate their system.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2242&p=5

I personally have gotten 240mhz on an infinity board(didn't try any higher) and 255mhz on an LPB board(need to do some modding to get higher) from DFI. You have to know how to use them. Just putting in your parts and saying Overclock real loud won't give you good results.
If you want to know about DFI 64bit stuff go to this forum. http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/ There are 2 people from DFI that moderate and while be happy to answer any of your questions.(RGone and Angry_Games) Plus tons of knowledgeable people there to help you out as well.


From everyone i've talked to that didn't buy a mobile 2600+ they wish they had. I've got a 2600+ and couldn't be happier with my OC'ing results.

On the power supply. Go with this PSU, the Fortron 530W. You'll be hard pressed to find a better psu.

On the ram … hate to break it to you but the first thing you want to look at is the chips on the ram. If you want high fsb overclocking you’ll have to get some BH-5 or BH-6 ram. Check out this list before you buy. If you get ch-5 or ch-6 your up shit creek without a paddle. I personally have some OCZ BH-6 and I’ve pushed 255mhz at 3.3v. BH-5 is hard to get and you’ll most likely have to turn to ebay to buy it. My favorite ram makers are corsair/mushkin/OCZ. If none of the BH-5 or BH-6 gets available to you then go with the Crucial Ballistix. It’s actually unclocked ram so you’ll be able to get monster results with it, but at the sake of looser timings.

On the hard drive … my personally choice would be to go with a seagate (just better personal experience) and should go with SATA definitely.

On the cpu … go with a 939 or 940 chip and the 90nm if you get the 3500+ or lower.

On cooling … if you want low noise then you have to spend the extra money on a beefy child eating heatsink. Now the XP 120 is just that but it’s not compatible with every motherboard so make absolutely sure it will fit before purchase. If it doesn’t fit the Thermalright : SLK948U is a good choice. You’ll also need a fan blowing over your ram.

I'm sure there will be more.

The first rule in overclocking is to never overclock something you cannot afford to replace. You're much better off with a slightly slower system than with no system at all.

Duly noted. I've already got a system to fall back on.

Great advice so far, thanks again and keep em coming.

Yes, get BH-5, provided that you can find it and can up the RAM voltage high. The true power of that BH5 won't be unleashed until you get up to 3 volts.

I think 2000 is a bit more than he'll spend, unless he just buys really expensive stuff. I bought my OCing rig in May and it cost me around 800 but that didn't include a hard drive or cd burner(left over from old system). It's not 64bit but it's something to play around with for a while until dual cores are out.

DFI Lan Party B
xp2600+ mobile
2x512 OCZ 3200 Plat LE 2-2-2-2-11(BH-6)
SP97
Delta 110CFM FFB0912EHE
Tornado 119CFM
ATI 9600XT AIW
MCX 159A NB cooler
Rheobus Sunbeam fan controller
Sata Seagate 120gig
54x cd burner
16 dvd drive