DescentBB

Well, I've read myself knee deep in OC'ing articles, but have yet to find an 'easy' OC'ing mb with the amd chip.
I guess the asus cusl2 spoiled me
The cusl2 just required one adjustment for the OC.
Is there a mb or bios set out there that allows this now with amd chips?

thanks!

--still havent purchased the mb or ram.

I didn't forget about u, been busy, will help u out again soon

You've helped out a lot already matrix (and Krom, Mr. P, Topwop, et al.)!
I wish one of you lived near CA so I could pay you to build this monster for me

Unfortunately for overclocking, all but the $800 dollar Athlon-FX chips are multiplier locked so you can't overclock them just by bumping up the multiplier. You can drop the multiplier on any Athlon 64 chip down, but not raise it up past default, only the expensive FX chips can go up.

I've been looking around at OC options on motherboards, and found two that have windows based Over clocking, as opposed to Bios based OC'ing.
Like the ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe mb, which has an 'automatic OC option' of up to 10%, or the ASUS AI booster which has a graphic interface for OC'ing.


http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Reviews ... leId=12466


There's also the OCGuru for ABit's boards....basically the same thing as the AI booster.

Here's the link for Abit's Fata1ty AN8 mb

http://techreport.com/reviews/2005q1/ab ... dex.x?pg=1

the review mentions that the interface is comfortable for less experienced users.


anyone have any input on graphical interfaces for OC'ing? (it appears that you can adjust the cpu multiplier with these programs, but there's more involved than that right? memory speeds and voltages...?)


another option I hadnt considered is a cheaper MB and a faster CPU (and forget about OC'ing)
(a 3800+ newcastle AMD retail is $385)

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 465&depa=1

I believe the 3200+ winchester and the SLI mobo we had will be your best bet, also "overclocking while in windows" is something any NF3 or NF4 motherboard can do. You only hear about Abit and ASUS bragging about it, but there are a number of freeware programs you can download which will let you adjust the clock speeds directly inside windows. I can even do that with the Nvidia system utility on my NF2 system.

I would always avoid cheaping out on the motherboard as much as possible, as it is such a important part of the system.

I think I'm going to go with the MSI mb ("K8N Neo4 Platinum SLI" NVIDIA nForce4 SLI).
From some user comments I've read, MSI is more user friendly than many other mb's (especially for OC), though I havent found a review to say this...just thread comments. It should be great, even though it's not quite what the DFI board is.

2 more questions:
Does anyone have any input about using a Raptor HD, as compared to a standard HD? Is the speed that noticable?

and does a heat spreader make lots of difference for RAM when OC? this ram is a bit expensive but comes with a heat spreader...CORSAIR XMS Xtreme Memory Speed Series, Xtra-Low Latency 184-Pin 1GB(512MBx2) DDR PC-3200 w/ Heat
Spreader, Model TWINX1024-3200XL - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 522&depa=1

You would see a small difference booting off a single Raptor hard drive and loading some stuff for the first time, but you probably want more then 74GB of storage.

As for the RAM, heat spreaders don't make much of a difference IMO, its more a marketing thing then a real useful part. If you are going to spend that much you might as well get some of this stuff (auto notify it if you do because it sells out FAST): http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 006&depa=1

Don't be fooled by the 2-2-2-5 rating on that corsair, thats at 400 MHz, the G.SKILL stuff will do the same 2-2-2-5 timing at 400 MHz, the 2.5-3-3-7 rating is for 550 MHz.