Weekly Buyer's Guide: Overclocking System - April 2004

Keyboard and Mouse

While trivial, it's still important that you purchase the right keyboard and mouse. Different people have different preferences for a keyboard's feel and look, and the same goes for a mouse. Therefore, we suggest that you personally try out a keyboard and mouse for yourself. Recommending purchasing these items online is misleading, as there are too many users with different preferences for this type of thing. Visit your nearest PC outlet to try out a keyboard and mouse yourself; a PC Club, Best Buy, CompUSA, or Circuit City store will do. We suggest that you start with Microsoft and Logitech keyboards and mice. Make sure you also check out optical mice from Microsoft and Logitech as well. A good solid optical mouse from either manufacturer should run about $20, but in some cases, can run as little as $10 if you can find the right deal.

There are also some great wireless optical mice out there, like the MX700 for example, but it really depends on whether you care at all about a wireless mouse and are willing to spend the money to acquire it. Most will be satisfied with a standard optical mouse from Microsoft or Logitech for gaming, as it offers identical (or better) precision and feel than most wireless mice. We are bringing up the idea of wireless mice merely because it is hugely popular with gamers nowadays. Otherwise, stick with what makes you comfortable.

Cooling

Recommendation: Thermalright SLK-947U Copper Heatsink
Price: $42 shipped

Thermalright is extremely popular with overclockers and enthusiasts in general for their high end HSFs (Heatsink and Fans). The SLK-947U is one of the best HSFs on the market for either Athlon XP or Pentium 4 systems. Its copper construction and soldered fin design are features that allow it to cool very high core clock speeds effectively. Remember, the whole point of getting a high end HSF is so that you can dissipate as much heat as possible from your CPU; otherwise, you end up overheating/damaging your CPU.

Anyway, we took some readings from our SLK-947U with an Athlon XP at 2.52GHz (1.80V) and a Pentium 4 at 3.59GHz (1.65V). Under load, the Athlon XP routinely hit around 52C, while the Pentium 4 hit around 48C. Granted, the ABIT NF7-S Rev.2 routinely outputs high readings (as do most ABIT boards), so under load, the Athlon XP was probably a little cooler than 52C. Still, these temperatures are just fine. Make sure you monitor your ambient temperatures closely and consistently as well. Usually, you need to worry when you start going over 60C, especially if your Athlon XP is running at 1.80V and your Pentium 4 is running at 1.65V. If you want your Pentium 4 and Athlon XP to run at a slightly more conservative overclock like 3.4GHz and 2.4GHz, respectively, your best bet is to turn down your voltage (0.05V-0.10V of your CPU), which will in turn lower your core clock speed overclock to around those 3.4GHz and 2.4GHz levels. Though, with this HSF, you should routinely be reaching no worse than 55C MAX, and most of the time well under 50C.

You also have the option of purchasing Artic Silver 5, a thermal compound that essentially makes your SLK-947U dissipate heat more effectively. It's not 100% necessary, but is useful for slightly better temperatures.

Alternative: Thermalright SP-97 Copper Heatsink with Heatpipe Technology
Price: $54 shipped

The SP-97 is widely considered the best HSF on the market, and pretty much the best cooling that you can buy, short of taking the plunge into water cooling. The SP-97 is, more or less, identical to the SLK-947U, save for the addition of 3 heatpipes for better heat dissipation. Unfortunately, we couldn't get an SP-97 in time for this guide, but it's supposed to make about a 4-5C difference. You'll need a fan for both the SLK-947U and SP-97, so make sure you go out and buy one, preferably a 92mm fan. We suggest the Vantec Tornado, which costs just $13 shipped. At these high clock speeds, you're not going to experience a low noise environment with your fan - it'll need to run over 3000RPM. However, as we said before, if you want to be a little more conservative with your overclock for the sake of noise, you can lower your Vcore, which lowers your clock speed, to around 1.75-1.80V for your Athlon XP and 1.60V-1.65V for your Pentium 4. This allows you to lower your fan's RPM to more reasonable levels while still maintaining a great overclock at low temperatures.

If you cannot find the lowest prices on the products that we've recommended on this page, it's because we don't list some of them in our RealTime pricing engine. Until we do, we suggest that you do an independent search online at the various vendors' web sites. Just pick and choose where you want to buy your products by looking for a vendor located under the "Vendor" heading.