Weekly Buyer's Guide: Overclocking System - April 2004
by Evan Lieb on April 8, 2004 10:47 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
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 HeatsinkPrice: $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.
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Evan Lieb - Thursday, April 8, 2004 - link
Doormat,3.0C is more of a crapshoot, not to mention more money than a 2.8C. The overclocking difference between the two is no where near 400MHz, either. Look at our 2.8C overclock as just one example.
Jeff7181,
Spending well over $100 more for less storage and only occasionally noticeable access time increases just isn't reasonable. At least, IMO. :)
PrinceGaz,
I disagree. We're not claiming this overclocking system will meet everyone's needs. However, we make an attempt to fit as many needs as possible. It's impossible to please every buyer's (or in this case, overclocker's) needs. Some people will find this system perfect, while others won't. Not a whole lot we can do about it.
Muzzy,
Newegg listed the incorrect speed. It's 1.87GHz.
Muzzy - Thursday, April 8, 2004 - link
Hum, I went to newegg. I found that the mobile 2500+ is clocked at 1.83, not 1.87 as suggested by the article. Am I missing something here?Doormat - Thursday, April 8, 2004 - link
The 3.0C isnt that big of a price increase from the 2.8C, $30 according to the chart at the bottom of that page. Especially since the guys at the overclockers.com forum have bought several and shown that average overclocks are 3.7G. One guy bought 4, one ran at 3.65, two ran at 3.75, one ran at 3.9+ (P95 stable, all on air). Those are pretty favorable numbers when you look at it. If a 2.8Cs averages at 3.35, and the new 30 cap 3.0Cs average 3.7, the $30 is worth it for the extra 400MHz. At least to me. YMMV.PrinceGaz - Thursday, April 8, 2004 - link
I spose the XP-M 2500+ is really what this article recommended and everything else was just padding.Unless you're talking high-end overclocking in which case water-cooling is only the beginning and peltiers aren't far behind, then the typical overclocker is looking to save money by getting something that stands a good chance of performing reliably at higher than rated speeds. Thats what the XP-M 2500+ offers as its almost a dead cert to overclock like a trooper when set to normal non-Mobile voltage, and all without needing to worry about extra cooling as you're not really overclocking it (you're just setting it to what is in effect its default voltage on what would otherwise be an underclocked chip). Stick it in your mid-range system of two weeks ago and you've got something a lot closer to what a typical cost-driven overclocker would probably consider and they'd save quite a bit of money too by avoiding certain premium components that give relatively small returns in terms of how high the CPU will go.
The problem is theres all types of overclockers and an article which attempts to target a mixture of them usually ends up missing the mark on most counts.
TheDigitalDiamond - Thursday, April 8, 2004 - link
*Gasps in horror at the case reccomendation*Anyways... Guys, the majority of overclockers do it to save money when getting higher performance, not to get higher performance at all costs. 3.0GHz P4C's, Raptors, those are all touchy expenditures when you're lookin' to save a couple hundred bucks.
Jeff7181 - Thursday, April 8, 2004 - link
I still don't agree with the Raptor being the 2nd choice... I still think if you're concerned about speed at all, which overclockers are, you have to get a Raptor. Then you get a larger slower drive for storage.But hey... it's your article and your website =)
solsys - Thursday, April 8, 2004 - link
If you happen to be an NVIDIA fan, its worth taking a look at the 5900XT. Most of the people I have seen with the card can overclock it to within spitting distance of the highend 5900 or 5950 parts. Kinda nice for a ~$200 card.Scwarzenegger - Thursday, April 8, 2004 - link
The radeon 9800 se should be mentioned, through drivers it can have all the hardware pipes enabled to perform as fast as (if successful) a 9500 pro (128bit mem) and even a 9800 if it has a 256bit memory bus.If this is incorrect let me know!
Doormat - Thursday, April 8, 2004 - link
Oops....Anyways, I'm surprised the 3.0Ghz C chip wasnt recomended for the intel overclocking system. A lot of people have had great results, most get to 3.6, many can get to 3.75 on air, and water and better cooling get to 3.9, 4.0 (though it doesnt seem many get past 4Ghz). The ones that have 30 caps on the bottom, those seem to provide the best OC regardless of scode.
Doormat - Thursday, April 8, 2004 - link