Overclocking Buyer's Guide - August 2004
by Wesley Fink on July 27, 2004 11:24 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
CPU and Motherboard: PERFORMANCE OC Alternatives
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 540 (3.2Ghz)Motherboard: Asus P5AD2 Premium (Intel 925X)
Price: CPU - $288 shipped (Retail with HSF). Motherboard - $279 shipped
It was difficult to decide between the Single-Channel Socket 754 Athlon 64 and the new Intel Socket 775 for the Performance Overclocking alternative. Despite the massive increase in memory bandwidth that comes with the Dual-Channel 939, the fact remains that the Athlon 64 is not particularly bandwidth-starved compared to recent deep-pipe Intel designs. As you can see in the launch article on Socket 939, this translates into performance of the single-channel 754 Athlon 64 that is only 2% to 9% slower than the new 939 at the same speed. In real terms, this means that a Socket 754 combined with a second-generation Socket 754 motherboard having AGP/PCI locks is still outperforming Intel's latest and greatest Pentium 4 560 (3.6GHz). The new pricing of the 2.4GHz 3700+ at about $525 also makes this tempting for the Performance overclocker. This is still a very good alternative, but in the end, the new Socket 775 on one of the motherboards that solves the Intel OC lock riddle won out as the OC alternative for features and future.
Intel produces processors with locked multipliers, so there is no real advantage for an overclocker to choose a top Intel chip other than the higher stock speed. Since most Socket 775 processors that we have tested tend to top out in the 3.8GHz to 4.0GHz range with modest voltage increases, the task of choosing a 775 CPU is one of balancing ultimate overclock with board Clock frequency capabilities. In this case, the Asus P5AD2 tops out at 278 with ATI PCIe video or about 260 with nVidia PCIe. We also showed, in our DDR2 memory roundup, that all current DDR2 memory could run at DDR2 667, which is achieved at a Clock frequency of 250. If, for margin, we choose 250 as our clock goal, we need a CPU with a multiplier of 16 to reach 4.0Ghz. This makes the 3.2E Socket 775 an ideal match to a Performance overclocking system.
If you need to save a bit of money, the 3.0E or 2.8E 775 is also a great choice for overclocking. Keep in mind that a 14 multiplier will require an unreachable 285 for 4.0GHz, making the 3.0E a better choice of the two for performance overclocking. If you could reach a CPU clock of 285, then the memory becomes an issue since DDR2 becomes "if-y" above DDR2 700. At 285 the DDR2 memory speed at stock 4:3 ratio is DDR2 760.
When Socket 775 was launched a few weeks ago, it did not appear that any of the new 925X/915 motherboards would ever become a recommended Overclockers board. The 925x/915 boards appeared limited to about a 10% overclock by design. However, several manufacturers found effective ways around the overclocking issues, and the 925X boards began to open up.
The best overclocker that we have seen so far among the 925X motherboards is the Asus P5AD2 Premium, which has already shown the ability to reach 278 FSB with the difficult combination of a top-end ATI X800 XT PCIe video card and a SATA hard drive. The P5AD2 was designed from the start to be a dream board for Performance overclocking. It is the only board that we have tested with a DDR2 memory option of 600MHz at stock speed in addition to the common 533 and 400 options. Asus also provides a full range of AI overclock options for the more timid, with auto presets from 5% to 30% overclock, which represent a range of auto overclocks to FSB1066/DDR2-710.
Serious overclockers will want to dial their own, and the Asus offers a full range of both familiar and new manual settings. PCI Express can be adjusted from 90 to 133, but we have found that the best performance is with Auto, which adjusts PCI dynamically at boot for best overclock. There are also adjustments to fix or float the PCI clock. CPU frequency is adjustable from 100 to 400, CPU voltages can be tweaked from default (1.3875V) to 1.7000V in very fine .0125V increments, and memory voltage is adjustable from 1.8V to 2.1V. There are even very useful adjustments for Chipset Core voltage and FSB Termination voltage.
While we could wish a wider range of Memory voltage adjustments, the Asus P5AD2 delivers on overclocking when many other 925X boards struggle with PCIe and SATA overclocking issues. The P5AD2 is an expensive motherboard, but it will take 775 overclocking to places that are difficult to reach with other 925X motherboards.
Listed below is part of our RealTime pricing engine, which lists the lowest prices available on Intel CPUs from many different reputable vendors:
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.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
40 Comments
View All Comments
rwinder - Tuesday, August 3, 2004 - link
I think it is a wonderful guide. Kudos for having the nads to do it, knowing that there would be "experts" that would give you crap about your recommendations. Don't let them deter you.One suggestion: Could you benchmark the performance of your recommendations (and alternatives) so us readers can make the price/value judgements?
mindless1 - Monday, August 2, 2004 - link
Seems kinda like we had to read whole article to get to the end, no?The point is, primary suggested parts were NOT appropriate for a "value o'c" system. Value does not mean merely not to choose most expensive parts in one or two areas. FOr the described value system there would be zero benefit to spending the extra $150 (over what needed spec parts would cost) on fancier case/PSU, and only a half-dozen %, at best difference in memory costing twice as much... that's not value at all, it's much higher than avg cost for new system in the market today.
lazerasa - Monday, August 2, 2004 - link
You people whining about the case, memory, and video card on the value selections... read the systems summary page, there are other, cheaper recommendations there. Read the whole artice before you start your whining.mindless1 - Monday, August 2, 2004 - link
CM Stacker is a nice case but c'mon, who's going to build a value o'c system and spend $262 on case + PSU?Likewise, someone would have to be kinda stupid to spend $300-odd $ on high end memory for the value o'c system unless /required/ by the particular 'board just to get 1GB or more stable. Other suggested systems would be a more appropriate platform for that memory.
BTW, the OCZ 520W PSU is not all that great. It IS fancy, but the base design (including after the cosmetic tweaks) cannot support 520W. Sadly it may be no better than a Sparkle 350W yet priced 3X higher. Don't be fooled by a $3 big anodized heatsink or "good" reviews where they don't subject it to a heavy load... after all that was the whole point of 520W, no? TO someone who knows PSU, it only takes a very short glance at that PSU to know why it can't support 520W.
cnq - Saturday, July 31, 2004 - link
Wesley,I agree with many of the comments: we may not agree with all your picks, but we really like the enthusiasm and obvious energy that you've poured into your picks and your writeup.
Now for a little more feedback :)
There wasn't any "value" video card pick.
Was that intentional, or an oversight? I can understand that the next gen vid cards are *so* far ahead in performance that you would urge your readers to spring for one, but still it seems that you should toss in a value pick.
So, thinking of the Athlon2500 buyer who (presumably) can't spring $400 for a next-gen vid card, what would you recommend in the $175-$199 price range? My picks would be a 9800pro followed by a 5900XT. (True, the 5900XT was born to overclock [390-->500 seems the norm ], but that doesn't mean it catches up to an overclocked 98pro in absolute performance.)
rjm55 - Saturday, July 31, 2004 - link
29 and WesleyThanks for clearing up the Athlon XP mobile info. I was a bit confused with the difference in the specs with desktop Barton, but now its clear. If you gotta have a XP, it looks like the 2600+ Mobile is now the one to get.
Wesley Fink - Friday, July 30, 2004 - link
#29 - You are correct and I actually do know better. The multipliers and FSB have been corrected in the Athlon XP section on page 6.#31, #32, and #33 - I fully understand that many look at overclocking to bring more value to their computer buying. There are also others who use overclocking to bring new performance highs to their computer platform. As I stated in the review, these 2 goals are often at odds. That is exactly the reason I have done BOTH Performance OC and Value OC recommendations and alternates.
If Value is your main OC concern, then throw all the rocks you like at my Value picks, but please don't assume the Performance OC buyers don't exist or don't matter. I can assure you from emails and discussions on Forums that Performance OC is also an important concern for many buyers who OC their systems.
WheelsCSM - Thursday, July 29, 2004 - link
I agree with Z80. While I understand that different people view value differently, I can't see how a $390 video card or $175 case can be considered value in anyone's book. Other than that, I think this was an excellent article, and I look forward to future overclocking system recommendations.Z80 - Thursday, July 29, 2004 - link
I'd say that most of your readers, like me, see overclocking as just another means to squeeze more "bang-for-the-buck" out of our PC dollars. We like to run well in the benchmarks but at the same time spend half of what a typical Dell customer might spend for the same performance. In my opinion, you missed your "Value OC" goal by a mile. If it wan't for your last statement "go with a cheaper case for $100 less. Second, buy an ATI 9800 PRO for $200 less and overclock the heck out of it. Third, go for one of the CAS 2.5 value DDR400 memories from Corsair, Geil, OCZ, Kingston, and others; this could save you about $125. These three substitutions reduce the price by $425 and get the core system price down to $836" Maybe you should look at factoring in a bang-for-your-buck cost comparison factor like you did with a recent video card review.Z80 - Thursday, July 29, 2004 - link
I'd say that most of your readers, like me, see overclocking as just another means to squeeze more "bang-for-the-buck" out of our PC dollars. We like to run well in the benchmarks but at the same time spend half of what a typical Dell customer might spend for the same performance. In my opinion, you missed your "Value OC" goal by a mile. If it wan't for your last statement "go with a cheaper case for $100 less. Second, buy an ATI 9800 PRO for $200 less and overclock the heck out of it. Third, go for one of the CAS 2.5 value DDR400 memories from Corsair, Geil, OCZ, Kingston, and others; this could save you about $125. These three substitutions reduce the price by $425 and get the core system price down to $836" Maybe you should look at factoring in a bang-for-your-buck cost comparison factor like you did with a recent video card review.