outermon

Ok, so I've been looking at processors for a gaming rig, which will 100% definitely be overclocked. I'm not made of money, so I'm not getting a third party cooler right away. I understand that I won't be able to get too much from stock cooling. While researching processors, I noticed something. People claim that 45W processors run significantly cooler than the 65W chips, allowing them to run, and overclock, significantly cooler. One person even claimed to have stably overclocked their 1.9GHz 45W chip to 2.46Ghz on stock cooling. For AMD, those are some really good numbers, nearly 30%, as opposed to the recommended 10% which I'd assume is for their typical 65W processors (and higher voltages at very high clock speeds or quad core).

Unfortunately, I couldn't get any data about overclocking the 45W I was looking at, the AMD Athlon X2 4850e 2.5GHz. Assuming it can go 30% like that 1.9Ghz, that'd put it at 3.25Ghz. The price isn't cheap, though; I suppose it costs more to make them use less watts. It's $17 more than the 65W 2.5Ghz I had been looking at, which is a price I'm willing to pay if I'll see enough of a difference when overclocking. I don't really need 3.25Ghz, I'd be happy with 3Ghz.

As for the 2.5Ghz chip I was looking at, it's the Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Brisbane. The farthest I've read of it going on stock cooling is 2.8Ghz, which sounds right. 2.75Ghz is the standard 10%, and that 0.05 makes so little temperature difference that it might as well be done to get a nice rounded number.

Also, keep in mind, this is going into an mATX case, so even when I do upgrade the cooling, the heatsink/fan will need to be tiny. Also, I'm sure the small case size doesn't do anything good for airflow. At least I'm adding two 80mm and one 120mm fans from the start.

Fox

Why do you want to build a gaming rig into a micro atx standard? You're severely limiting your motherboard choice, which in turn will more than likely take away your ability to overclock in the first place.

I would stick to intel for overclocking. You don't have to worry about unlocking multipliers or buying stupid 'black editions' or anything like that, and you can go much further on stock cooling. I have an e2180 on stock cooling at 3GHz up from 2, and it idles around 35c. That's a 50% increase with only a 5 degree raise in temperature. Can't get much better than that, I don't think.

outermon

I'm still not 100% sure about the microATX case. As for the motherboard, i used Newegg's power seach feature, and the one that did what i needed, had a good rating, and a good price, was microATX. I'm not going with Intel because the cheapest Core 2 Duo on Newegg is $120. Thats a $40 jump from this 2.5Ghz AMD one that I'm only considering. I'm also considering a 2.3Ghz AMD 45W that's $12 cheaper; I can't decide it's worth it. Based on my calculations, it should be able to hit 3Ghz on stock cooling with a decent temp, but I'd like to give myself a margin for error, hence the 2.5Ghz one.

Also, the Intel E2180 is a Pentium D, not Core 2 Duo, so it's cache's make it practically an Intel Athlon X2 2Ghz (if that makes any sense). It can overclock better than any AMD 2Ghz processor, sure, but for that price, I might as well get the AMD one. It's cheaper, if only by a few dollars, and I'm guessing it can go to 3.25Ghz on stock cooling with an acceptable temperature. Even if not, 3Ghz shouldn't be too much to ask of it. Not much of a reason to switch to the Intel.

I might've said something stupid... I just woke up and I'm REALLY groggy. Please forgive my likely error, I'm not 100%.

Fox

The 2180 is not a pentium D, it's a intel dual core model with the allendale family core (the D lineup has Smithfield and Presler cores). The Athlon family of processors are from AMD, not intel.

I will happily bench my e2180 (which I was aware is not a core 2 duo) against any x2 in the same clock range. I think it will outpace it by a significant amount.

Either way, I think the intel will still come out on top because it still runs much cooler than an AMD, which allows for less troublesome overclocking, even with the stock cooling.

outermon

"The Athlon family of processors are from AMD, not intel." Hehe. I knew that, I meant performance wise.

I guess I'll go intel, that processor is only a few more dollars than what I would've gone for anyway. That thing better be ice cold at 3Ghz or I'm gonna be pissed. Just kidding. :D

Thanks for the advice.

Oh, also, this is pretty off topic, but I was wondering if you could recommend any free software to stress test an overclock. To get the peak temperatures and that kind of stuff.

d_animality

use OCCT... get it here --> http://downloads.guru3d.com/OCCT-(Ov...load-1880.html

Fox

Also, stock cooling is a relative thing - some of the newer issued ones have smaller sinks. I haven't noticed too much of a difference in idle cooling, but on that machine I don't have an OC set. Just a heads-up in case you end up with one...

The good thing though is that the cheapest screw-in coolers are like 13 bucks and work really nicely. Mine worked alright at 3 though; I just dialed it down to save some power at idle (it steps down to multiplier x6 now from 10, which is 1600MHz approximately).

But I think you'll be pleased as long as the motherboard you get is friendly with it. My abit is, but my friend is having trouble getting it to work with the gigabyte s3g.

Also, one important thing for the 3GHz OC on this model is that you balance out the different multiplier, fsb, and ram divider settings. Google around for e2180 overclocking and you'll find a bunch of resources that report on different folks' settings.

outermon

Thanks for all the Advice. I'm seriously considering that super-hyped Arctic Cooler 7 Pro (or something like that). It's supposed to cool very well for such a low price, so maybe I can push the 2180 to 3.2 or 3.4. Unfortunately, I can't buy this machine anyway. :( Right now I'm building a fileserver for myself. It's much more important to me that my files are secure (RAID 1) than my ability to play the latest games. I'll settle for now with my Worms Armageddon and Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic.

Oh also, I was wondering if it would be worth it to get DDR2 1066 RAM modules. I'm not 100% sure on how that stuff works. I read something about a 1:1 ratio with the FSB on the processor and the RAM speed. So 1066 (which is 533Mhz because of the DDR) would get the 1:1 ratio with a processor whose FSB is 533Mhz. I don't really understand this stuff very well, thats just my guess as to what it meant based on comments I've read on newegg.

Also, Fox, I'd appreciate it if you could take a look at the build for my 24/7 fileserver. I have another post about it in the building section.

LAN/VPN File Server, possibly an HTPC in the future.

Fox

1066 would be pretty good for overclocking - even if you keep under clock, you could probably lower the latencies, and that's always good if you're pushing the FSB.

That budget server build looks pretty nice. Some might say the PSU's underpowered, but as long as you go with a low-powered vid card (or none :D), you should be fine. Hard drives take up some power, but not enough that it would make too much of a difference. I'm thinking of building a server myself, for the business my mom's starting up. But I'm going to focus on building one that consumes as little electricity as possible - maybe I'll go with a geode or atom processor... but those specs look pretty good for a server.

10pmStalker

[quote=outermon;1611807]Thanks for all the Advice. I'm seriously considering that super-hyped Arctic Cooler 7 Pro (or something like that). It's supposed to cool very well for such a low price, so maybe I can push the 2180 to 3.2 or 3.4.

I have this heatsink, bent the pins to hell and one wont even go in anymore, worked good for my e2160, clocked it to 3.0ghz. I now have a E8400 and this heatsink just isnt good enough (because of pins)

Fox

Yep, that's definitely the weakest link in a lot of 775 heatsinks, especially the stock intel ones. If you're just putting that one on once and planning to leave it there, it'll be fine... but I ended up breaking one of the plastic pieces, so now I have a cheap screw-in model that I'm hoping will make 3GHz reasonable again. It's possible now, but the temps aren't that great.