Yeah, I want to overclock this, and I'm unsure as to how to really go about it. I mean, I'm aware of how to go about the overclocking, raising the FSB a bit to raise the Clock Speed until it crashes, and then raising the VCore until it doesnt crash, and then running 32M iterations of SuperPi, then hoping it doesnt fry itself, and then tweaking around the VCore and FSB ratings for the next 2 months, and running SuperPi behind Quake4 Ah whatever, I'm a bright guy, I'll work it from there.
But I'm unsure as to how to buy the stuff for it. Here's my provisional list of shizzle: Oh, and by the way, rounded IDE cables, and SATA Hard Drives, as if I needed to say. Cable routing is going to be a MAJOR issue in this.
[*:e15a799d5b]Antec Sonata II - With 450W SmartPower2.0 PSU
[*:e15a799d5b]Intel Pentium D 805 2.66 GHz
[*:e15a799d5b]2x Western Digital 200GB
[*:e15a799d5b]2x DVD-RW
[*:e15a799d5b]Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Cooler Fan
[*:e15a799d5b]Asus P5P800 SE
[*:e15a799d5b]Viking 512mb DDR PC3200
[*:e15a799d5b]6600GT GFX
Now, before anyone starts beating me with a stick for building a gaming machine on the cheap like this I need to say that I'm not too interested in getting it to the blistering rates that THG got it to. If I get this to be stable under load at 3.4Ghz, I'll be a happy bunny. To hell with it, if I get 3.2 or 3.33 I'll be a happy sodding bunny. It's never going to get above 3.6, whatever.
Now, problems and questions:
But I'm unsure as to how to buy the stuff for it. Here's my provisional list of shizzle: Oh, and by the way, rounded IDE cables, and SATA Hard Drives, as if I needed to say. Cable routing is going to be a MAJOR issue in this.
[*:e15a799d5b]Antec Sonata II - With 450W SmartPower2.0 PSU
[*:e15a799d5b]Intel Pentium D 805 2.66 GHz
[*:e15a799d5b]2x Western Digital 200GB
[*:e15a799d5b]2x DVD-RW
[*:e15a799d5b]Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Cooler Fan
[*:e15a799d5b]Asus P5P800 SE
[*:e15a799d5b]Viking 512mb DDR PC3200
[*:e15a799d5b]6600GT GFX
Now, before anyone starts beating me with a stick for building a gaming machine on the cheap like this I need to say that I'm not too interested in getting it to the blistering rates that THG got it to. If I get this to be stable under load at 3.4Ghz, I'll be a happy bunny. To hell with it, if I get 3.2 or 3.33 I'll be a happy sodding bunny. It's never going to get above 3.6, whatever.
Now, problems and questions:
- [*:e15a799d5b]450W Smartpower: For just getting up to 3.4, is that going to be OK? It's a major budget hit, the PSU.
[*:e15a799d5b]Of course, I'm using rounded cables to make cable clutter not a problem. Does the Sonata offer enough space for me to route all the cables in it? Note that I'm not buying Floppy Drives to cut down on cables
[*:e15a799d5b]The motherboard, according to ASUS offers many overclocking stuff to jiggle about. It adjusts FSB up to 400Mhz, at 1Mhz increments, locks PCI/AGP voltage, and allows adjusting of VCore. Is that all thats needed? I know THG recommends a good motherboard, but then it would spoil the point of buying cheap junk and overclocking it in the first place, no?
[*:e15a799d5b]The RAM. Yeah, I know, but should I spend the money on some phat Corsir RAM, or anything? I know the Mobo is DDR, not DDR2, but then, DDR is cheaper.
[*:e15a799d5b]The fan. Is it OK? Bearing in mind I dont need the insane levels of overclock that THG got. Again, 3.4 will make me a very happy bunny, and anything above 3.2 is a bonus.
[*:e15a799d5b]ASUS say the FSB is 553/800Mhz. Is that OK for the Pentium D?
Anyway, give it a glance over, and tell me if it sucks or not. Its under £400, with just one of those Hard Drives, which rocks The major consideration of this is budget, not an insane overclock.