Cheap but overclockable CPU

[hybrid11]

Hey all,

I am not looking for anything that is high end but rather a CPU that is cheap and that has a lot of overclocking potential. As well, what motherboard would you recommend for it?
This system will be mainly used for simple tasks, no gaming or anything that will require a lot of processing power.
Let me know if you got any suggestions

 

[Slobogob]

The Cedar Mill based Celerons overclock like mad and are cheap as dirt, closely followed by the Pentium D 805. A cheap AMD might do the trick too.

 

[hybrid11]

thanks for the suggestions
well i don't have any set budget in mind, I just would like to minimize the cost in general.
For the Cedar Mill, what motherboards would you recommend for it, as well which one for the A64? Btw how do I know if a motherboard's bios will allow me to overclock or not?

 

[hybrid11]

I would wait but I need it now, the computer is actually for my rents since theirs just died.
I think I will go for the D 805, and the Gigabyte motherboard...taking a look at it, I saw that the FSB was at 133 Mhz, I am thinking of getting 1 GB of DDR2-RAM for it clocking at 667 Mhz, although I think 533 Mhz might do the trick as well.
And I will be getting a PSU of 480-550W I think with a cheap graphics card...
what do you guys think?

 

[NaDa]

s754 Sempron best with 256kb L2 cache like the 2800+. And get a gigabyte or albatron nForce250 mobo or nForce4x mobo. You can oc this 1.6GHz proc to 2.4-2.5 Ghz. This is probably the cheapest solution out there. I have seen a review of an oced sempron to 2.5 working like a 2.2Ghz Athlon (3500) in Doom3.
Celerons do overclock very well but stay away from them. Semprons are a much better buy.

 

[NaDa]

The 805D is a tricky proc. It's a FLAMETHROWER. It literaly spits fire if you overclock it beyond ~3.6GHz.
I have seen destroyed mobos cos they couldnt keep with power demands with this proc, namely the ASUS P5P800SE (probably the cheapest solution). But this mobo wasnt really suppoed to be run with a dual core proc they just added the bios option later.

If your getting the 805D then get the Gigabyte 965-S3 mobo. It doesnt have all the solid capacitors but the important ones (powering the cpu) are solid. It will overclock like mad but watch out and dont put too much juice to that proc so it doesnt spit fire.
Oc it as far as it goes without much voltage increase.

*edit

Also buy a better cooling solution like a TT SonicTower or BigTyphoon at least a AC Freezer 7 Pro.

 

[Giraffe]

i recommend the e6300 and Gigabyte GA-965p-S3

 

[hybrid11]

well turns out they didnt have the D 805 anymore at the store I went to, so I got the D 820 instead since I needed the comp ASAP.
As well. I got 2x512 MB of DDR2 Kingston at 533 MHz, Gigabyte DS3 and an ATI X300 since I am not going to be using this for anything hardcore
ill see how it turns out

 

[wavetrex]

GA 965P-S3 :mrgreen: 8) :trophy: <3

Using a D805 now but I'll switch to Core2 once they get a bit cheaper.

Anyway this MOBO kicks a$$ badly... I managed to get the 805 to 3.9Ghz and kept it there enough to benchmark (it got seriously hot tho so I wouldn't keep the PC on that speed more than 30 minutes... )

 

[hybrid11]

yah im planning on just overclocking as long as i dont need to up the vcore, I want this CPU to last for a few years

 

[wavetrex]

I dunno about D820, but 805 can be run at 3.33Ghz ( 166 bus instead of 133 ) without any vcore increase. Have good airflow in the case, the 965P-S3 doesn't have active nortbridge cooling !!!

So make sure you got plenty of airflow in the case. Preferably a cooler just above the processor/nb that pumps air in from the side of the case, and one behind that sucks hot one out.

 

[NaDa]

You can safely up the vcore a bit. My X2 3800 is oced to 2.5 and the vcore is from 1.35 default to 1.4v. Im folding 24/7. No harm yet!
A bit of vcore wont kill it but may stability your cpu so much.

 

[redwing]

If price is your main concern, my recommendation would have to be a d805 on a cheap Nforce4 motherboard.

There are many people on these forums who run an OC'd d805 setup (me including). A mild overclock would have to be 3.4Ghz (stock is 2.66).
If you have a decent aftermarket cooler and a PSU that can provide the necessary wattage, the d805 easily overclock to 3.6,3.8 and 4Ghz.

I've seen it being sold for <100$ nowadays. It's a netburst-based, previous generation architecture chip. It runs hot. But if you're looking for the best rig for a minimal amount of money, you can't overlook it.

If you're willing to spend more, then a Core2 system is a must. But for under 200$ you can have yourself a d805+MB to get you started.


Cheers

 

[hybrid11]

well turns out that the pentium D 820 runs really hot on stock heat sink with arctic silver 5: Idle Temp in BIOS at 45 degrees
I think I might get a new fan for it...

 

[4745454b]

Why are you overclocking a computer for your parents??? What are they doing that requires that much horsepower? If they need that much power, why are you overclocking to get it? Overclocking can introduce instability, which isn't the thing you want if your dropping the computer off at someone elses house.

Seeing as you got an 820, DON'T get an NF4 board. They don't handle the 820s multiplier.

 

[hybrid11]

Yah i'm not overclocking it to anything extreme, since I want it to last...but I figured I might as well OC it since I got the rig for a mild OC w/out reducing its lifetime too much
depending on how it performs on the stress tests when OCed, I might end up just leaving it at stock values...

 

[Bl4d3]

definately the e6300
1. cheap
2. dual core
3. overclocks beautifully

 

[4745454b]

Unless his parents use their machine more then mine do, I don't see any reason to OC at all. Why bother buying a chip that has "a lot of overclocking potential"? Neither one of my parents have a big computing need. Surf the net, run office, my mom prints her own greeting cards. Frankly, if the needs are that small, just buy a cheap CPU and don't worry about it. A Sempron/Celeron should work just fine. I would probably grab the 805D, seeing as its a sub $100 dual core chip. I know the OP already bought a 820, I'd see if I could undervolt that so that it runs cooler/quieter.

 

[wavetrex]

Not that cheap dude, it's almost twice the price of an 805...

And NOT 2x the performance, maybe just +25% or so (at stock speeds):

TGindex:

Stock speed:
D805 - 1.12
E6400 - 1.72 ( E6300 should be around 1.5 considering clock speeds )

> 25% faster.

Overclocked:
D805 @ 3.4Ghz ~1.4
E6300 @ 2.4Ghz ~ 1.9

> 35% faster

Price is 80% higher

So no, Netburst isn't dead yet. 90% of the ppl in this world have low budgets...

 

[hybrid11]

He's on drugs. While the D805 has a bit higher clock speed, the E6400 calculates TONS more per clock than the 805. Also, the D805 is pretty hard to get to 3.4Ghz w/o burning anything and using exotic cooling, while the E6300 reaches 3Ghz easy. The OC'ed E6300 would probably be the equivalent of the D805 OC'ed to 4.5Ghz. It also uses less power so it stays a lot cooler and you get less power draw and heat issues.

hybrid11, this would go a lot easier if you gave us a budget. Also, what components do you already have?

i already bought the pentium D 820 w/ a gigabyte DS3 and a gig of corsair ram at 533 Mhz . I wasn't able to get the pentium D 805 in the shop since they ran out but instead had a sale on the 820 so I got that instead.

 

[mustardman24]

Like others have said, the Pentium D 805 and the C2D E6300, but keep in mind the lower cache that the core 2 has. I would recommend the C2D over the pentium D 805 but then again it's about $80 cheaper for the PD.