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Can my system be OC'd at all?

Last response: in Overclocking
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I am a complete novice at overclocking. I didn't build my system for overclocking- it is basically a budget system where I tried to get the most bang for my buck with Newegg deals, combo's, etc., but now that it's built and I've been using it, curiosity has been getting to me. Should I be able to overclock this system at all?

Here are the important parts:

GIGABYTE GA-MA770-UD3 AM2+/AM2 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ Brisbane 2.7GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
(link is to the OEM- Newegg doesn't seem to have the retail one any more)

SAPPHIRE 100245HDMI Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

So far the small experiments I have done have been pretty unsuccessful. I have tried to bump up the CPU a bit using AMD Overdrive, but even a small amount of tweaking has caused instability.

I have also tried to speed up the HD 4850, but that has not been very successful either. I am using pretty roomy Antec case with a 92mm front fan and a 120mm rear fan. I have the stock cooler that cam with the CPU. The 4850 seems to create a lot of heat.

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I have been thinking about getting a different cooler for it. The one you link to appears to be very good for the price. Also, the reviewers claim that it can be installed without removing the motherboard.

With a budget of around $50 would I get my money's worth if I spend a little more? If so, what would be a good recommendation for around $50?

EDIT: okay, let's be honest- if I'm going to spend the money/effort buying and installing an aftermarket cooler I'd like one that looks cool.
Overclocking Expert

IMO no, for example I have a good friend here on Toms that uses the Core Contact for both his E8500 and i7 920 CPU's and he is getting INSANE overclocks with low temps... If your case has a side window and you want something flashy then yea go ahead and spend more but if this is not the case then don't throw away your money on something fancy that will give you the same results...
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OvrClkr said:
IMO no, for example I have a good friend here on Toms that uses the Core Contact for both his E8500 and i7 920 CPU's and he is getting INSANE overclocks with low temps... If your case has a side window and you want something flashy then yea go ahead and spend more but if this is not the case then don't throw away your money on something fancy that will give you the same results...


Yeah....OVERSHOCKED!!! :lol: 

Yeah the Sunbeam CCTF is a great CPU cooler for the price. Also take alook at the Xigmatek Dark Kinght..I don't think it looks that bad.
Overclocking Expert

OvrClkr said:
IMO no, for example I have a good friend here on Toms that uses the Core Contact for both his E8500 and i7 920 CPU's and he is getting INSANE overclocks with low temps... If your case has a side window and you want something flashy then yea go ahead and spend more but if this is not the case then don't throw away your money on something fancy that will give you the same results...


*cough cough*

Check out my sig.

Also, with the 15 dollar rebate, the cooler price drops down to 15, which is an absolute steal for this cooler.

I have the dark knight, and I'm even thinking of picking this up for this price, just to mess around a bit with different coolers.


Overclocking Expert

jonsy2k said:
Also, with the 15 dollar rebate, the cooler price drops down to 15, which is an absolute steal for this cooler.

I have the dark knight, and I'm even thinking of picking this up for this price, just to mess around a bit with different coolers.



Yeah, im thinking about putting the 92 mm on my NB [:jaydeejohn:3]
Overclocking Expert

OvrClkr said:
Yea i know, just wanted him to save some cash and still have a kickass cooler....

Btw I am gettin a CoreContact 120mm in about a week or two.... [:lectrocrew:6]



nice, what are you using now?

Is it for your NB or CPU? :heink: 
Overclocking Expert

OvrClkr said:
Yea i know, just wanted him to save some cash and still have a kickass cooler....

Btw I am gettin a CoreContact 120mm in about a week or two.... [:lectrocrew:6]



Oh, i forgot to tell you...

Im idleing 32 and my room temp is 26.2C!

1.35V and 3.6Ghz!!!

Thats all from that build i did last night!

Maybe look at the Cogage true spirit too for around 40 bucks, they don't seem to be selling them anywhere, but Tom's did a thing about them with the conclusion that its a great cooler but a bit harder to put on than others.

I feel that this isnt really a problem for most people but it depends on you.
Overclocking Expert

overshocked said:
Here are the pics...

for the temp probe, the top temp is the ambient and the bottom is the temp of the heatsink fins.

http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/7605/1000799j.jpg

http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/4880/1000800n.jpg

http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/3084/1000801f.jpg

http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/9712/1000807.jpg

http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/9726/1000809a.jpg



You need to hide those cables............ lol nice mod... the intel stock fan to cool your RAM...

I wouldn't bank on the idea of getting your MIR back, I never recieved my rebate for my Sunbeamtech Transformer case, and they do their rebates in house. I even tried sending emails to their customer support (since they don't have phone support, I think companies really need to get back to phone support, the email support generally sucks), but I never received any emails back from them.
Overclocking Expert

^ yeah, the placement of the cables is just for benching right now b/c im oc the graphics cards.

Those pics were from last night, im taking more now. You gotta see my new fan arangement!
Overclocking Expert

Well ditto, if you can spend $50 bucks on a cooler then what you need to consider is if your case is big enough for a 120mm cooler. You may want to take a look at

XIGMATEK Dark Knight-S1283V
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

or

Sunbeam CR-CCTF 120 mm Core-Contact Freezer
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

You should be able to get to 3.0GHz with the stock cooler, or just shy of it if you have a G1 rather than G2 Brisbane, but past that how far you get is just going to depend on your sample.

Can I ask how you are keeping the stock intel cooler on the ram? Or is it just not attached and sitting there.

Always looking for ways to do something with old parts... haha
Overclocking Expert

jonsy2k said:
Can I ask how you are keeping the stock intel cooler on the ram? Or is it just not attached and sitting there.

Always looking for ways to do something with old parts... haha


zip ties my friend (=

The Sunbeam CC is hard to beet for the price, especially when you consider that Frostytech has it rated higher than the Xigma DK. I think the Xigma Dk and the Mugen ii look better though, but *shrug*
Overclocking Expert

Kithzaru said:
Yeah i was wondering that too. How are you keeping the Stock HSF on the RAM..? ...wonder if i can stick my old HSF on the NB...



It would require a mod to put it on the NB and it wouldnt cool very well.

Better to just buy a NB cooler for like 20 bucks

well I have had the same kind of trouble trying to overclock my x2 6000+...even if i raise the fsb to 210, the computer fails the memory tests in AOD...dont really know if its because of my ram or what...someone told me to lower the HT link to 4x (rather than 5x) but that still didnt seem to help stability...can anyone help me out?

well thats with stock settings....the only thing ive really tried is simply increasing the fsb slightly but that didnt seem to work...ive heard the average oc is to 3.2 but i cant seem to get it there...
Overclocking Expert

Have you changed your RAM (memory) settings from Auto to manual? You have to change the RAM timings in the Bios if you want a stable system... Normally I am not able to overclock at all if I don't change a bunch of settings in the Bios when I fire up the rig for the first time...
Overclocking Expert

Well if you look at the bottom right corner of the screen-shot, you will see where it says :

Cas Latency : 5 clocks
Ras To Cas : 5 clocks
etc.....

Once those values are changed save and reboot

On a side note : when you change your timing you have to make sure your ram frequency is at 400Mhz (DDR2 800Mhz)


well I have no idea what I should be changing those values to...someone told me to set my fsb-memory ratio to 1-1 but i cant seem to find that option in my bios...I spent all of last night trying different method to see if i could get at least 3.2, but in the end, i always ended up getting some sort of error in AOD...maybe i should just stop using AOD....guess Ill use SuperPI later today to see how that turns out...too bad i have to go to work today
Overclocking Expert

Before you use all those programs you must go into your bios and make sure the settings are correct. You can't just go and overclock strait to AOD and leave all your Bios settings on Auto.... At least make sure your memory timings are correct before you do anything with AOD. That way you will get a better and more stable overclock...

Well I'm about to give up on this...I have tried various settings but nothing seems to work...it might just be that I have a crappy psu and its not letting me OC at all...w/e...guess I'll have to do with stock clock

cool...well like i said, i really think its either my psu or ram that not letting me OC...but then again, I have no idea how to tell unless I buy a new PSU...which im not gonna do...
Overclocking Expert

Like I said, you need to educate yourself first on the basics in order for you to understand the source of your issue. Its may not be easy for you to read a couple of pages and learn, but it will help you answer all those questions that you ask yourself when you hit a wall and dont know what to do....

In a little over a month here on Toms I have learned so many things that I did not know before and thanks to that I can answer more and more questions w/o any hesitation. So in all what I am trying to make you understand is that you cannot just overclock " out of the box"... You need to make sure ALL your settings and values are correct (RAM, CPU, Voltage,etc) before you even think about overclocking... :non: 
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