Best Overclocking platform Sub-$150

Finlay09

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Hi there THG users, looking for some advice, I'm planning a CPU/RAM/MOBO purchase in the next little while, and my main concentration is going to be on Overclocking. so far I've chosen an AMD X2 550 Black Edition, and 4GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3 RAM (not sure if this stuff is really good for overclocking, but it's within my budget...). I'm looking for a motherboard that will provide a good platform for overclocking on a budget. any advice is greatly appreciated.
 

Finlay09

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Cool thanks. Just wondering, how does ASUS compare to Gigabyte and MSI in terms of quality and ability?

Also, how much better is this 8XX series compared to a 7XX series?
and these X, FX, GX...what does it all mean?
 

Finlay09

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1- ASUS and Gigabyte has more quality in OC that MSI, but all three are very good.
2- The new 890 chipset has native support for the X6 series while the 790 need a BIOS update for that support. Also comes with SATA III and USB 3.0.
3- The Hybrid Crossfire is little expensive since u need make the mobo for support x16 in the 1st PCI-E line and run at the same speed with the Crossfire enable.
 

Finlay09

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Thanks For all your help saint19. from what information I've gathered, My new components will be:

AMD Phenom II X2 550 BE
4GB Corsair RAM
Gigabyte GA-890XA-UD3

this should be a good system for stock performance and from what I've read, good overclocking performance as well.

Cheers, JF
 

Finlay09

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I recall speaking to a guy at a local store, and he said that there was a number on the CPU and its box, something like a batch number, and a certain number handled OCing better, I think due to it being more recent and having better...uh.. ingredients,lol.

At the time we were talking about Intel processors. but does AMD have something like that. Like a certain batch # that generally does better than others, either for unlocking the 3rd and 4th cores or for overclocking, or is it entirely random like I'm almost certain it is, lol.

Cheers, JF