Just realized my board won't OC -- help!

[cyclometric]

Hi, all,

I swapped out my Mobo, CPU/cooler, and PSU a couple weeks ago, but just learned that this board won't OC with AMD Overdrive, and since I'm running a Phenom II x4 940 black edition, it seems that having a supported board would make life a lot easier for this novice OC'er. I had wanted to stick with a microATX board because i like my case (Thermaltake Lanbox with handles & clear sides), but I think I am realizing now that I need to upgrade to a case that supports full ATX.

I am not a gamer, but I do a lot of video encoding and also use the Media Center and a Media Center Extender.

Here's my system otherwise:

Thermaltake Lanbox CS-VF1000BWS
Vista 64 Home Premium SP1
Phenom II x4 940 Black Edition
Zalman CNPS8700NT
ATI Radeon HD3870 512 MB DDR4 GPU
Asus M3A78-CM bios 1302
Dual LCD Monitors (22" Hannspree & 19" Viewsonic)
4 GB (2x2GB) OCZ PC-6400 @ 800
Antec EA650 PSU
3 x WD5000AAKS SATAII 500 GB
1 x WD 320 GB external USB

Actually the first board I had with this CPU was Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-US2H, but the CPU ran hot on that board, (later learned that CPU & board weren't compatible). It's running cooler (~38-40 idle) on the M3A78-CM, but won't Overclock. So I guess I probably need to switch cases, and motherboards, and might as well upgrade the CPU cooler, too, since there should be more room in a full ATX case than in the Lanbox.

Thank you for any advice/tips,

Will

 

[Proximon]

If this is just for fun, you should learn how to OC from the BIOS and forget about the software.

If you want better performance, your money should be spent on a GPU upgrade.


I'll make some recommendations however


Cooler master 690 Excellent roomy budget case.
Sunbeam Core Contact Great price on one of the top 5 AMD coolers.
ASUS M4A78-E AM2+/AM3 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard

 

[cyclometric]

Thank you very much for the advice -- I hadn't realized that a GPU upgrade could boost my performance that much, but then, I still have a lot to learn about hardware. My Windows Experience Index is already 5.8.

Still, I wasn't just hoping to boost my performance for fun -- I do a lot of video encoding. I recently upgraded from an Athlon X2 5000+ (on a GA-MA78GM-S2H, on the 780G) to this Phenom II X4, and generally my encoding tasks are zipping along noticeably faster -- I imagine once I learn how to properly & safely OC in the bios, I can expect even better perf. Thanks, I will definitely save myself the $ and headache of reinstalling the OS, etc. which goes along w/getting a new board/case.

Any thoughts on a GPU? This board has just one PCIE-16 slot, so that leaves out the X2 versions, I think (I've got some reading to do, clearly!)

Cheers,

 

[mindless728]

actually, that would be a good reason to use the X2 versions, they are two cards on one board meaning they only use one slot

 

[Proximon]

Ah sorry, I see so many gamers here I kind of get in a rut.

No, I don't think you need a new GPU for video encoding. Although you might see some improvement, especially if you are using Avivo:
http://ati.amd.com/technology/avivo/technology.html

Overclocking will be your primary boost, for sure.

You would also benefit from a RAM upgrade:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231166
AMD CPUs do benefit more from 1066 RAM than Intel... but just how much that will help I can't say.

 

[cyclometric]

So my goals for this machine are to 1. Encode, compress and occasionally capture video, and 2. Serve up my Vista Media Center multimedia to a wirelessly networked Extender -- that being the primary way that I video files will be watched. The machine I'm rebuilding is used for encoding and serving, not viewing. AFAIK, Extender can't lean on the GPU anyway, for DXVA or anything... AFAIK, it's true that upping the GPU wouldn't really increase performance for my regular activites. Re: ATI AVIVO, it would be great it was anywhere near a release state, but it isn't even available for download for Vista X64 right now, much less in a state that could be considered near production as a viable means of offloading CPU cycles during video encoding to the GPU(s).

I am considering at this point:

A. Keeping existing mobo (ASUA M3A78-CM), and case; learning how to Overclock my CPU, Memory, and/or GPU in BIOS since Overdrive doesn't work on this chipset. Will be spending a lot of time around the OC forums I'm sure, asking 1,000,001 questions. Sticking on this board, I would right away do a RAM Upgrade: and based on your adivice Proximion, will stay away from the 1066 for now and very simply add another 2x2GB Vista Upgrade Kit from OCZ (matching my existing chips the 4 GB Vista kit part# OCZ2VU8004GK

OR ... (actually I'm thinking it's unlikely I'll do this at all but still could consider if it something occurs to one of you hardware dudes that I hadn't thought of:

B. Upgrade the mobo to enable Overdrive and DDR3, etc. (this would also require me to replace my microATX form factor case, which I love (Thermaltake Lanbox) with a full ATX something... it would be a lot more work). -- let's face it, it doesn't sound like it would be worth it at all to upgrade the GPU or even the OC ease by going to a new mobo. Sticking with the case I have, I'll think about upgrading the GPU eventually and will focus on learning the ins and outs of overclocking my CPU, Memory, and/or GPU via Timings, etc.


Thanks for letting me run this by you guys, what a great board this is.

 

[Proximon]

See what an OC does for you first. Also, before going to 8GB, make sure you can actually use it. Open up task manager while multi-tasking and see what your RAM usage is.

 

[cyclometric]

I'm going to OC real soon, after reading as much as I can stand about it in the forums here.

To test how much RAM I was using, I ran a bunch of CPU intensive programs, but the most I could ever get it to report as being used was 3.2 GB, so does that mean the system couldn't use anything more? I know that the UMA buffer is eating up 256 of the total 4GB, so it seems like there was still some room for more RAM to be used, but I had way more programs open than I would ever use. What sort of program would actually use more RAM?

Anyway, thanks, it looks like I don't need to invest in more RAM after all. . .

-Will

 

[Proximon]

Seems like that's the case. If you get a good amount of improvement off your overclock I think you'll be happy.

It's not like the old Athlons that you could OC maybe 5%. Modern CPUs get 20% easily, and that makes a world of difference.