Decent 775 overclocking board?

[Mike518]

So I'm looking for a decent 775 overclocker...

So let me explain.

I posted a couple of days ago about upgrading to 1156 and got some awesome advice, but I changed my mind. I'm primarily gaming, and don't really need all of the cpu power compared to how much money I would spend to upgrade everything, and would rather stick to the stone age. My current gateway garbage mobo doesn't allow overclocking, and I'm down to one ram slot (2GB). I'm also using an e5200 (blah) which I plan to upgrade eventually since 775 are cheap compared to upgrading my whole system.

Before anyone tells me how much I would benefit from upgrading to 1156, or tries to persuade me away from putting money into outdated technology, here is where I stand. I have an old 8800gtx oc2, and can run crysis on high while keeping fps consistently above 30 , and cpu never goes above 75%. This is probably due to decent gpu, and the fact that cpu doesn't matter very much in first person shooters. Now here's the lol. I can't play sims3 above low! Same for RTS.

I've pretty much decided on the Scythe MUGEN-2 for my cooler (unless you steer me elsewhere), so I just need a good overclocking micro atx mobo to push this e5200 to like 3.5 Ghz, and supports ddr2 memory. My budget is pretty flexible, because I just sold a bunch of last semester's books on amazon and have a pretty large credit for amazon, sweet.

Sorry for the long intro, but I figured it will avoid all of the questions you guys would ask me before we can get to the point. Thanks a ton, this site has never let me down.

 

[Quantu]

Just got this for a computer at work we run virtuals on all day: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128372

As with all my gigabyte boards, it's a marvelous overclocker. As a matter of fact for a while we had a e5200 in it, but we swapped for a e6550 because we needed VT support to run 64-bit guest OS's. The e5200 we had clocked to 3.0 just because we only had a stock cooler, but I know we could have easily gotten that thing much higher, it is a Wolfdale after all.

As for the cooler, I would go with the http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118003&cm_re=zalman-_-35-118-003-_-Product

First of all, it's a Zalman, which I prefer over all others for coolers. Second, and what really matters, is that it has a copper base, and the scythe appeared to have an aluminum base. With a copper base, you will be able to overclock cooler, and likely higher.

 

[Mike518]

I wish I could have it... but I need a micro atx, don't feel like getting a new case.

Your cooler looks good. The reason that I'm leaning towards the scythe is the fact that it supports so many socket types, so I'll have it for a long time. Oh, and it's a "nickel-plated copper base". Not sure how much of a disadvantage that would be, but it's not aluminum.

If you have any suggestions for a micro atx board though, that would be sweet. I probably confused you with the long intro, but I was just trying to get everything out of the way at once. Thanks for the response.

 

[Quantu]

Wow. I messed up twice in one post XD

This should be good[no personal experience, but gigabyte has good o/c bioses usually]:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128388

And i guess i could have read the nickel plated part, i went by color..... that scythe should be fine then

 

[Quantu]

http://www.katerno.com/detail.php?s=144913

This board is a better chipset, has 4 dimms for ram, and overclocks better.

 

[Mike518]

damn, I like the last one... but they don't have it on amazon.

 

[Quantu]

I saw that ... http://www.amazon.com/Intel-micro-ATX-Graphics-1333MHz-Motherboard/dp/B001BN50DM/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1276741860&sr=1-1 What you really are going to want is a g45 or better chipset... although intel bioses are the BEST for overclocking, I used to overclock on my DP45SG, and it worked fine..

 

[Quantu]

The price on this one here is ridiculous, but it seems the ideal board... the intel board would be fine, but it has all old capacitors on it, and they are less reliable than the newer solid state capacitors......

http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-P5Q-EM-Motherboard-SATA-300-8-channel/dp/B001EDTL02/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1276742313&sr=8-3

To get what you really want/need, if I were you, I would get this:
http://www.amazon.com/GIGABYTE-GA-EP45-UD3L-Core-DDR2-1366-Motherboard/dp/B001KEMJ9U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1276742553&sr=8-1

and a new case... I know you don't want to, but if I were in your situation, it's what I would do.

 

[Mike518]

yea it's a lost cause. Thank's for your help. I'm gonna go with the GA-EP45-UD3L and get a new case. I've had my eye on that for a while, even though I couldn't fit it. My buddies gonna give me his old atx case for $30, so I guess I'm set. Thanks for persuading me, I'm sick of sorting through micros.

I think I'm gonna stick with the cooler that I picked though, because even if it's not quite as good as your recommendation, I'm sure it will get the job done, but most importantly, it supports like 5 different sockets including 1156 and 1366. So I'll be able to use it for a while.

So I think I'm straightened out here, luckily my buddies got that case because I really didn't want to pay $100 for a case to upgrade obsolete stuff. Thanks again.

 

[Quantu]

No problem, good luck.

P.s. Don't forget to select a best answer

 

[Mike518]

Best answer selected by Mike518.

 

[Quantu]