Proposed hardware with an eye to OC - What do you think?

L

Lothar

Obliviot
Mobo - Abit AN8 SLI 32x
CPU - Optoron 165
CPU Cooler - ThermaRight SI-120
RAM - 2x1gig of undecided manufacturer (please feel free to recommend something)
PSU - Seasonic S12 (probably 500w)
GPU - Probably nvidia 7800 or 7900, but undecided on manufacturer
Case - Undecided

So looking for the ability to OC, what do you guys think? Anyone using any of these parts? The mobo and CPU both sound like they OC very well. I'm looking for some nice RAM and am willing to spend a little bit here to get something nice. Not sure if it's better to go with faster or lower latency (DDR400 @ 2-3-2-5 or DDR500 @ 3-3-3-8 ). What do you recommend?

Anyway, that's what I'm looking at. Should be nice. :)
 
Jakal

Jakal

Tech Monkey
Just about anyone here will recommend a DFI board for overclocking. The company gives you everything you need to squeeze the most out of your system. The Opty's are great overclockers and The 165 should do very well. I'll leave the ram part alone for others to comment, but I'm guessing most will say Corsair or GSkill. Definitely go with DDR500. If you plan on going SLi in the future I'd say go with a 500w or better power supply. Either video card will work great. The heatsink is nice and when you pick case make sure it has great air flow. I don't know what fan you're putting on the SI-120 (no it doesn't come with a fan), but there's many well suited for that job. Thermaltake makes a 120mm smart fan that uses a temp sensor, adjustable knob, and a jumper setting for full speed. All in all that looks like a nice build and I hope everything works out for you.
 
liqnit

liqnit

E.M.I.
I agre the DFI is the one to go in MB selection about the VGA card 7900GTX or X1900XTX are great but like an arm and leg so a good 7800GTX is better espcially if your going SLI.
Also the new ATI Xpress3200 chipset looks very good
 
L

Lothar

Obliviot
Ok, I've heard that the DFI boards are great for OCing, but why is that? Just the range of voltages they make available? Do they have a much more stable voltage regulator system? I liked the Abit board because of the 32x SLI setup meaning dual 16x with two video cards instead of the usual dual 8x.

On a side note, the Abit board uses passive cooling for the chipset (with a heatpipe), so will that cause issues when OCing? Do the north/south bridge chips heat up a lot when OCing?

This is my first system that I've tried to OC with, so thanks for your help and your patience.
 
madmat

madmat

Soup Nazi
Right now the A8N32 with it's 8 phase power is one of the darlings of the OC scene. I've read more than a few reviews where they were able to get it to best OCs made with DFI boards so I wouldn't be so quick to discount it quite yet.

As to the passive cooling employed by Abit and ASUS, they rely on air passed through the top heatpipe sink by the CPU HSF assembly. Being where they are they don't need fans unless you're using water cooling and in the event you are the ASUS board supplies a special clip on fan for the heatpipe whereas the Abit would require a case with a bit of positive pressure (meaning more CFM into the case than out) to blow air through the grill in the I/O shield where the heatpipe sink lives.

Personally though, until Abit is back on firm ground again I'd avoid their boards since they've lost almost all their engineers to DFI. Where do you think DFI picked up their newfound OC muscle from?
 
F

fussnfeathers

E.M.I.
DFI boards are OK for OC'ing, the main reason they got their reputation as "OC friendly" was because of the BIOS. Personally, almost every person I know that's bought a DFI lately has had to RMA it at least once.

I would suggest the Asus A8N32 SLI. Essentially, it's the same board as Abit, but it has 8-phase power, which will greatly enhance your stability for overclocking. As far as the heatpipe NB cooler, it's fine. The pipe draws the heat off toward the back edge of the board, where your exhaust fans can get rid of it, and it's a heck of alot more reliable than a fan.

Oh, and the A8N32 also has two full PCIe x 16 lanes, instead of a single one that gets split 8x8.
 
Last edited:
F

Flipi

Obliviot
The reason that DFI is such a great oc-er is that the chief engineer (cannot remember the name now, sorry) moved from Abit to Dfi. And by the way Abit boards are not that oc-friendly any more, better Asus than Abit. Even more you can rather choose a Msi than Abit.
Take into account for sure a brand name power suply greater than 500W and pay attention if you intend to use SLI to get certified suply for this kind of operation (Antec, Enermax for example).
 
sbrehm72255

sbrehm72255

Tech Monkey
Used to be all the Top benchmarkers were into DFI NF4 boards providing all the top scores, which says alot about the boards. But that all is starting to change lately with ATI Crossfire taking a lot of the top spots and records.
 
L

Lothar

Obliviot
So without starting a flame war, I'm just trying to get as much info as I can so I can make ain informed decision (I really like my money and want to spend it as wisely as possible).

What about the DFI bios is so great? What options does it have for voltages, Hypertransport speeds, mulptipliers, etc? I'd like to find similar values for a few other boards (including the mentioned Abit and Asus boards) and see how it actually compares numerically, as well as what people have actually been able to get out of them.

I don't necessarily think there is anything wrong with a DFI board, it seems to be what everyone likes. However, there are a few other options I liked on the Abit board like dual 16x SLI instead of 8x, as well as heatpipe chipset cooling. The thing I really like about the Abit board is the uGuru utility that allows me to switch my OCing at the push of a button instead of having to go into the BIOS, switch all the options to what I want, then reboot. That way I can have a "quiet" setting and a "gaming" setting. :)
 
sbrehm72255

sbrehm72255

Tech Monkey
Your best option would be to go to each boards web site and download their current manual and compare all the different settings. That way you can see everything for yourself in balck and white. That's what I did when I was ready to buy my last board.
 
Jakal

Jakal

Tech Monkey
I almost went with the Asus 32x board but I read so many reviews saying that their memory and or power supply were not compatible with the board. Antec was a big ps company that Asus had troubles with. Ram was the same way. You had to get specific brands or you could expect trouble. The DFi is loaded with all kinds of options. Voltage control of almost every aspect and chip. My personal favorite is the auto-fan control through the bios. It's got a reset and power button on the board itself, allowing for quick restarts while configuring the bios. The Abit is a good looking board so far, but I'd listen to MadMat. Until it's been out for a while and proven itself, I'd hold off.
 
F

fussnfeathers

E.M.I.
Agreed there. I tend to run 6 months to a year behind the current tech, simply because I don't want to be a beta tester.

To clarify on DFI's BIOS, it used to be that DFI was one of the few that had OC friendly adjustments. Nowadays, any "enthusiast" level board has the same options. Memory timing/voltages, adjustable/lockable PCI/AGP/PCIe frequencies, incremental FSB (or HT for AMD) adjustments, and so on. You basically want to stay away from any board that's labeled "workstation" or "performance", as they tend to use less-adjustable BIOSes in favor of stability.........basically, rock solid board, but OC'ers need not apply. Read some reviews, look at the manufacturer's website, and see what each one offers that another may not.

The Seasonic PSU is a great choice, definitely go with the highest power you can get. Look at it this way.........if you buy a PC Power and Cooling 1KW PSU, you might never need the full 1k watts, but if you buy a 400w PSU to save bucks, you can't add in watts later, if you need them.

RAM-wise, it's pretty much up to you. If you have the bucks, go with Corsair or OCZ, but not the gimmicky "super high speed" models. Get a tried-and-true, like 3500LL or some such. For every 10 people I see buy the "rated for such and such" overclocked RAM, maybe one person actually gets it to run at advertised speeds.

You're talking an nVidia card for graphics, so I would suggest eVGA. One, their products are very good, and I also understand their customer service is top-notch, if there is a problem. That's one of the biggest deciding factors in my purchases.........how well does the company support my new $300 purchase? Sure, you might find that *insert name here* motherboards get the best OC ratings, but the lowest customer support ratings, even down to people biting the cost and buying another product. Given that you're talking about running at greater than rated speeds, that's a big concern.
 
L

Lothar

Obliviot
I agree it's a good idea to wait a little for the technology to prove itself (in this case the mobo). I probably won't actually be able to purchase this system until this summer sometime. So far I haven't seen any actual reviews of this board, just word of mouth from people that have used it.

So far I've heard OCZ, Corsair, and g.skill for RAM. Anyone have any preferences? I'd like something that is capable of atleast ddr500 speeds even if it's marked ddr400.

Thanks for the eVGA recommendation. I've had good experience with nVidia and plan to stick with them.
 
sbrehm72255

sbrehm72255

Tech Monkey
I really like OCZ and PQI the best, but most any of the name brand stuff is good. Just buy the fastest with the tightest timings you pocket book can afford..............;)
 
maddmaxx

maddmaxx

E.M.I.
I too, run six months to a year behind for the simple reason that alot of the early stuff is buggy and then there's "Revision Two" and yadda, yadda. I am, or was, a staunch ABIT fan. I have had a slew of their boards and haven't had an issue until I got the IC-7 Max III. Then some weird shiz( which is for another thread ) started happening. I've started looking at other boards for the next incarnation of "The Lab Rat".
I say look at all the MOBOs that are out there that will satisfy your individual needs and then research all of them.The longevity of the technology the board supports would be one of the deciding factors for me.
I'm getting ready to upgrade within the next six months so I'm eyeballin' everything new. Good luck and keep us posted.
 
L

Lothar

Obliviot
So my next tough choice is, do I upgrade in a couple months with current technology once it's been proven, or do I wait a little longer and go for an AM2 based board... There's always something right around the corner I know, but this seems to be a rather major jump.

As far as the RAM goes, I don't necessarily care for the quoted specs, I want to be able to push it much farther than that. I'd really like something that can atleast do upper 200s (like 275+) at under 3v. That way I can push the processor as much as possible too without needing to do a memory divider.
 
L

Lothar

Obliviot
The only problem with that though is price (for both AMD and Intel)... I am guessing that the new boards and procs are going to come with a hefty pricetag. Hopefully that will drive down the price of current tech, but still... I want a great system, but I don't want to make myself broke doing it. However, I'm going to take a look at it. Thanks.

Can anyone tell me which memory uses TCCD and which uses BH-5? If I understand correctly, TCCD runs at lower voltages, is this true?
 
sbrehm72255

sbrehm72255

Tech Monkey
Most every company uses or used both TCCD and BH5 at one time or another and some still do. It veries alot from one reversion to another also. But yes, the TCCD run at a lower voltage, normally under 2.8, but this also veries depending on the version if the IC.

Check out this web site, it has most popular brands of memory listed and gives the type if IC ue\sed, voltage and so on.

http://www.techpowerup.com/memdb/
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top