need some info on upgrade..

Please check my sig for my rig.. The two things I NEED to upgrade are the PSU and the CPU.. My barton I just received is a dud so I am back to square one, I have to decide between a tbredB or a Barton.. I will be making sure I get an unlocked chip regardless on what I decide.. Judging by my system below, which would be the better processor for me to get? I am bent on running it at 200fsb, that is the most important, the multiplier I don't mind running at 11x, that would be just fine..

Now, what PSU should I get to power all you see in my sig including the OC of the chip in the near future? I asked a similar question in PSU forum, but didn't go into detail, so I decided to ask here again. My present PSU is ok for now and very stable, but I know it will not let me overclock, its already kind of funny on the multimeter

Keep in mind I need this to be very stable, and I definitely want to overclock as far as it will go.. My machine is a 24/7 file server as well as a gamer and entertainment unit (connected to everything in my house pretty much). As well as what you see in my sig, I will also be using various USB devices, such as cameras and a gamepad or two.

I am low on cash so I am pretty much limited to either a TbredB or a Barton 2500+, can't go with any higher bartons or tbredB's (2400+ probably the highest I'll go with tbredB, although I would rather get a 1700 or 1800 dlt3c if that is what you recommend over the barton)

200 FSB depends on your RAM, since non-defective PC3200s run 200 FSB at default, chances are you'll hit higher than that. So just get any Barton 2500+ since you don't care if it's locked. It'll be 11 x [2xx] FSB for you.

You may need to increase Vdimm RAM voltage and Vcore voltage for highest overclock.

Name brand Power Supply is a must for overclocking.

Power Supply Unit can take out all your other components.
Many PSU manufacturers list specs that do not reflect true capabilities of their products so all info on the PSU label doesn't mean much except for the brand, just look for the brand:

All Antecs (Channel Well) are good (Antec True Power is better), Fortron (Sparkle), Sirtec (Enlight, Vantec, Thermaltake), or more expensive Herolchi (Heroichi), PC Power and Cooling, or not as good but not dangerous HEC, TTGI, Zalman (Aopen).

Trypt, please take a look at this thread about signature size, http://www.ocforums.com/vb/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=58341

Thanks

I just changed my sig cuz I thought it was ok, I was getting hassled earlier when I had a sig that was just point form.. My size is now set at .5, you saying it needs to be biggeR? As far as wrapping text, I like that, is that against the rules? I purposly did not press enter as I was making the sig.. i read the link, didn't really tell me much, could you elaborate a bit? I will leave the sig in there for this post, but will not use it again until i hear from you.

to c627627

Thanx for the reply, its helpful.. I am not sure about an unlocked Barton, what if it won't go to 200fsb? then I am stuck at stock 166x11.. remember that I can't up the fsb any higher, my mobo has a /6 divider, so anything higher then 200 will overclock my pci/agp bus, and I don't like doing that, even by 1mhz (you can tell me I am wrong and convince me, that would be cool, i've just been afraid to o/c my pci/agp bus.. in my sig it says i run my palomino at 143x11, but I only ran it like that for a week for testing, then i got afraid and went back to 133x11

i don't have the money for a nforce2 pci/agp lock board, so thats out of the question.

FSB depends on RAM. PC3200 is 200 FSB and you can up it to 228 FSB /6 = 38 (max safe limit above specs)

New Bartons should hit 200 x 11, no prob, although you may have to up the voltage a bit. At 200 FSB, you're at specs on a /6 mobo.

You should be fine upping it a little bit above 200 if your mobo has a /6 divider.

the limit..

So 38 is the limit? Is there a consensus on this? 38mhz would make quite a diff, that would allow me to go to about 220fsb, thats pretty rocking at 11x..

you know anything about underclocking the pci/agp bus? my multi kicks in at 150 (/5) and 180 (/6), so I could potentially run it at 180x12.5 or something similar if I get an unlocked one.. any problems at running the pci/agp at under 33mhz? (lets say 31 or 30)..

There have been no reports on errors with overclocking agp/pci by a couple mhz?

Nice sense of humor Trypt.

The max size allowed is size three, the size of my "Thanks" in my first post.

But you knew that.

C627627, you're pretty conservative about overclocking PCI. My 8K3A+ has run with the PCI up to 43 MHz. I had to drop it down a little because my CDRW won't burn over 42 MHz PCI. But it works fine at 41, which allows me to run at 209 FSB.

Your mileage may vary Trypt, but don't be afraid to run it up a bit.

yeah you have a bit of room around the 34mhz eather up or down. when i was running mother board with a divider instead of locks i liked to stay between 31mhz and 37mhz. Never had any problems with coruption in that range.

With non-PCI locked mobos, after 38 you get into overclocks that are safe for some, not for others but 43? Dude, that's some serious hard drive scrambling territory.

I don't know if walking in a mine field is appropriate analogy but...

I realize it is on the lucky side, but it is the truth. Never had a problem with a harddrive (I'm running WD), and I ran it at 214 for quite a while before I tried to burn a disk, and realized my CDRW wasn't working. I didn't need three guesses as to why.

So I dropped it to 209, and bumped the multiplier from 10.5 to 11.

I've fooled with quite a few different motherboards and drives in the past 3 years, and I've never had a problem with any combination of parts running up to 40 MHz PCI. The first thing to go in my experience has been the AGP card.

I think that was the experience for many people. I can remember reading threads (2 years ago) where people were using PCI video cards because an AGP limited their overclock too much. Thankfully those days are behind us.

My next upgrade will almost certainly be to an Nforce motherboard. But Via might pull one out of the hat. Their chipsets have been good performers for me so far.

thanx..

Agreed, I've had VIA for a long time as well, I am just hoping they'll come out with a lock in their next chipset.. their KT600 is supposed to be the OC chipset, but obviously it falls short..

Thanx for all the replies guys..

Re: the limit..

Trypt said:

my multi kicks in at 150 (/5) and 180 (/6

Click to expand...

Are you sure about that? I thought the dividers were:
133/4
166/5
200/6

Those all result in a 33mhz pci bus. I was able to get over 190mhz on my FSB with only 1/5 divider. After about 196 things started getting buggy. 196-166=30/5=6+33=39mhz pci bus. Not sure if it was my HD's or what, but something definitely didn't like that bus speed. Anyway, I agree that 38mhz is pretty doable, and you can see the math to figure where you can reach. Just make sure you actually have a 1/6 divider.

peace.
unloaded

just wanted to note something unloaded that's some highly complicated formula. couldn't u just do that same calculation like this: 196/5 = 39.2MHz?

yes I am sure..

My dividers are /4 at 120fsb, /5 at 150 and /6 at 180.. this still results in 33mhz at 133, 166 or 200, but it underclocks the pci/agp at 150/180 respectively (to 30mhz).. i actually like it like this, no chance of damaging your hardware, since you can actually go right to 179 and get 36mhz, or go to 180 and get 30mhz and so on. On this mobo, the pci/agp bus can only be between 30 and 37mhz, so I think its like a security thing.

btw, is my SIG ok now or what? I can't figure out why the first * and first entry is bigger then the rest, I have the font and size set before the whole string.. oh well.