Best board for overclocking?

What's the best motherboard for overclocking a 1600+? I'm gonna go amd for my christmas gift to myself, so which one's the best? I'd like options for agp voltage and that kind of stuff.

Right now there are plenty of options. The Epox 8RDA+ seems to be doing pretty well now that the updated BIOS has fixed various bugs and changed the max FSB to 250 MHz. It also has Vcore up to 2.2V so no volt mod required.

Thanks. Does this board automatically unlock the 2000+ (I think that's it) and under to the lower multipliers?

Tbreds come factory unlocked(either 12.5x and up or 12.5x and down depending on the model number). Regular Palominos are not factory unlocked so you'll have to fill the gap and connect the L1s.

Okay, thanks for clearing that up.

mateo88 said:

What's the best motherboard for overclocking a 1600+? I'm gonna go amd for my christmas gift to myself, so which one's the best? I'd like options for agp voltage and that kind of stuff.

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For OCING fun, my current recs are the epox KT400 EP-8K9A ($89 newegg) and the $66 tbreda 1800 XP.

The EP-8K9A ocs real well, and will give you access to all the lower multis on the 2200+ tbreds if you upgrade in the future. The tbred1800 is currently a good ocer, and has all the multis unlocked already. FSB = 166 should be a no brainer, I had easy times at 185, and only moderate tweak to get to 200.

I like the epox, it has a "watching- dog timer" setting in the bios that can be enabled. If your settings won't boot (e.g. FSB too high) this setting should automatically reset your system back to default. I think abit has a similar feature. This way, you don't have to open up your case every time to reset the cmos jumper.


BTW, what mother board do you have now? I have not seen much ocing improvments in todays mother boards compared to the good kt333's (e.g. abit kx7333, epox 8k3a, etc.).

If you do have one of the good kt333, I would say upgrade to the tbred 1800 would give you more speed than a mobo upgrade.

merry xmas to you! Have fun with your new toys either way!

Merry Christmas to you too, none1. I actually have a Intel socket 370 setup right now. I was just planning on getting a 1600+ because I was under the impression that the 1600's with the agoia or aguia cores were the best overclockers.

Does the 8k9a have raid on it?

Anyway, thanks for the suggestions! =)

mateo88 said:

Merry Christmas to you too, none1. I actually have a Intel socket 370 setup right now. I was just planning on getting a 1600+ because I was under the impression that the 1600's with the agoia or aguia cores were the best overclockers.

Does the 8k9a have raid on it?

Anyway, thanks for the suggestions! =)

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The 8k9a only has sound on it. Its not fancy, it just OCs well, AND, is CHEAP. Rock solid high ocs for $89. If you are looking for the more advanced feature set mobos, I can't help, I just know the best cheap ones.

The 1600+ pally is running about $48 right now from newegg. You are correct in that it overclocks very well. You do need to do some bridge work to unlock the multiplier though. Not hard, but you need a magnifying glass and some other stuff, see the sticky in the amd cpu page.

The 1800 tbred is running $66 at newegg, $18 more. Check out some more posts. The tbred 1800 are still new, so hard to tell, but they are ocing higher than the 1600. Cool thing is, I believe the 1800 tbred is UNLOCKED, so you have to do no aditional work to get all the multis to work. So no need to modify the chip, AND slightly faster speed, and only $18 more.

I recomend the 1800 tbred over the 1600 these days.

NOTE, TODAY, the 1800 tbred are tbreda's. At some point, I believe the 1800 will be the tbredb, and should oc even better. WHEN will the tbredb come out? Don't know. Just keep watching the front page, and here in the amd CPU forum. TODAY, the 1800 tbreda is the best chip, next week..... who knows.

Have fun!!

RnPgrosz said:

Tbreds come factory unlocked(either 12.5x and up or 12.5x and down depending on the model number). Regular Palominos are not factory unlocked so you'll have to fill the gap and connect the L1s.

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what model numbers are 12.5 and up and what ones are 12.5 and down? and is there a way to unlock the rest?
thanks

i heard people getting a 1600 to 2.1ghz on air and no changing vcore and still locked? how good can the 1800 go to ?

Hc000 said:

i heard people getting a 1600 to 2.1ghz on air and no changing vcore and still locked? how good can the 1800 go to ?

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You'd have to go ask in the amd cpu forums. I have HEARD of a 1600 going to 2.1, but not very many. I've got 4 of them, and none made it to 2 gig.

What about the Asus A7V8X? It's only $89 refurbished at newegg, and has serial ata and all sorts of other good stuff.

A7V8X

Would that be okay? I've heard mixed things about it.