Northbridge...

sHape oF gReY · Jul 13, 2003

...ok I am a bit new to the concept of OCing ( been looking over the forums and such while waiting for my paycheck so that my OCing may begin) and so far i found VERYTHING I was out to find....except..."What is gods name is Northbride!!!???" alot of post i've read mention it but not what it is and what it does.

...so, lets get to the point...what is a Northbridge?

PS ok flame away

mdcomp · Jul 13, 2003

Its the chipset that controls features to do with cpu and ram. By increasing the voltage of the northbridge (vdd) you are sometimes able to get a higher fsb, which helps in overclocking.

altec · Jul 13, 2003

If you look at most motherboards, there is usually a fan or a heatsink unter the CPU socket. If you take that heatsink off, you will see the northbridge.

The northbridge lets the CPU "talk" to the memory, and in turn the memory "talk" to the CPU. When you increase the Front Side Bus speed (FSB) you are changing the speed that the CPU and the Northbridge can "talk", and hence the speed that the CPU and the memory can "talk".

sHape oF gReY · Jul 13, 2003

i see...in that case should i replace the stock NB fan with something more powerful? or leave it be as it is?

c627627 · Jul 13, 2003

That depends on what you plan to be doing.
(What CPU, what mobo, what heatsink, what ram.)
That info would give a rough idea how high you're going to be able to go. I'd say you would have to invest in northbriddge cooling only for really high overclocks.

This forum was created for questions like this, nobody's going to flame you.

You say you've been reading while waiting for your paycheck? That's a very smart move. May I suggest you post what components you came up with?

People's comments on them may potentionally save you lots of $, and more importantly save you time and aggravation.

mdcomp · Jul 13, 2003

If your board allows for a vdd mod or upping the vdd voltage in BIOS then you might want to change the heatsink. Some stock ones on motherboards are fine, but some are junky. Use your judgement and decide whether its neccesary or not.

sHape oF gReY · Jul 13, 2003

Ok i've talked to Altec and he's given me a few pointers.

Here is what i have so far:

CPU: Barton 2500+ (AXDA2500DKV4D 9538168270162 AQXDA0322SPEW ) off of GameVE.(This a good stepping?)

HSF: SLK-900U + Thermaltake SMART CASE FAN II.

MB: Abit NF7- S v2.0

RAM: Corsair TWINX XMS3200 Dual Channel 512MB DDR 400MHz (2 X 256) I heard that Buffalo ram seems to perform better at higher FBS so may look into switching to Buffalo

PSU: Antec TP 430

If i missed something let me know.

PS 5 days and counting on paycheck

c627627 · Jul 13, 2003

Wow, great setup.

Look into
twinmos/ch-5 winbond pc3200

ffactoryxx said:
This is the stuff that the NForce2 boards love. The chips are killer and can easily push 230fsb with nb hs. This stuff uses .13 micron technology and can get higher clocks on looser timings without much vdimm adjustment. This stuff is the best ram for nforce boards at this time. BTW the pcb is made by twinmos and the chips are winbond ch-5 which are also known as samsung killers cause of there superior performance.
http://www.vr-zone.com/reviews/TwinMOS/PC3700-3200/

thats an old review.

On the "3" setting, i dont know why but thats what every person said they need to be at

You probably talked to altec before he found out about it yesterday from this thread:
http://forum.oc-forums.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=214043

That is a fantastic heatsink although it costs quite a bit more than Thermalright's SK-7 (which obviously is not as good but at $19.99, it's not that far off from $45 SLK-900U as the price would suggest.)

BTW, excellent power supply. Where are you going to get it and for how much?

sHape oF gReY · Jul 13, 2003

the Antec TP 430 is $82 on newegg.com

btw should i get 1 X 512 of the twinmos ch-5 PC3200 or 2X256? cause i wanted to run em in Duel-channel?

Gautam · Jul 13, 2003

I'd suggest the SLK800 over both. The SK7 may actually limit your overclock; not by much, but the SLK800 is worth it, IMHO. The SLK800U performs essentially identically to the SLK900, which is why the 900 doesn't appear to be a good choice. I'll second the Twinmos; their PCB's are of seemingly higher quality than the Buffalo.

Gautam · Jul 13, 2003

2x256 for Dual channel. It'll give you a little bit of a boost in bandwidth.

sHape oF gReY · Jul 13, 2003

...well damn lol...newegg.com doesnt have any twinmos ch-5 RAM

looks like im off huntin for ram again

Gautam · Jul 13, 2003

Your hunt is over.

sHape oF gReY · Jul 13, 2003

lmao i was at that site when i saw your reply

guess i should pick up some heat-spreaders then eh?

btw does newegg.com gurantee their stepping? and what should i get case cooling-wise? TT SFII x4 gona be bit expensive lol plus all the knobs and wiring gona be a mess

Gautam · Jul 13, 2003

Don't worry about heatspreaders; they're worthless. Newegg does not guarantee steppings, but just about all 2500+ steppings these days are winners, so I wouldn't worry about it. Just find a case that already comes with enough fans to ensure good airflow. Sorry; I can't really help you out there, but if you ask in the Case and Power Supplies sections, I'm sure many there would know some good cases.

sHape oF gReY · Jul 13, 2003

awsome, thanx for all the info guys

c627627 · Jul 13, 2003

Be sure to come back to this thread and post how high you managed to overclock this.

You didn't skimp on anything, so we're pretty much looking at the best stuff money can buy here relatively speaking. I'm sure everyone thinks it's important to see how high this overclock is going to be.

Don't forget to carefully follow directions on how to apply Arctic Alumina to your CPU.

I wish you the best of luck, I'm really looking forward to seeing your end results.

sHape oF gReY · Jul 13, 2003

well if all goes as planned the orders should be put in fri night... so should have most if not all of it ready to go by weekend after next

assuming i dont do something stupid i should have some sort of results posted by then

Northbridge...

sHape oF gReY

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mdcomp

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altec

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c627627

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