To Overclock, or not to Overclock?

Alright, I'm really debaiting on wether to or not to overclock because the game that I have this is the most Hardware needy is Homeworld 2, Which (recommended) should have 1.6Ghz, 256ram, and a GeForce 3.

My new computer is gonna have a Athlon XP 2500 Barton, which is 1.83Ghz, and I think someone said that it runs faster then a 2Ghz Proccessor. And I'm getting for first, since money is short just so I can start up my computer is DDR400 Geil 256 3200 RAM, and my GFX card is gonna be a GeForce FX 5200 128mb, which should be good enough. And after my grandmother comes up, she's going to buy me a monitor, CD-Drive, and some more ram and that's it and It should cost about $500. But, she insists on buying this for me, so don't think im grubbing money out of her. It's a Christmas present. So I'm probably gonna get another 512mb of ram then. And thats really it.

So do you think there is a point of Overclocking? And this is my first computer that I'm going to build, so that's why im Cautios on overclocking because I dont want to break my computer, If you can understand that.

And a Question; If you have DDR400 Ram already in your mobo, Can you put another stick of DDR333 or just DDR400?

i would advise you to have all RAM running at the same speed, or youll have to underclock the DDR400, in order to run the DDR333...

Overclocking isnt always needed, my PC doesnt need it either... but its just SO DAMN FUN!

overclock if you want, even the slightest OC makes me proud just thinkin about it

btw: maybe you would wanna get a different GFX card... i bought that card for a friend of mine, to replace his geforce 2 mx400... it did a bad job at it... performance didnt even increase that much! if i were you id put more money into the vid card...

go for ATi

the 5200 really isnt that good of a card..

Yes the 5200 is a lot worse than its name implies. Your Geforce3 will be faster, I kid you not. I would stick with your current video card until you have enough money down the line to get at least a 5600 or radeon 9600Pro.

Also I would definately overclock that system after putting a little more money in the budget for a decent heatsink. The potential that a barton 2500+ has is pretty high.

As for the ram you would have the run at 333 speeds but it *should work.

this is DDR400 Right: GEIL 256MB PC-3200 (400MHz) DDR RAM, 6 Layer Ultra Low Noise Shielded PCB, 32x8 Low Density/Unbuffered

Yes it is.

Also, here's another vote to not get the 5200, it is about as budget as you can get for a video card, and you will probably get frustrated with your frame rates from a fast computer with a slow video card.

I see this same sort of thing all the time with people who buy Dells and Gateways. It's hilarious in a sad sort of way. They spend almost $1000 on a P4 2.8 system, then they get integrated video or a GF4 5200 or something. Then they complain to me that their computer plays games slow and that I should look at it. Aargh! They're never very happy when I tell them that they need to spend at least $150 to get a descent video card to play games better. Oh well...

I bought the 5200 a while ago

well sell it on ebay or something and use your Geforce3, the Geforce3 is the faster card.

GeForce 3 64MB, is faster then the GeForce FX 5200 128mb?
Then I'll just wait for christmas and get a radeon pro. I'll sell it on ebay later, after Christmas or something.

Yes GF 3 is a better card. You don't need DDR 400 as the cpu that you want to get has a 333fsb (166*2) and only needs ddr 333. If your mobo supports 400mhz fsb and in the near futre you will be thinknig of upgrading to a amd 3000+ or a 3200+ then you should get ddr 400 ram (3000+ and 3200+ has 400fsb 200*2). Hope that this helps. If you can get a ati 9600, but my gf 3 will run hl 2.

Speaking of Dell, have you seen the new Dell comercials? What a joke!!!

They say you don't have to worry about "mega this, giga that" and that all you have to do is tell them what you want to use your pc for. Looking at their catalog, I saw that they rate their crappiest desktop models, which have intel "extreme" integrated graphics by the way, as, and I quote, "good" for gaming. I also noticed that they said all of their crap is "cutting edge." Here at O/C.com, we only settle for bleeding edge, and at 1/3 the price. Teehee.

Oh, netboss, I don't know, but can't you overclock the 5200 a bit. It has 128mb, so that should boost its performance as well. Doesn't the geforce3 use only DX7 and not DX8, or is that only the gforce2?

Freddie seems kinda new, so I'll spare him. (I'm new too)
The 3200+ has the same multiplier as the 2500+ your going to buy. It also has the same core and I'm pretty sure same voltage. All you have to do to turn the 2500 to a 3200 is just raise the fsb to the 3200's default of 400. In fact, all bartons are pretty much guaranteed to work at that frequency, 2.2Ghz. Just a tip to save you how ever many hundreds of dollars AMD would like you to pay for it.

Sorry for that last post Freddie, I thought you meant that he buy a 3200 or 3000 and not overclock it. I didn't get at first what you meant by "upgrade." My bad.

Quailane said:

They say you don't have to worry about "mega this, giga that" and that all you have to do is tell them what you want to use your pc for.

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You don't have to be all that smart to understand the metric system. It is much less complicated than the system commonly used in the US. I didn't realise the target market for computers was that backwards. Or maybe I'm wrong and my exceptionally weak physics background has made me a superior being.

Actually, the way computers do it can be a little confusing. If my processor runs at a megahertz, it's a million hertz, but if I have a megabyte of ram it's 1024 kilobytes. But I can defeat those silly powers of teo, all I have to do is bcome a HDD manufacturer, then they magically turn into the standard metric units. Right?

If you don't need to overclcok, and you're not in it for the excitement, then just don't do it. If you're not prepared to damage or destroy some of your components by overclcoking, then don't do it. If you need or want the extra power and are willing to accept the risks, we will help you.

If you want or need the extra speed and are willing to possibly damage your computer (worst case senarior) and learn abit, then go for it. If not stock is fine.

You don't have to be all that smart to understand the metric system.

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That "whoosh" sound was the point flying over your head Dell means that you don't have to worry about computer jargon that, and lets all just face it, confuse the pants off 90% of the population. (of course, if you were being sarcastic and I missed it...then touche!)

I am currently on a mission with a friend of mine. He is dead set convinced that buying a Dell, Gateway, or Sony is THE only way to go for his family's next computer . My challenge is for him to pick the system he wants, give me the specs, and I'll go to Newegg.com and pull off an equal or slightly better system for around the same price and he won't even have to worry about not getting a monitor or getting POS like the 5200.

We'll see how it turns out.

netboss said:

GeForce 3 64MB, is faster then the GeForce FX 5200 128mb?
Then I'll just wait for christmas and get a radeon pro. I'll sell it on ebay later, after Christmas or something.

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Yes the Geforce3 is still faster, especially in current games. The 5200 is a DX9 card where the GF3 is only DX8. However the 5200 is sufficiently crippled to the point where it will be very slow with DX9 effects turned on.

build the rig,set it up as stock.
keep comeing here and learning and trying new things with the rig.once you feel you have enough knowledge then oc.

its also alot more fun to oc when you know why and how to do something.guessing is scary as hell in ocing and many things die this way.

just take your time and read,read,read and then mabey tweak a few things. and before you know it the whole rig will be oced to ballistic speeds.

ocing dont kill parts,people kills parts

lol, good one deathstar!

the 5200 is a dx9 card, but slow as hell, and the new nvidia drivers dont improve the situation!

as for the RAM, if you may ever want to OC it, stick to DDR400, (pc3200) because this will enable you to run the RAM 1:1 with your fsb all the time, thus giving you one less thing to worry about...

I don't see why he has to learn much about overclocking to put his fsb at 400 to have a 3200+ overclock.

Quailane said:

I don't see why he has to learn much about overclocking to put his fsb at 400 to have a 3200+ overclock.

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hmmm well then he would be the guy asking us next week why hes getting random bsod's or why his temps are 72c?

overclocking is 95% research and 5% physical work,if you want to be successfull at it.

its like saying how do i put NOS in my saturn?
and btw just moveing the fsb to 200 will not stop there.once you do that its like HMMMM that was easy i bet i can go further.or mabey my video card needs this also.

he has the right to do what he wants sure enough.
he also has the right to burn stuff to a crisp also.