Need Old School Advice for a build

Hi All, just neediing suggestions. I have an ASUS P5WD2 Premium motherboard and an Intel Pentium D830 Processor 3GHz at 800 fsb. I was thinking i might overclock to 3.5 GHz or maybe a bit more. I heard these run really hot so I got a Corsair H50 water cooler. Im going to double fan it and use Speedfan to up the Rpm's if i need to. Would PC4200 RAM work or would I need PC5200? I'm thinkiing 4Gb of RAM in 1Gb sticks. For the video card I have an Nvidia GeForce Gt 220. Its all going to go in a big ATX case with a 550 watt Power Supply. Is this a bad combo? I'd like to know before I put it together so i don't have this going on. I don't have a big budget.

Thanks

PS: I'm partial to Intel.

You must be using 64 bit windows to access >3gb ram.

Ok. If I'd bump up the fsb to 260mhz or so, what speed RAM is recommended? Ram at 520mhz? What PC speed, 4200 or 5400?

I think I'm going to use Windows 7 Professional 64 bit.

Bob PD830 said:

Ok. If I'd bump up the fsb to 260mhz or so, what speed RAM is recommended? Ram at 520mhz? What PC speed, 4200 or 5400?

I think I'm going to use Windows 7 Professional 64 bit.

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The major determining factor is a lot like CPU bining. Lower rated memory will be overclocked by rating, but may do well. Higher rated memory may not necessarily over clock as well, unless its the same chips, in which case it should naturally be binned better chips.

Lower speed chips may also handle lower timings better.

Pc4200= 533mhz
Pc5400 = 667mhz.

Ok I'll check prices between 4200 and 5400 and decide from there.

Does everything else look compatible?

I'm not sure if you can make it stable @260 fsb. Memory won't be any issue as PC2-4200 is 533MHz and if you set your cpu/mem multi to 1:1 then you get 260MHz fsb and 520MHz ram.
I think that price of PC4200 and PC5400 will be the same. You can look for PC6400 and try to set higher memory multi. PC6400 price shouldn't be noticable higher than Pc4200/5400.
Probably you won't make your cpu stable @3.9GHz (15x260) but you can try something like 15x240. I remember that some boards had problems above 250 fsb and some had fsb holes like all is working fine till ~220MHz and later no boot till ~235MHz ( or bigger holes ) so try different settings with fsb and cpu multi.
All seems compatible, good luck with oc

Ok. I'll just see what I can make it do. I'll probably be posting later for help on the overclock.

That H50 ain't going to be enough for that 830D. Minimum in the corsair line would be H70. And you need fast fans on that.

stunt said:

That H50 ain't going to be enough for that 830D. Minimum in the corsair line would be H70. And you need fast fans on that.

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Windows 7 hasnt got here yet but I fired it up to check out the bios and temp was 35C CPU and 29C motherboard with the rad externally mounted and double fans running at 1400 rpm each. For case fans I have two side intakes and a front VGA cooler intake modded into the floppy hole blowing down. The exhaust air just flows out anywhere else and out the psu ( No back fan ). I did the auto overclock all the way up to 15% or 3.45 ghz and 230 fsb. And the temps stayed the same, but windows isn't installed yet so no stability test. I will be using stock settings for the install.

I read that the h70 gets it only 5C cooler than the h50 with the stock fan setup.
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/reviews/corsair_hydro_h70_liquid-cooling_system_review

The D830 temp limit is 69C I figured I could be happy with 60-65C or lower.

Its not the fact that the H70 gets 5c less than the H50. Its how much heat saturation you get after running a few hours. The H50 will heat saturate and your temps will continue to climb. You can't test anything until you have an OS on your system and have stuff running in the background.

I fought these furnace's for years and they run HOT. My advice is either run an H70 or use high end air with real good case ventilation. And do not put the case inside any enclosure.

You asked for advice and I am giving it to you. I have many years experience with these 8xxD and 9xxD generation chips.

Ok I see. I'm not trying to contradict, I just don't fully understand water as this is my first time with it. I'll just see what i can get after I get it all up and running.

What other 3Ghz+ dual-core would you suggest if I needed one that runs cooler?

Bob PD830 said:

Ok I see. I'm not trying to contradict, I just don't fully understand water as this is my first time with it. I'll just see what i can get after I get it all up and running.

What other 3Ghz+ dual-core would you suggest if I needed one that runs cooler?

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At least go to the 9xxD (very cheap now and 64 bit) series or Core2Duo if you want stay around that generation.

You 945G should support The 9XXD series but you will have go up in generation to run C2D. I think I paid 74.00 for the 975XBX board at Newegg that will support up to E6700 C2D (not quads).

The 975 also has an 8 pin power connector.Your 945G most likely has a 4 pin. So you need to see if your PSU has the 8 pin if you move up in mobo.

If your getting to the point of replacing mobo, CPU, and PSU. You might as well start looking for a newer upgrade.

the is still a few good mobos out there for the C2D also that are pretty cheap.

On edit:
I just did a quick check and it looks like the 975XBX is no longer available and most of the other boards are mico ATX. On the bright side though most have 4 pin power plugs.

Mines a 955X

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140550329725

I like the cheap parts,but then I get problems. It just blew up on me.

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=676977

Hopefully you didn't fry the board with that plug idea.

You'll want to test it with a good quality PSU if you haven't already (nothing from China).


If you did end up frying it, pick up a cheap socket 775 (C2D-supporting) board from Newegg or eBay and a C2D of your preference. I just picked up a new G41-Combo board for my brother (for not much more than you paid for the Asus) and it's working fine with his new Q8400, although it won't overclock at all. I moved him directly from a Pentium-D 950 to the quad (running at a slower clock rate) and it absolutely and noticeably smokes the old setup in every way, so you shouldn't limit yourself to Pentium-D's if you find out your board is toasted because the performance difference between a Pentium-D and a low-end C2D chip is mind-boggling.


If you can find a Gigabyte or Asus P35 board you'll probably be happier with it than the P5WD2, and it should allow some OC room.
Also, if you decide to do a whole-hog upgrade, go for a socket 1155 board and a decent dual-core, as they're pretty cheap right now compared to what you paid for the Asus board, and you'll leave yourself more room to upgrade later on.


E: For reference, I was running a Pentium-D 940 on a Gigabyte 965 board at 3.9Ghz. Switching to a stock E6600 (65nm) dual-core was a night/day difference.

Ok. I dont know for sure what the matter is, but I did some tests that the seller requested and he decided to do a warranty replacement. I already had the cpu as an upgrade for a single core, but it didnt work so I just grabbed the cheapest board I could find that supported ocing. I might do a better build later.

Thanks