A little advice would be nice

[azanimefan]

Alright, I'm working on a crappy Dell, and I have my next "real" pc mostly plotted out, and am looking forward to the build, though i probably won't pull the trigger on it till i have some free time to work on it (christmas probably)

So I am feeling the OC bug crawling through my skin, and I think I want to try something new/cheap.

SO... since I skipped the last 5 years of OC madness I find myself wanting to build a multicore OC test system on the cheap. This will mostly be a temp/cooling test bed so my requirements are...

VERY cheap CPU ~ multicore, which can OC insanely. It needs a high powerdraw and high temps. so inefficiency is key. As a result I figured something in an AMD flavor since i'm most comfortable OCing old Athlons. something in the $20-$50 range would be ideal

I'd like a MB with some life in it. So, something with good control, lots of options, solid temp monitoring, rugged construction... and xfire support, so that I might be able to use it on something like one of the new FX-8350... so i guess being a socket AM3+ probably will be required. (I don't mind spending up to 100 on the MB)


THANKS!

 

[givmedew]

Hey, this may be out of your range but I keep seeing i7 920s for $70-100 and rampage iii extremes for ~100 or am I off on that? Somebody can chime in. I traded a very good clocking 960t x6 4+ghz w/ a sabertooth 990fx that I couldn't sell for $240 on this forum for a r3e, 920 and full board Ek water block. It is proving to be much more fun with a ton more settings than the 960t and I am pretty sure it's a lot faster as far as gaming is concerned there may be some multi core stuff the 960t in x6 mode is better at but from the comparisons I saw it was back and fourth no winner for multi core stuff and that was the 1100t vs the 920 with no OC on either so again think the 920 wins on eits at 4ghz.


A 920 is only 130w if you just have to go AMD and have to go with something that is hot and not green then a 555be may be fun or any x2 be they unlock to x4 if your lucky and suck a crazy 160w if you unlock them mine exploded a msi board at 1.4v 4ghz x4 took the CPU with it.

Other people will chime in its a request that really boils down to personal preference. I will warn you that without water inefficient is going to get hot and super high end am3 boards may cost more than a r3e which is an insane OC board with all the bells whistles. Usb3 sata3 intel rapid storage, tons of fan headers with pwm 3 temp probes that can adjust the duty on 3 fans. I used one go into my super loud 1kw pc power and cooling psu and quite it down when it was cool and pump it up when it got hot...it just the most fun I have ever had blows my 990fx out of the water!!!

Just do me a favor and check the specs on http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1366/Rampage_III_Extreme/

I think I seen these go bundled for $200 the guy who traded me was dreaming of $300 because his Ek board block but he got $200 in my book since my board and chip sat for a month at $240.
So good luck

You could snatch q procs for cheap too.

What do you are most about????
Brand
difficulty of the overclock? (920 is killing me too many setting and a locked multi)
End overclocked performance per dollar prolly going to be anything intel.

I really think the x58 boards are gonna be the most ballerest atthe $100 level. The CPUs will be a lil more than you where talking but just an opinion.

Like I said intel q and 555be should fall in your price range

Oh also if you did get a r3e and 920 for fun and you OCd it to 4.2GHz there may not be any reason to buy a new CPU/mobo in winter just a baller video card.

 

[Mandrake4565]

If you want cheap then get a 955be or a new 4k fx and an AM3+ board. I picked up a 955be recently for $75.00 new from Tigerdirect. Only issue I see with your cheap philosophy is, if you are planning on getting one of the new 8k FX cpu's and are planning on OC'ing it you are going to need at least a "decent board."

 

[azanimefan]

If you want cheap then get a 955be or a new 4k fx and an AM3+ board. I picked up a 955be recently for $75.00 new from Tigerdirect. Only issue I see with your cheap philosophy is, if you are planning on getting one of the new 8k FX cpu's and are planning on OC'ing it you are going to need at least a "decent board."

that's sorta the plan... I'd like a board that OCs well, is rugged as hell (because I expect i'll be putting it through hell with different cooling tests I want to play around with). Basically I'd like a board that could safely fry a few CPUs without blowing out.

 

[EarthDog]

Arent you already planning on building a SILENT GAMING PC or is this different?

 

[azanimefan]

Arent you already planning on building a SILENT GAMING PC or is this different?

I'm gonna do both... i think this one is gonna be mostly a temp/cooling testbed. Maybe someday i'll bump up to a high end Athlon and use it as a 2nd PC, but mostly I have little experience with OCing multicores, and even less with most of the cooling options that came out in the last few years.

So I'm thinking of dropping like 200 or so on something like this just to see what's possible heading into the bigger silent/efficient pc build.

Since i'm looking at the possibility of frying a few cpus i want something cheap... and i want a mb with a bit of life in it which is rugged as heck.

 

[Mandrake4565]

I don't know how "rugged" this board is but so far it has served me well. I had my 955be at 4.3 2 hours prime stable on H2O. I now have a FX 8350 on it so far @4.7 and trying to push higher. No frying VRM's like I had with my old MSI board. ASUS M5A99X EVO

 

[Knufire]

Since i'm looking at the possibility of frying a few cpus i want something cheap... and i want a mb with a bit of life in it which is rugged as heck.

Just saying, that sound like the perfect mentality for someone who would love to join the benching team... . That's pretty much exactly what they do.

 

[EarthDog]

Just saying, that's sound like the perfect mentality for someone who would love to join the benching team... . That's pretty much exactly what they do.

GIANT +1 there..see my signature. Though we dont test for heat specifically as this guy posted, there is a different point, but a lot of heat is a byproduct.........at least when not under DI/LN2.

 

[azanimefan]

Benching team?

EDIT: oh... I see. That looks fun.

I'll need to get this 2nd one rolling... but it will be fun to see how much i can squeeze out of it. Crap, now you've got me wondering if i can manually tinker with this crappy dell and see if i can't break it. (it is locked... i know, i already checked if it can be OCed... but part of me wants to see if there might not be some jumper i can fiddle with in the mb to manually OC/fry it... there was a time you could do that)