over clocking amd athlon 2800+ and epox 8rda3+ mobo?

[gixxer_25]

Greetings to everyone reading this and responding to this post!!

1st off... I play BF2, americas army, age of conan all on the very lowest of settings and now I'm tired of not seeing the eye candy. IM POOR! So please dont flame about buying a newer system...I know. Also, please dont flame about the games.. just critical info here...thanks!!!

I want to get into CRYSIS, COD4, and others all on my computer with as little $$ as possible.

Here's my system:

AMD Athlon XP 2800+ Barton unlocked
EPOX EP-8RDA3+ MOBO
2 gig OCZ Platinum EL pc3200/ddr400 ram
1 gig OCZ Titanium pc3200/ddr400 ram
Visiontek/ATI x1600xtx 256 meg vidcard
Audigy 2 Platinum sound card
ePOWER EP-520XP-C1B 520w power-supply
Thermaltake Xeries II Case
150 gig Raptor 10k rpm main HDD
250 gig Seagate secondary HDD
running windows 32 bit XP-pro

Built this system back in 02/03 and have pieced some parts over the years. I just won a 3200+ Barton chip on ebay and will be putting that in here. Not sure which cpu fan/heatsink combo to use...but will be getting to that later when it gets here.

I kinda understand the basics of OC'ing. I'm NOT looking to water cool this thing as everything I read about it "water dripped onto my graphics card" etc etc etc. I'm needing this machine to run decently playing these games. I might even spring for a better graphics card if that is my limitations, but want to exhaust my other routes.

so far i have bumped my FSB to 200mhz with a CPU clock of 10.5. bios temps say 58'C cpu and 30'C system. Any other data or #'s anyone needs to assist me? the only thing i have downloaded is CPU-Z.
Thanks in advance to those geniuses who are going to help

 

[ChillPhatCat]

Well, if you're sticking with that motherboard, (great board by the way I used to run one back then) the only thing you can really do is upgrade video card... those games are pretty demanding and I wouldn't try what you want to do with less than a AGP Radeon 3850... the bandwidth limitations of an 8x AGP slot aren't really that much worse than a PCI-E 1.0 slot... and the 3850 doesn't saturate that channel. That said, that 3200+ should be good for 2.5-2.6GHz, with good air cooling. I used to run a 2500+ mobile barton at 2.6GHz on air with a Thermalright SLK900 heatsink... but those chips were absolute overclocking monsters. If you can manage 2.5GHz, you shouldn't be bottlenecking that video card too badly... it won't run the newer games you want at very high settings, but it will cope. Also... judging from your current temps, the first thing you should invest in is a good heatsink for that board, try to find an SLK800 or 900 if you can... it will help immensely.

 

[Caviman2201]

Honestly, I don't think you'll be able to play Crysis at even the lowest levels with acceptable framerates without a 3850 AGP and even then, you're pushing it. I'm not trying to flame you, but what you're asking is the equivalent of asking people on a car forum how to make your Yugo run 12 second 1/4 miles...

I understand what its like to be poor, but you can't expect to play top-notch games on a PC you built 7 years ago.

Reading your post did take me back though -- I miss the old days running my 2800+ Barton @ 2.5-2.6 and my DFI nForce Infinity...

I would say if you absolutely insist on running a Socket A setup, you need to go for a 3850 AGP, but you're going to spend $100+ on a system that will still be very outdated. Honestly what you should do is just stick with what you have until you have enough saved up to do a full upgrade to an AM2+/AM3, DDR2/3, PCI-E system. I just configured a decent setup with a 4400+ X2, 2GB DDR2-800, GeForce 8200 motherboard and HD4670 vid card for $235...

Save your pennies and then do a real upgrade when you can. Otherwise you're just delaying the inevitable and IMO, wasting your money.

 

[ChanceCoats123]

Well, I think you are pretty limited by your board being an apg slot, PCIe 2.0 x16 is just so far ahead its amazing. But you should still get pretty decent rates out of a 3870 apg on lowest settings ( low on crysis is still amazing). But, I'm confused as to why you got the same processor, but a 3200+ instead of your unlocked 2800+ stock speeds will be 100 mhz or 200 mhz faster, but you will find a much better sweet spot on the unlocked chip.

 

[ChillPhatCat]

Well, I think you are pretty limited by your board being an apg slot, PCIe 2.0 x16 is just so far ahead its amazing. But you should still get pretty decent rates out of a 3870 apg on lowest settings ( low on crysis is still amazing). But, I'm confused as to why you got the same processor, but a 3200+ instead of your unlocked 2800+ stock speeds will be 100 mhz or 200 mhz faster, but you will find a much better sweet spot on the unlocked chip.

My 4870 doesn't even saturate a PCI-E 1.1, I know the 3850 demands even less bandwidth... AGP 3.0 (8x) is rated at 2.1 Gb/s wheras PCI-E 1.0/1.1 is rated at 2.5 Gb/s. If the 3850 is bottlenecked by AGP, it won't be by a significant amount... the biggest problem in my eyes is that he's running a single core processor and some of those games may take a hit for that.

 

[ChanceCoats123]

This is true, there is a reason crysis is endorsed by intel core 2 duo.

 

[gixxer_25]

sweet thx for the advice guys... talking about heatsinks and such...what about the aerocool gt-1000? it's a heat-pipe design. I could only find the slk800 on ebay and am waiting to find out from the seller about the condition. I think i will upgrade the vid card too...i have 3 kids who will probably be using this computer when i build my next one, so a little vidcard upgrade seems reasonable

 

[gixxer_25]

oh and on the vidcard...i c forums on the HIS and Sapphire... what are your thoughts on those?

 

[ChanceCoats123]

I haven't used any ati cards in my life ( strong believer in nVidia ) and so I wouldn't know, but just look at the heat sinks; are they well put together covering the whole board( what you want) and then look at the clock speeds, which is faster and then of course which is cheaper or more expensive if you want to get higher quality.

 

[ChillPhatCat]

sweet thx for the advice guys... talking about heatsinks and such...what about the aerocool gt-1000? it's a heat-pipe design. I could only find the slk800 on ebay and am waiting to find out from the seller about the condition. I think i will upgrade the vid card too...i have 3 kids who will probably be using this computer when i build my next one, so a little vidcard upgrade seems reasonable

I don't believe the Aerocool GT-1000 will be compatible as it's listed as a Socket AM2/754 heatsink... Most of the nice heatpipe coolers, if not all are on the newer platform and just can't be modified to fit a Socket A. However, another option if you can't get a Thermalright SLK800/900 is the Thermaltake Volcano 7. Only one word of caution with these copper heatsinks is that they're heavy and you need to be careful when installing them on an exposed core processor like your bartons... some people lost chips by accidentally dropping the sink on the core. If you can get that SLK800 (privided the center of the base is in good shape), you will not be dissapointed.

oh and on the vidcard...i c forums on the HIS and Sapphire... what are your thoughts on those?

Sapphire makes good cards, they're probably the most respected of the non-ati brand card makers (ati ati cards are just overpriced), HIS in general makes a decent card, but they don't have the track record of Sapphire... if its significantly cheaper I'd say go for that one.

 

[gixxer_25]

im on newegg.com right now and it shows the gt-1000 as working on the Athlon XP's...thats what the Barton is? I was wondering if anyone has ever used one of these..i can swap out the fans...not too worried about noise as I game at night with headphones.

With the vidcards...both are 3850 ati's and the HIS is 100$$ more! The heat sinks/cooler covers the entire card while the sapphire is a smaller one. I may not be oc'ing my gpu...yet... so is the HIS worth $100 more than the Sapphire?

 

[ChillPhatCat]

im on newegg.com right now and it shows the gt-1000 as working on the Athlon XP's...thats what the Barton is? I was wondering if anyone has ever used one of these..i can swap out the fans...not too worried about noise as I game at night with headphones.

With the vidcards...both are 3850 ati's and the HIS is 100$$ more! The heat sinks/cooler covers the entire card while the sapphire is a smaller one. I may not be oc'ing my gpu...yet... so is the HIS worth $100 more than the Sapphire?

Well, I see in other places, it says Socket A... so I guess go for it.

I see an HIS for sale on newegg for $200, reason it's more expensive is that it has twice the memory... this is actually the card I would buy, it's just so much cheaper than the other 512Mb choice...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131141

 

[gixxer_25]

yup they have 3 3850's on newegg...HIS, Sapphire, and the powercolor. I've heard bad things about the powercolors...... should I be concerned with it? the Sapphire is only about $10 more, and the HIS is $100 more than the Sapphire. Can someone actually explain why the HIS is more than the Sapphire when their stats are the same? oh wait..it comes with a screwdriver

 

[Archer0915]

yup they have 3 3850's on newegg...HIS, Sapphire, and the powercolor. I've heard bad things about the powercolors...... should I be concerned with it? the Sapphire is only about $10 more, and the HIS is $100 more than the Sapphire. Can someone actually explain why the HIS is more than the Sapphire when their stats are the same? oh wait..it comes with a screwdriver

Sapphire is the closest you will get to a ref design ATI (there are tweaks though) the drivers will need to come from their website.

 

[ChillPhatCat]

yup they have 3 3850's on newegg...HIS, Sapphire, and the powercolor. I've heard bad things about the powercolors...... should I be concerned with it? the Sapphire is only about $10 more, and the HIS is $100 more than the Sapphire. Can someone actually explain why the HIS is more than the Sapphire when their stats are the same? oh wait..it comes with a screwdriver

Huh... I thought I saw the sapphire was a 256Mb card... misread that. Well don't get the powercolor since it's so close in cost to the Sapphire. All I can say is that HIS is overpriced... Definitely should get the Sapphire. I can't say why they think it's worth so much more.

 

[gixxer_25]

i think it's the screwdriver

 

[jcw122]

Dude I can't even run BF2 on medium settings very well with my sig setup! Though your video card should be better than mine by a bit.

 

[ChanceCoats123]

First, what is BF2? and second, most games these days are optimized to run on two threads, so the fact that your cpu is single core is probably the most bottle necking thing in your system.

 

[rseven]

I just read through this thread and as fate would have it, I'm using an old XP2000 rig while my system goes the way of RMA. Anyway, I have to question the wisdom sinking $200 into a very old rig. Yes, you're kids may use it some day, but you don't know how many days it has left in it. An expensive AGP card is not transferable to much else other than an old rig. I believe it's better to put that money towards something new. Even if it means waiting, it's better than throwing away money you can ill afford to waste. That's just my 2 cents for whatever it's worth.

Good luck with whatever you choose to do!

R7

 

[Caviman2201]

First, what is BF2? and second, most games these days are optimized to run on two threads, so the fact that your cpu is single core is probably the most bottle necking thing in your system.

BF2 = Battlefield 2 and it is not optimized for dual-core.

I just read through this thread and as fate would have it, I'm using an old XP2000 rig while my system goes the way of RMA. Anyway, I have to question the wisdom sinking $200 into a very old rig. Yes, you're kids may use it some day, but you don't know how many days it has left in it. An expensive AGP card is not transferable to much else other than an old rig. I believe it's better to put that money towards something new. Even if it means waiting, it's better than throwing away money you can ill afford to waste. That's just my 2 cents for whatever it's worth.

Good luck with whatever you choose to do!

R7

I completely agree - as I said earlier in this thread, I believe to drop even $100 into a system this old is a total waste when you can do a full upgrade to a mid-low range, dual-core, PCI-E system for under $250 including vid card, proc, mb and memory.