New to forums: Few OC'ing questions

[ARGON]

Hi all! I have been a memeber of these forums for two days and never in my life have I seen such a plethora of interesting reading!

Anyway, I am doing my research before building my first computer geared for serious overclocking. I have read many threads and have a few questions lingering.

1. What determines the upper limit for the FSB setting? What specific steps must be taken to ensure the highest upper limit possible? Is there anything outside of the obvious that needs to be cooled? What PCI devices are problematic and is there anyway to avoid such issues (such as the selection of a particular model)?

2. What reasonable (no LN2 or LHe!) cooling solution gives the lowest temperatures? Peltier/water/water-chiller or phase change such as this Prometia system that I have read about?

3. From an overclocking perspective, is there any difference between an OC'ed RAID array and a single HDD? If so, what is the dependence on number of drives? How well does a RAID PCI controller card overclock?

4. Are integrated controllers better or worse overclockers than PCI controller cards and why or why not?

5. I am holding out for the Bartons teamed up with the nForce2 chipset. Are there any reviews of the overclockability of said products (link please)?

I have been on the computer hardware scene (mostly a student of) for about a year and a half now so I get most of what is going on. However, I am still impressionable so please do not spare your advices and anything else you think is interesting that I should know.

Thank you!

 

[RedDeathDrinker]

Hi all! I have been a memeber of these forums for two days and never in my life have I seen such a plethora of interesting reading!

Anyway, I am doing my research before building my first computer geared for serious overclocking. I have read many threads and have a few questions lingering.

1. What determines the upper limit for the FSB setting? What specific steps must be taken to ensure the highest upper limit possible? Is there anything outside of the obvious that needs to be cooled? What PCI devices are problematic and is there anyway to avoid such issues (such as the selection of a particular model)?

FSB limit depends on your mobo divider (1/4, 1/5 or 1/6) being able to keep the PCI and AGP bus speeds at an operable level

2. What reasonable (no LN2 or LHe!) cooling solution gives the lowest temperatures? Peltier/water/water-chiller or phase change such as this Prometia system that I have read about?

Start with air cooling. Then try water cooling before you start on the rocket science.

3. From an overclocking perspective, is there any difference between an OC'ed RAID array and a single HDD? If so, what is the dependence on number of drives? How well does a RAID PCI controller card overclock?

RAID means faster data transfer over a single HDD. SCSI RAID means even faster transfers, and an even lighter wallet. Go with what you can afford.

4. Are integrated controllers better or worse overclockers than PCI controller cards and why or why not?

PCI controller cards can be more advantageous, but for the home RAID array, on-board RAID is fine.

5. I am holding out for the Bartons teamed up with the nForce2 chipset. Are there any reviews of the overclockability of said products (link please)?

You'll be holding on for a while for the Bartons.....

I have been on the computer hardware scene (mostly a student of) for about a year and a half now so I get most of what is going on. However, I am still impressionable so please do not spare your advices and anything else you think is interesting that I should know.

Thank you!

There's some answers for you.

If you're new to overclocking, learn the basics before you dive in at the deep end. A good overclock with a fairly normal system will teach you a lot before you buy that nForce2 board, Bartons and those two 15,000rpm Seagate Cheetah SCSI drives you've dreamed of.......

 

[The Revelation]

3. From an overclocking perspective, is there any difference between an OC'ed RAID array and a single HDD? If so, what is the dependence on number of drives? How well does a RAID PCI controller card overclock?

Are you asking if RAID is faster/safer than a regular SCSI/IDE drive? If so, check out the Storage section, tons of info on RAID.

 

[ARGON]

Actually I was thinking more along the lines of FOUR Fujitsu MAM3184MP's on a 4-channel.

I have overclocked my past two computers, however, not aggressively. In the past the HDD or the NIC were the first two components to fail at a high FSB. So, my question is not about RAID fundamentals but about additional problems that would arise due to the the inability to overclock a RAID controller or problems exacerbated by trying to overclock multiple drives in a RAID array.

Would anyone else like to answer these questions? After reading some of the other threads in this forum I feel I have been shortchanged in quality the replies. For instance, when a person asks, "Which of these said methods achieves greater cooling?" Please answer his question first. If you would like to give any advice or mention to something else in addition, feel free. Please don't derogate the value of my question by telling me in so many words that I shouldn't have asked it.