Best board for overclocking 1.33 ghz?

[BaconDog]

I was strictly an Intel fan until I bought a 800mhz Athlon. I have had one of the most stable systems ever with it so I'm going AMD again. I'm going to buy the 1.33 ghz TBird with the DDR ram, my question is what board is the best to go with this processor for ease of overclocking and for stability? How high can you take a 1.33 and have it be stable? What DDR ram should I use, 1600 or 2100 ram? TIA

[Cygnus]

I cant advise on the DDR without getting a better review of it myself, but I would recommend either an Abit KT7R or an IWill KK266R motherboard. the Abit is at the top of the class right now for Athlons and I have set up all speeds of T-Bird on the new IWill boards with great success. Both boards are fully capable of overclocking but im unsure how much....hope this helps.

[MDD1963]

The Epox Ep8K7A, although new, is getting rave reviews so far! Mulitiplier adjustment features function, as do FSB adjustments up to 150 with quality DDR memory.

There is a review over at www.amdmb.com

As for a 1.3 GHz cpus top end, many are getting as high as 1.55 with air cooling, and I personally got a 1.3 to run fine at 10.5 x 138 MHz. (1450; didn't want to go higher as it was not my cpu) :-)

[MDD1963]

Oh, and you would *certainly* want PC2100 memory, minimum, which is essentially PC133 DDR. (Of course, there is a new supply of PC2400 out, for stable 150 MHz DDR operation too)

[GOVTECH]

Unless you have money to waste don't go with DDR just yet. All the reviews I've seen are bad. An ASUS A7V133 will get almost as good if not better benchmarks (depending on setup) than any of the new DDR boards.

[GOVTECH]

Unless you have money to waste don't go with DDR just yet. All the reviews I've seen are bad. An ASUS A7V133 will get almost as good if not better benchmarks (depending on setup) than any of the new DDR boards.

[BaconDog]

Thanks for the info guys, I thought DDR was the way to go, guess I have more reading to do than I thought.

[MDD1963]

Originally posted by GOVTECH:
<STRONG>Unless you have money to waste don't go with DDR just yet. All the reviews I've seen are bad. An ASUS A7V133 will get almost as good if not better benchmarks (depending on setup) than any of the new DDR boards.</STRONG>

If looking to upgrade for minimal dollars, and one already owns an ample supply of PC133, I'd agree...but a few of the recent DDR boards (all AMD chipset based) will shade even an A7V133 or KK266 in Q3 benchmarks by 20 fps at 640x480, or about 10-12%....granted, the increased mem BW isn't much of a factor if one is a high res gamer, however...)

But if assembling a NEW system from the ground up, I'd be mighty tempted on DDR myself...several brands of quality PC2100 and even PC2400 (150 MHz DDR) and 2700 (166 DDR) are hitting the market. The PC2100 is not really that expensive, in fact Crucial is selling it at the same cost as their CAS2 PC133)

[Luscan]

Mebi it sound stuppit but if you want to choose between sdram and ddr ram you can try the asus a7a266 motherboard. it support both ram types. so you can begin wit low cost ram and boost it up with ddr ram on the moment the price is less.

[imd14u]

Originally posted by Luscan:
<STRONG>Mebi it sound stuppit but if you want to choose between sdram and ddr ram you can try the asus a7a266 motherboard. it support both ram types. so you can begin wit low cost ram and boost it up with ddr ram on the moment the price is less.</STRONG>

I was surprised to read this! But it's true.
http://www.asus.com/products/Motherb...266/index.html

What a way to go. Buy SD now, and when DDR drops in price, upgrade it!

Only thing, I haven't read anything about this board, and the Ali Magik Chipset. <IMG SRC="smilies/wink.gif" border="0">

[Darren Wilson]

Don't forget the new Abit DDR boards, the KG7-RAID (AMD Chipset) & KR7-RAID (VIA chipset). The KG7-RAID supports upto 4Gb of PC2100 DDR SDRAM in 4 DDR DIMM sockets!!! Combine this with the other enhancements that Abit will include on the boards and it looks to be a sure fire winner.

Looks like DW may be looking at this very shortly himself!!!! <IMG SRC="smilies/wink.gif" border="0"> <IMG SRC="smilies/wink.gif" border="0">

[imd14u]

With a 1.33 GHz Athlon, would overclocking really be necessary? <IMG SRC="smilies/confused.gif" border="0">

[http://forums.windrivers.com/cgi-bin/forum1/noncgi]

Overclocking is not just bout the raw speed of a processor. It's the joy and fullfillment you get when you get more bang from what you pay for.

Why some people overclock processors..?
Because it can be done.

[Joker1]

Originally posted by BaconDog:
<STRONG>I was strictly an Intel fan until I bought a 800mhz Athlon. I have had one of the most stable systems ever with it so I'm going AMD again. I'm going to buy the 1.33 ghz TBird with the DDR ram, my question is what board is the best to go with this processor for ease of overclocking and for stability? How high can you take a 1.33 and have it be stable? What DDR ram should I use, 1600 or 2100 ram? TIA</STRONG>

Two of the most important things when building a system for overclocking are the powersupply and the ram. Get a good powersupply, 300w doesn't neccessarily cut it since there are different types of 300w power supply. I strongly recommend an Enermax 350 for optimum stabilty, also they use some high quality fans in it so it will actually help keep you case cooler.

As for the ram make sure you don't get anything generic. I personally recommend crucial.

As for the brand of motherboard I've had excellent result overclocking on both Asus and A-bit boards and i've found them to be well made an an excellent value for what you pay, always very feature rich.

Another thing to remember is your cpu cooler. Obviously you want something that will last and keep your cpu cool. There are a lot of $50 fancy *** cpu coolers. Personally I find that getting a big *** regular cooler will get similar results. Quite simply make sure it has a BIG heatsink and a high rpm fan. Coolermaster fans are i think the cheapest that fit this criteria. There's also several other brands that work great. The things to stay away from are generic cooler and anything with 'orb' in the name. Also if you can spare $10 i really recommend getting some arctic silver heat sink compound i cannot say enough good things about it. Just be careful with it, afterall it is conductive.

Well that's all that come to mind right now, hope it helps.

One last thing, with oveclocking since your pushing the limits of the hardware your mileage will vary. That in mind you could probly hit 1.5G with a little luck.

Let us know how it turns out and good luck! <IMG SRC="smilies/smile.gif" border="0">

[BaconDog]

Thanks for all the info, I have the insight I needed to make my descision.

Why overclock a 1.33 mhz.? Well, I look at it this way. AMD doesn't have a 1.5 or 1.6 on the market as of yet(that i know of), but it would be a safe bet to say they would cost alot more than the $140.00 or so a 1.33 goes for. So I'm paying $140.00 for a 1.5 in a sense.
I know overclocking limits hardware's life, but I build a new system every 8 to 10 months on average since hardware seems to be outdated 3 weeks after you buy the most current product.
I'll post my new system's configurations and stats in a few weeks after I build it.

And now for a small off topic post: I ordered an Elsa Gladiac GeForce3 from the small company I do business with. They ordered a VisionTek GeForce3 instead. I was less than thrilled but I bought it anyways(for $390.00) The VisionTek has performed flawlessly and I'm quite impressed with it.
I overclocked the card and picked up 400 points for a total score of 4800 on 3DMark2001, that's on my Athlon 800mhz. system w/ 256 generic pc100 ram and Gig 7IXE mobo, the card will be going in my new one.

Thanks again all for the info.