Overclocking my Athlon X2 3800+

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by Modey, Jul 9, 2007.

  1. Modey

    Modey Terabyte Poster

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    I decided to have a good tinker with my system recently.

    About 5 years ago I bought an expensive overclocking case (well I considered £120 without a PSU pricey). It was a Thermaltake Xaser. Best case I have ever bought to be honest. It's a real pleasure to work inside it. Lots of attention to detail and little touches that make things easier.

    In terms of overclocking I have never really used it for that purpose, I just liked the case. It comes with 7 80mm fans in different parts of the case, so it's great for airflow and a nice cool system.

    I got a new board and chip recently. Athlon X2 3800+ and the Asus A8N3232-SL Deluxe. I very highly rate Asus motherboards. All of the ones I have had over the last few years have never dissapointed me.

    I fancied pushing the X2 a little but found the stock cooler is a bit crap when the chip is loaded. Even with the case being cool inside (38C) the CPU was rising to about 56c when fully loaded, and that's without overclocking it.

    With a modest overclock of 100MHz on the FSB it was peaking at about 64c when loaded.

    Well I decided that it was time to get rid of the 'stock' cooler that came with the chip and see what kind of performance I could get out of a more dedicated one.

    Ordered one from Ebuyer that was recommended by many people. Artic Cooling (AC-FRZ-64P). It's quite a beast and it was quite reasonable price wise (11 quid).

    It is however the hardest heat sink I have had the displeasure to ever try and fit. I gave up in the end, couldn't get it on even with my mobo out of the case. For 11 quid though I am not gonna shed too many tears, I'll send it back when I can be arsed.

    So I popped to PC World as they have a modding and overclocking section and bought a Zalman cooler. It was too big to fit on my mobo. Very nice heat sink though, just ashame it was a touch too large around the base. The heat pipes on my mobo chipset were getting in the way of the heat pipes coming off the Zalman.

    So took that back and drove to Maplins who had a much better selection. So in the end I went for an Akasa Evo Blue, which I have now fitted and is a really quality piece of kit. Very pleased with it after the previous shenanigans. Ok so it cost 40 quid, but I reckon it's worth every penny.

    It's compatible with 939, AM2, and all the Intel C2D's, so I'll not have to buy another cooler for a very long time should I upgrade etc...

    It's also now got my CPU running at 40C when it's idling with a 100Mhz FSB overclock. In fact, it's the same temp idling at 2.2Ghz (200Mhz OC). Only goes up to about 44C when loaded, not checked the temp when fully loaded and overclocked yet. But I doubt it will top 48C.

    Anyway, just to give anyone who is interested an idea of the size of this thing compared to the stock cooler for an X2 3800+ here is a piccy. The door on the left of the pic swings into place and cools the GFX card with two 80mm fans. I was worried at first that the new sink is so tall that I wouldn't be able to close it, but it just all fits. :)

    I'm very happy with my setup now. I'm gonna leave the overclock running at 100Mhz (2.1Ghz). I have had a little instability at 2.2Ghz. Nothing to do with heat, I just haven't got the right combination of settings of Core Volts, NB, SB & HT yet.

    I also suspect my ram may not be up to it. It's only Kingston cheap stuff.
     

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  2. twizzle

    twizzle Gigabyte Poster

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    Modey mate did you look here for a cooler?

    http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/amdcooling

    I got the Zalman CNPS7500-CU LED 110mm Super Flower Cooler
    from here and am very pleased with it. It is a bit big and heavy and just fits on my Mobo but looks good and does the job.

    I havent tried OC'ing my AMD 4200 x2 yet, but i did overclock my GPU 7900gs until it stopped working... Did get an improvement of around 100mhz on that and the temp didnt change much (10 degrees) but it needs its stock cooler replaced to push it further.
     
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  3. Raffaz

    Raffaz Kebab Lover Gold Member

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    Whoa!! Thats some size cooler! Im running my athlon x2 4200+ with the stock cooler, ive got a thermaltake case aswell and it runs at about 54C under load, with a 10% overclock on my asus board, so im not to concerned about buying a decent cooler coz thats doing the job.
     
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  4. Theprof

    Theprof Petabyte Poster

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    Before when I had my Athlon 2600+ it was oclocked from 1.9ghz-2.5ghz with the thermaltake volcano 12 extreme. Now I am running the X2 3800+ also and with a stock fan with a stock CPU speed and my cpu idles around 35c and full load 48c.

    My case is just a no name brand just black with 1 80mm case fan. I am pretty happy with the temps though. I was thinking of getting a third party cpu cooler, but at the moment I am just going to wait.

    You got a nice setup there though. Looks clean.
     
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  5. Modey

    Modey Terabyte Poster

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    Thanks Prof. It just got even nicer. :)

    Just fitted in a Jeantech Storm 700W PSU and a XFX 8800GTS.

    PC Mark 2005 - 5162
    3D Mark 2006 (1280 x 1024, no AA) - 7211
     
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  6. Theprof

    Theprof Petabyte Poster

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    That the one thing I forgot to bench is 3d mark 05 and pc mark 05.

    Want to do it soon.
     
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  7. Modey

    Modey Terabyte Poster

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    Both free to download, go for it. :)
     
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  8. Theprof

    Theprof Petabyte Poster

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    yeah I have the 3d mark 03 which I tested but its outdated for todays technology, so gotta go get the new ones.
     
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  9. Modey

    Modey Terabyte Poster

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    3DMark06 is quite big IIRC, about 5-600megs.
     
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  10. Modey

    Modey Terabyte Poster

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    Here is my system when running fully loaded by a burn in test.

    [​IMG]

    Sorry if the pic is a bit big.
     
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  11. Theprof

    Theprof Petabyte Poster

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    Looks good dude and the temps are pretty good for full load.
     
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