Question on overclocking

Azza

Looking at a thermaltake Aquarius III watercooling device that supports amd 64 platform. Wondering what I would be able to overclock my amd 64 3400 to. Its 2.2ghs already overclocked to 2.3 ghz usign silent boast from thermaltake. I wonder will I get much of improvement. I would want to at least get 2.5 ghz out of the cpu but I don't know even with excellent cooling if that is that possible with that amd 64. Is there other factors I should look at first before looking at cool. Saw one site get 2.4+ Ghz out of the cpu using a zalman fan. But that was limit I heard

neokenzo

The main limiting factor for A64 is basically the mobo. Without a PCI/AGP lock, you wont be able to overclock it that much. Having said that, you should be able to oc it to 2.4HGhz without a problem though. With the new nforce250GB coming out will probably fix this problem. You could try pushing it to 2.5Ghz as every pc overclock differently.
I wouldnt go for the Thermaltake Aquarius III. They arent that good actualyl if I'm not mistaken when I was reading reviews on it. You want to get Innovaset watercooling. They are quite good from what I hear. Waterchill seems to be good as well but I not as good as the Innovaset.

Azza

You got any links to innovaset coolers. I heard the thermaltake cooler was quite good . Its external and reasonable priced and apparantly alot less power hungry and quiter than other water coolers and performance wise is reasonable good.

If you got some links would be great to articiles on water coolers. But I don't to ventrue over € 220 and only need it for chipset I have aircoolers for RAM already and possible accuire an air cooler for my graphics card to fit in pci slot below it.

Azza

Just thought of another thing. My amd 64 3400 CPU runs about 40d idile and about 50d under load @ 2.3 at 1.5v. turning up voltage might let me do better overclocks but I worry about damaging cpu. That why if I do get a water cooler will it help protect against damage to the cpu if I raise voltage? How roughly how much would it shorten the cpu life by doing it. I really need to get into contact with someone who knows there stuff about overclocking.

neokenzo

I was asking about watercooling some time back. You can check here for links comparing the watercooling out there.

Have you done all the procedures for overclocking? As in increasing your FSB by 5Mhz until it wont boot or failed in Prime95? Then only you should increase you vcore up. I have mine at 1.6V at the moment and I have pushed to 1.7V but found it was not stable so lowered it back. Watercooling will definitely help protect your CPU somewhat as it will lower the temperature of your CPU. Remember, temp is always the enemy. As for shortening the life of your CPU, dont worry about it. I think your CPU is meant to go on for 10-12 years and by overclocking it you may shorten to 6-7 years. I'm sure by then you'll get a different rig.

Col_Loki

The CPU's life is shortened by a mix of high temps and increased voltages. The fact that you would be using a better than stock cooler will give you more scope to increase the voltage (while the temps are kept down).

Worst case generally means the CPU lasts 50% of its intended life which would be 4-5 years........... i really dont see that being a problem.

Water cooling wise, exactly what neo said. Thermaltake's older attempts at water cooling was a complete joke and was competing with mid range air cooling. The advantages i can see would be ... its flashy, easy to install, and you have braging rights. Down falls being its performance compared with high end water coolers like inovatek XXS or XXD kits, or when being compared to Astek (waterchill) kits for instance, its outside your case (awkward for lans and movement).

If you want to get the most from your chip then the best start would be to get the NF250 motherboards when they come on stream (or even one of the NF150's with a known PCI/AGP lock). After than watercooling will definetly help as temps are more lightly to be in the equation.

Watercooling higher end kits (€200 ish) are going to perform better than high end noisey air coolers while the cheaper kits will struggle to keep up.

[edit] I have a link posted somewhere (and ive lost it again) about a guy who is getting 2.5ghz on Air from a mobile AMD64. He used a 66mhz Hard disk controller (helped the PCI thing)........

Azza

Perhaps the cheapest scenario would be upgrade to an nforce 250 motherboard and accuire one of those zalmann coolers but leaves with a problem of selling an nforce 150 board which will be hard and redoing my machine. Still I wonder if my ram will be a limiting factor.

Col_Loki

Use a divider to set your Ram to run at a lower speed than your FSB.......... its one way to see if its holding your overclock back.