Project Overclock: XP1700+ to XP3392+

[TeaLeaf]

Hello and Welcome to TL's Project O/C Diary.    

OK, so I am a bit behind FatBob, but I figured I start a thread and keep you posted so you know how it all develops/melts/explodes*  delete where not applicable

Stage 1:  Items purchased:
Athlon XP1700+ (JIUHB)
Abit NF7-S Rev 2.0
OCZ Twin 2 x 256MB PC3500 Dual Channel DDR RAM (cos Corsair don't do TWINX PC3500 yet   )
Building will commence in a temporary test rig real soon now, along with a fresh install of XP Pro.

Stage 2: Things I still have to buy:
PSU - I am going to go for another Enermax 465W.
Case - I am leaning towards a Lian Li PC-6085T because it suits the style of the Prometeia Lian Li Mod Base kits.  It also has a nice window to put all the flashy light thingies  :lol:

Stage 3: Things I need to make up my mind over:
Graphics card - I am torn between several different ideas at the moment.  

I like the look of the Albatron Ti4680P Turbo as it has super fast memory chips and the potential to o/c a bit more.  It comes running at 250MHz/550MHz stock, so 600MHz is within sight.  

I am also thinking of getting a Radeon 9500 (non-pro) and using the soft-clocking as described here.  This seems to give very good results, but it seems to depend a little on luck as to whether or not your particular gfx card will give you lots of sparklies or artefacts before you reach really high speeds.  This would be faster than the Albatron if it works, but slower if it doesn't.  :?

Or I could go for an OCSystem Enhanced pre-clocked gfx card like these:
Ti-4200 running at 300/650MHz.
Ti-4600 running at 320MHz/740MHz
9700 Pro running at 375/670MHz
9700 Pro running at 400/690MHz

Trouble is threefold: (a) OCS are based in the US and I would not be able to get hold of one until June/July when I have friend who goes over there (I am not willing to risk postal and getting caught for import tax on those prices), (B) I have heard some concerns over quality in their forums (I shudder to think about an RMA to the US) and © the price.  The Level II o/c (400/690MHz) is a bit above what I would want to spend (about £235 ignoring shipping, assuming I get it in to the country without import duty and VAT, and also assuming it works first time and doesn't need to be replaced).  The positives are that I have read about some absolutely spectacular results with their cards and cost wise, they are probably way better an o/c than I could do myself.  :?  

Give me help peeps - do we do anything like the OCSystem Enhanced gfx cards in the UK or Europe?  And what would you buy if you were looking for a gfx card for this system?  Budget for the card cannot exceed the Level II cost above (and I would prefer lower).

Stage 4: Things I will buy if the lottery numbers come up.
Prometeia Phase Change Cooling Unit - I haven't taken the plunge on this one yet, but I am drooling  :wink:   I think I'll have a go at an air cooled o/c system first and then when cashflow is better think about it again  

Enough of the diary for tonight.  I'll report back with some pictures and some updates in due course, once I have made up my mind abotu the gfx card  

Does anyone know where I can get a good fire extinguisher  :onfire:

TL.  

[A Twig]

My Radeon didn't like my mobo??? Compatability problems etc etc, which it said it wouldn't have, but hey presto it did!  :evil:  :x

[Stryker]

Thos O/C graphics cards from OCers are a world of trouble.  If it goes wrong you'll just be kicking yourself as its hassle you dont need at the end of the day.  Besides, its only 700 marks faster, without much effort on the radeon cards you'll get about 300-500 yourself!!  really!

[TeaLeaf]

Those were kind fo my thoughts too, but when you say Radeon, do you mean you would go for the 9500 non-pro softmod route (wap11 bios and hacked drivers etc)?

TL.  

[Stryker]

I've seen a lot of happy people with the radeon softmod.  Its a damn good card anyways and you can easily play with the clock speeds if you have sufficient cooling in place.  So even if you cant do the softmod you can at least clock it up some.

[TeaLeaf]

Sold to the Keanu Reaves looking dude on the left....

TL.  

[Stryker]

you can get all sorts of coolers, right down to little limpet type heat sinks that are stuck one to each ram chip by heat conductive thermal glue.

[TeaLeaf]

OK, I have been reading a bit more about 9500 Pros and you CAN o/c this with Warp11's latest bios     This means a good quality 9500Pro should o/c to better than 9700 Pro speeds  8O   As the 9600 and 9800 have just come out, I am hoping that if I wait a week maybe I can get one for even less than they cost now!

A word of warning though to anyone thinking of buying the 9600.  Don't.  They have taken a perfectly good 9500 PCB that was merely soft-locked down to using only 4 of its 8 rendering pipelines and replaced it with one that physically only has 4 pipelines.  You'll not be o/c the 9600 by as much as the 9500 then.......  

Interestingly the manufacturer websites still claim that the 9500Pro has a 128 bit memory bus whereas in fact it is a 256 bit bus that has been soft-locked down to 128 bit.  Again, Warp11 releases all 256 bits  

TL.  

[albert]

Looks good TL, due to the weather, I am deliberating over golf or pc, the local council course is rather good and only costs £500 p/annum.  :lol:

But I am a best of both worlds type of a bloke, so here's the deal, I'm 30 on Sunday (Easter Sunday I know, I was incidentally born on Good Friday--- Spooky  8O ) . So if the each clan member sends me £30 a £ for each year then I can get the PC and play golf all Summer too !!!! :lol:    

So come on I'm on PayPal.  

 :rainbowafro:

[Anonymous]

Lets see, I'll send you a £ for each year, you send me the same so I reckon you owe me £10. PS you better get a mortgage for what you owe Oldie  :-)

[TeaLeaf]

OK, I have completed my final research on graphics cards and a decision has been made:  I will get a Sapphire 9700 non-pro for the overclocking system.

I had a look at the 9500/Pro soft mods but eventually discovered that there is only a 2/3 chance that it will work - and £140 is a lot to tank on a gfx card that doesn't cut it.  

However, I have also disovered that both Warp11 and Mufu do a  9700>9700Pro BIOS which works in the vast majority of cases.  Given that the 9700 is nay a bad card at stock rates and that the mod bios usually allows significant overclocks to both gpu and memory then my mind was made up.  Of all the cards that have been successfully flashed, the Sapphire seems to be the one that most people have had success with as it seems to come with either Hynix or Samsung memory (both of which appear to o/c well).

So the system is now:
Athlon XP1700+ (JIUHB)
Abit NF7-S Rev 2.0
OCZ Twin 2 x 256MB PC3500 Dual Channel DDR RAM

Ordered but still to arrive:
Sapphire Radeon 9700 128Mb
Enermax 465W PSU

Building to commence shortly  

TL.  

[TeaLeaf]

Everything is now ordered, or canabalised from other machines and the final spec is:

Athlon XP1700+ (JIUHB)
Abit NF7-S Rev 2.0
OCZ Twin 2 x 256MB PC3500 Dual Channel DDR RAM
Sapphire Radeon 9700 128Mb
Enermax 550W EG651P-VE FMA Blue
Western Digital 120GB Special Edition 8MB cache HDD
Lian Li PC-65 with window
Aerocool DP-101 Deep Impact CPU cooler
Arctic Silver III
plus floppy and CDRW drives

I will start putting the system together at the weekend and post some pictures etc as I go through.  Then onto the OS install (XP Pro) and then some stock benchmarking, followed by some overclocking  

TL.  

[TeaLeaf]

Unfortunately, not all of the hardware has arrived yet.  The final batch of components (inc the all important case and PSU) was only shipped yesterday, so I have not been able to start building the system yet, but will do maybe next week!  However I have had a look at the Aerocool DP-101 Deep Impact CPU cooler.  As this cooler is (a) reasonably new, and (B) not sold in that many places I thought I'd post some piccies for peeps to see.  I hope they help! It looks a serious piece of CPU cooling kit  

The DP-101 seems like a more directly powered Zalman Flower.  It has a large copper  heatsink and lots of surface area to dissipate heat from the CPU core.  It has a copper tube attached to the cpu heatsink and creates the surface area needed to vent the heat successfully by attaching multiple aluminium cooling fins.  



The blue alloy surround meets a dual purpose:  firstly it stabilises the aluminium fins and secondly it provides an attachment points for the standard fan.  The aim is to continuously blast cool air air across the fins to achieve a high degree of cooling.  The copper conducts the heat rapidly away from the CPU core and then into the cooling fins for the passing air to cool.  If that is not enough the DP-101 also provides attachment points for larger fans too    

You can see the solid copper heatsink for the cpu core in the below picture.  I have also placed the fan where it would be attached just so you get the idea of what it looks like when it is put together.  

Looks like a bit of a beast this cooler and my sample at least was well put together.  I can’t wait to see what temps it manages to keep the CPU down to    

TL.  

[suicidal_monkey]

8O
...wow...
 :wtf:
cant wait!
 :scrambleup:

[JB]

'cough'   Gimick