Maximum PC

I've overclocked from time to time but only as a curiosity so I really haven't gone out and spent money on more fans and bigger heatsinks.

How much have you spent on cooling so you could overclock?

And has this amount ever surpassed the price of a cpu of the same speed in which you overclocked to?

I spent a little over $200US to build a decent watercooling setup for my mobile.

Does it justify the price?

Well, considering you can't buy a 2.6Ghz AthlonXP, yes.

On air it would do 2.5Ghz stable, but it was hot as hell. To me its worth it. Next time when I change my mobo/proc, I only need to buy a new waterblock. Everything else carries over. To some it could seem as a waste though.

I agree if the price is decent and you can get more speed that the fastest chip then why not.

But I was more wondering about people who buy a cheaper cpu only to buy expensive cooling setups to achieve comparable speeds.

I guess I'm also looking for that sweet spot between performance and cost. Nevermind the risk of frying your cpu.

I have a one air cooled setup that I the time to fix a hose too and when it gets to hot as a joke but it works I spray freeon in the case coools it down a couple of Cs for a while it worked great but i tend not to do it so much any more as it bad for the enviroment freeon cost alot and it is hard to get ahold of if you dont have a licence to use it. last time I bought a gallon from my ac guy it was 80 bucks his cost.

eh? whats freeon? someone google it for me!!!

anyways, i spent $20 on a thermalright h/s and $10 on a thermaltake fan. it led me to some good oc'ing on the 2400+ mobile. totally worth it for me.

i spent 30$ on a Zalman Al-CU 7000 (some model number like that).
but, i didnt have to, it is just quieter than the retail HSF

stick with retail for a little, see how it performs

Excuse me for adding in an E. Like the word Freeon is so far way from the word Freon and to be more specific Ra-14 freon.

So to be more specific now I have an AMD 2500+ and I've heard that these overclock nicely. What would I need cooling wise to "safely" overclock it significantly?

I can pickup an AMD 3200+ $290 Canadian. How much would it cost for the proper cooling to get it up to the same comparable performance using the 2500+?

For a couple of reasons:

1) For the thrill and/or hobby aspect of it.
2) Because if stable, an OC'd chip will outperform a stock chip at the same speed. For example, when I had my 2.4c running at 3.4GHz, I was at a 1133fsb, whereas a stock 3.4GHz would be running on an 800fsb.
3) Increasing your memory bandwidth, which relates to reason #2 above.
4) Some cooling setups are one-time costs and can be transferred to your next CPU upgrade. This can especially be true for a good watercooled rig, where the cost, in theory, could spread itself over several upgrades.
and
5) Some people simply have money to burn.

The rig that preceeded the one I'm using now was a Barton 2500+ OC'd to 3200+. I did this on the retail HSF and never had a heat issue. However, I now own a Zalman cnps7000a-cu, and if it would've fit on that rig, I would have bought it sooner. If it's compatible with your mobo, it'll be tough to beat the noise/performance ratio.

What was your FSB and multiplier for that setup? What was your temperatures at that speed?

Couldn't tell ya, as that rig was from over a year ago. It was before they started locking their chips, I seem to recall a fsb in high 180s (I was hampered by my PC3000 RAM).

Couldn't tell you specific temps either, but I can say that it was never an issue. I remember being impressed that the stock hsf could handle some OCing.

Well using the stock HSF I bumped up the FSB to 200. I left the multiplier at 11. So I now have it running at 2.2GHz with temps around 49C idle and 53C under load.

Since I have PC3200 Ram (400MHz) would a FSB of 200 should make it run at that speed instead of the 333MHz I normally have it at?

Maybe if I'm feeling adventurous I'll get some extra cooling and see how far it can go.

Any suggestions on OCing my Radeon 9600 Pro?

Yes, w/ your fsb set at 200, you're at a 400fsb effective (200 double pumped). If everything is stable, for all intents and purposes you've now got yourself a 3200+ chip. Congrats!

As far as your temps, I could live w/ 53C under load. However, if you want to lower them, consider the Zalman I mentioned previously and some Arctic Silver 5. This will be of more importance if you're looking to keep pushing your proc higher.

For OCing your 9600 Pro, you'll need a 3rd party utility such as Powerstrip or RivaTuner, etc. You can also use the Omega drivers for your card and they come with an OCing utility ( www.omegacorner.com ).

Once you've done that, my preference is to increase the GPU in small amounts, by 5-10MHz depending on where I'm expecting to end up at. Test for stability and artifacts each time. Once your card is not stable or is producing artifacts, then put it back at the last stable OC and you've found your GPU limits. Repeat the same for memory.

Before getting started, look on Google at what others have gotten w/ the same card, and that will help give you a starting point as well as an idea of what you can expect.

Thanks for the help One4yu2c.

No problem, keep us updated on your progess

Yes. On a recent post in the old comport, I mentioned this "flaw" I made. I have spent a good amount of money on a H2O rig. Basically, $700 on a set up for a $200 CPU to clock to a $350 level. Not very logical is it!? I could have just bought a P4EE and a stock HS/F.

But, my original idea was that once I get a rig up, it'll be ready to run on any PC I build in the near future. Now, I can spend a larger amount on the next breed of EE's and all I'll need is a $50 waterblock and then run with it.

This is still all in hopes. I still see no reason that I can't use this on the next big build.

Exactly. I'm glad you chimed in with your personal experience. And I can't emphasize enough the juicy goodness in having that fsb pumped up beyond what a stock chip of equal speed would be running at. Also, dealing specifically with water cooling, there's also the noise factor (or lack thereof) that should compute into that value as well

I haven't really spent anything I wouldn't have spent anyway, since my Zalman 7000-CU was bought for noisecontrol more than anything.

It keeps my P4C 2.6 nicely cooled at 3.3 GHz

I spent $75 on the cooling for my current rig (Zalman CNPS-7000Cu + Swiftech MC159) and it wasn't worth it.