which AMD CPU will OC well

[Heywould3]

Im looking to upgrade my computer.. been a while.. ive seen a bit of talk about the AMD 3000+ being a very good OCer. is that the best value for the money? im currently running a 1600+ @2000+ pc2100 ram MSI mobo.. i know ill need to get new mem and mobo as well.. but want to spend as little as possible while gaining the most performance..

i have seen some comments about this here a while ago but wanted to know (fact based) comment not "i have this one and its the best" what are people on the net saying? what have you all heard.

i know about tomshardware but getting the exact info im looking for is not stright forward.

thanks for any info.

[TooLFooL]

why would you buy a specific cpu just to overclock it? just buy a better cpu.

[Heywould3]

why would you buy a specific cpu just to overclock it? just buy a better cpu.

well few reasons.. one main reason is cuz ive been OCing all my cpus from the begining just to do it..

also you get more for your money.

yadda yadda..

as an example i got my 1600+ for under 100 when i got it and i run it at 2000+ which at the time was almost 3 times the cost.

[TooLFooL]

ahh, so thats part of the hobby. cool

[redwudz]

Just about any will OC. But you need a motherboard that supports OCing properly. Nvidia chipset MBs do well, especially if they let you independently control the AGP and memory bus speeds.

I run a Sempron 64 3000+, 754 socket CPU on one of my computers and all you really need to do is up the FSB speed. They run fairly cool, so easy to OC. I set the FSB up to 230Mhz from the stock 200 and left all the other settings stock. It could go a lot faster, but then you need some voltage adjustments and have to be a bit more careful about cooling.

With a Sempron 754, if you burn it up, doesn't cost as much to replace as some of the higher end CPUs.

[Heywould3]

i do know that they all can be OCed to some extent. i was just wondering which was the monster. i remember readng that one of hte AMD chips with stock cooling would oc very very well compaired to some others. i thought it was a 3000+ chip but i dont remember what i read..

i do know the mobo is a factor and the mem etc. i even remember reading that there was a mobo that would allow you to do the cpu with out affecting the ram pci etc.

[redwudz]

That's what I was saying about the Nvidia Nforce chipset MBs. They can keep the PCI and AGP bus speed locked down when overclocking for better stability.

I have a 2 Gigabyte MBs that work that way. My encoding computer has a 939 X64 Atlhlon CPU, Winchester 3200+, 90nm features. The 3000+ version of that CPU was one of the favorite overclockers, probably the one you are thinking about.

The 3200+ is on a Gigabyte K8NXP-9 Nforce4 chipset MB and my multimedia computer has the Nforce3 250 chipset. Either one of these chipsets are good overclockers.

The Sempron is OC'd about 15% with a stock cooler. It's running 21C at the moment and gets up to about 28C on 100% CPU during a long encode. So cooling is not a major factor.

Anyway, there's lots of net sites on AMD overclocking, just pick your CPU and do a search.

[budz]

I bought a ESC nforce chipset mobo combo with a Socket 754 SEMPRON AMD 64 2800 processor from Fry's electronics for $69.99. I was quite surprised that I could overclock this combo with stock heatsink. The Socket 754 AMD SEMPRON 64 2800 rated operating frequency is 1.6 which I have it overclocked to 2.2. Everything is stable and runs cool. I've read the SEMPRON 64 3100 socket 754 processor is easily overclocked as well. Thanks to redwudz he's got me hooked on overclocking AMD processors!

[Cobra]

It depends on the individual CPU. You could get one with a very good core that overclocks well, or one that won't go much further at all. Pot luck, although most CPUs are capable of overclocking well these days.

I read in the latest Custom PC that the AMD Opteron (144, I think) they tested overclocked really well, and rivalled a top-of-the-line Athlon64.

[Soopafresh]

DFI and certain ASUS Mobos are good at overclocking, but they're priced higher than many comparable boards. A heavier CPU heat sink is going to cost more as well. Are you sure the O/C gains are worth the $$$ ?

[Cobra]

I would recommend Asus over anything else. Never had one go wrong on me, and they always "just work". Used loads of them in the past.

Just avoid VIA-based boards. I've had two, and am running one right now... It's pretty poor.