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View Full Version : New to C2D - Looking for Advice on ASUS P5N32 SLI Premium

dadi_oh
02-24-2008, 03:49 PM
First let me just say that I have been in the AMD overclocking camp for quite a few years beginning in the K6 camp. Secondly my focus is on getting the very most bang for my buck. I am not interested in spending mega $$$ for bragging rights on benchmarking discussions. I am quite happy to stay on the trailing edge picking up bargains on technology that is a year or two old and then enjoying the technical challenges of safely squeezing as much performance as possible out of it. As an example my current rig is an ASUS A8NE with a X2-3800 overclocked to 2.7GHz and a 7900GT with 1.5V mod overclocked to 670/1800 (>GTX speeds). I have a customized Arctic Pro heatsink (lapped and additional fan for push pull) that does an excellent job of keeping the overclocked X2 cool. Cool by my standards that is... I just need to cool it to the point of having long term reliability and reasonable overclock. Spending $400 on water cooling to get an extra 100MHz of overclock is not my thing. 50C is fine for me, I don't feel a need to get it to 30C.

So with that as a basic introduction I am now looking to have some fun exploring the C2D camp. In keeping with my budgetary guidelines I have picked up an ASUS P5N32-SLI Premium socket 775 board for cheap on EBay. The reason these boards are cheap is that they are based on the nForce 590 chipset which the reviews say is a bad overclocker by todays standards. Most reviews suggest it tops out at 340-350MHz FSB. Not sure if you can achieve higher by overvolting the chipset. They also suggest limitations on memory overclocking.

So now I am considering a budget C2D processor that would be able to get the most out of OC with these limitations. It seems to me that I want to get one with as high a multiplier as possible.So probably choosing one with an 800MHz FSB as opposed to 1066MHz. I was actually thinking of the Pentium E2180 or E2200 since they can be found quite cheap and a friend of mine got 3.4GHz out of his E2180 so overclock potential seems good.

So what are your thoughts? Any pointers appreciated on best budget processor selection for this board would be appreciated.
JrRacinFan
02-24-2008, 03:55 PM
Here, take a read: http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5631&Itemid=35

I am unsure of how true this is though. :)
TUngsten
02-24-2008, 04:16 PM
I have a e6400 chip I bought a year ago. It runs at 3.28g @ 410 fsb at stock volts, idle temp 40C / load ~54 C max.

Not much experience with the lower e2xxx chips, but I think the e6400 is a champ.
newtekie1
02-24-2008, 04:25 PM
The lower end E2XXX chips don't overclock quite as well as the E6XXX series. But they still have a lot of potential. They tend to require more voltage and put out more heat.

I would say go with an E2200 and see what you can get out of it. 3.0GHz+ should be easy even on the weaker 590 chipset. At 3.0GHz, you'll have a very very powerful CPU.
cdawall
02-24-2008, 04:30 PM
i second the e2200 suggestion
dadi_oh
02-24-2008, 05:32 PM
The lower end E2XXX chips don't overclock quite as well as the E6XXX series. But they still have a lot of potential. They tend to require more voltage and put out more heat.

I would say go with an E2200 and see what you can get out of it. 3.0GHz+ should be easy even on the weaker 590 chipset. At 3.0GHz, you'll have a very very powerful CPU.

Well shortly after writing this I discovered the E2180 selling at TigerDirect.ca (I am in Canada) for $79 with a $20 mail in rebate. So I scored that for $59 (plus shipping but I was ordering some other stuff at the same time). While I was there I picked up the following to complete my new rig.

Ultra 600W SLI power supply for $50
OCZ Platinum 2X1GB PC6400 4-4-4 for $70 - $35 rebate = $35
OCZ Vanquisher Heatsink for $31 - $5 rebate = $26

Just reading the reviews on the Vanquisher now. May end up lapping the base and adding another fan (like I did with my Arctic Freezer... got 10C improvement with that).

Putting this all in my Antec case with 2 X 120mm and 80mm side port. Reading the OC recommendations so hopefully when this all arrives I will be off and running with my new C2D OC experience. Also going to SLI my pair of 7900GT (both 1.5V modded and running at 7900GTX speeds).

I was thinking I should have a new metric for all this. Something like fps/$ :)