Right, I stupidly made a thread in the VMWare section of the forum and no-one has moved it so I thought I'd just make a new one.

Okay, I've ordered all the parts for my new cheapo-tosh.

Gigabyte GA-945GZM-S2 as the mainboard.
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E2160 1.8Ghz, 1Mb L2 cache.
1Gb (2x512) Corsair PC2-4200 RAM
And this cute case which was quite cheap, the main reason for choosing it.

I'm planning on trying a bit of overclocking - any advice? I really still don't understand the relationship between overclocking the processor and the effect on the RAM. I mean, with light overclocking can you just leave the RAM alone? I'm staying on stock cooling, so probably nothing over 3Ghz anyway, more than likely less than that.

Well here's quick explaination.

The CPU has an external clock speed (FSB) and a multiplier. The speed of the FSB x multiplier = processor speed.

Your RAM has to make sure that the processor is supplied with enough data to process, therefore your RAM must run at the same FSB of the processor. In you case, you processor has a 200MHz FSB and a 9x multiplier to give a speed of 1800MHz. Therefore the RAM must also work at 200MHz to keep the processor fed. If you raise the FSB to say 266, then you cpu will run at 9x266=2394MHz. However, now the ram won't be supplying enough data because it's running at 200MHz so you will need to overclock it to 266 MHz too to attain a RAM:FSB ratio of 1:1. So now you will need DDR2-533 RAM (which you already have).

And another thing, you won't be able to over-clock this processor to 3GHz. It will probably max out at 2.4GHz and may end up overheating and become unstable. I hope this helps a little.

Well, I've been reading that people can get it to 2.9Ghz+ with stock cooling with temperatures only reaching around 60 degrees under load. I know it may have something to do with their configuration apart from this, RAM etc. but I've been lead to believe this processor can cope with overclocking very easily.

Maybe you're mixing it up with a Pentium D? The Pentium Dual-Core is basically a member of the Core 2 Duo family with less cache.

3.0 GHz with stock cooling here, it gets a tad higher than 60 but I'm getting a TR U120 E soon and hope to run it passively.

Ah, very good. I'm not actually planning on running it that high in terms of clockspeed - 2.8Ghz or so would satisfy me. If it does turn out a bit hot, I'll be happy with a bit of extra performance at least.

How do you find it anyway? I've a Macbook at the moment and if it can match it's performance I'll be happy enough since I'll have the benefit of being able to add a graphics card too.

u1m2 has an intel 975 chipset, while you have a 945 which is not as powerful as the 975. You will be able to overclock it though. Try setting the FSB to 333MHz and see if it boots. Just remember to set your ram to run at 667MHz and possibly raise the pci-e frequency to 118. If it doesn't then set the FSB to 266 and try again.

Good luck, and I hope I did not sound too pessimistic .

It's fine Ahmad, though you definitely did seem a bit pessimistic! The Core processors are great at staying cool, and this is one of the cheapest ones I could get - I'm glad I didn't go for that fast sounding 3.20Ghz Celeron I was planning on buying. Even with a knowledge of computers enough to know the number of megahertz doesn't dictate performance the stupid inner brains says "MORE MEGAHERTZ ZOMG!!" haha. I'll be getting it tomorrow - I plan on seeing how it performs with stock settings before deciding if I want to void some warranties!

I'll tell you all how it goes!

Overclocking is a waste of hardware and does not make a big difference in speed. Invest a little more money and get yourself better hardware if you want more speed.

My 2 cents,

hecker

My Macbook is fine for speed to be honest - the test here to to try to get equivalent speed from cheaper parts. It's not a waste of time if you can make it work. Benchmarks show that this chip can be overclocked to speeds where it rivals the more expensive Core 2 chips for a significantly lower price. Of course chip life decreases, so what? It'll last 3 years instead of 10 - you only live once etc.

Sorry about that, I didn't mean to be pessimistic

Anyway, please keep us posted with the results. I am very interested in seeing how this will go.

Ahmad

I would disagree with that. Depending on the processor you have, Oc'ing makes you get the best out of that particular CPU. And now, with Dual cores as cheap as dirt, I would definately try to get a good overclocker and bang the £"%&$"£ out of it.

Some reading: Intel Core 2 Duo E4300: Affordable and Highly Overclockable

Beats the crap out of the X6800

Ah don't worry, I mean the idea of overclocking a chip over twice it's original clockspeed is something that could go wrong of course - though data seems to suggest that with this particular chip that it's not that far fetched.

BrazilMAC: I've already ordered the Pentium Dual-Core but I don't regret it yet anyway, it was very cheap and really required me to stretch the budget a bit anyway because I wasn't planning on spending a lot to begin with. It's essentially a Core 2, so if I want a better processor sometime in the future I can just buy it then!

Do it liek I do: When the top the of the line core duos get cheaper, I will just get one and chill!

Hmm, I guess I would like to see some proof of that.

hecker

Well, it's finished!



That's her!

Did a quick xbench on it and these are the results - http://db.xbench.com/merge.xhtml?doc1=2411...nsetCookie=true

No overclocking yet, though it's running very well right now so I don't know if I will bother.

Congratulations