Sapphire X800GTO2 alone

[HeavenZKnight]

Hey guys,
I bought a GTO2 like 2 months back because I heard it could OC really well, and have not really been able to find a processor and motherboard to go w/ it. Reading some of the topics here, I've been thinking about getting a Opty 146 n maybe a biostar Tforce6100 to go along w/ it. I'm looking to build a budgeted, yet pretty good gaming rig, and was just wondering what your thoughts about this are. Like should I get those two things, or should I go for a diff cpu or motherboard. I've never really OC'd anything before, but really want to learn how to do it. Thanks in advance for the help!

 

[racer42]

You should give a $ amount to work with. Do you have a case, drives and all the rest of the parts? It really doesn't pay to buy parts that you can't use yet. In 2 months that vid card dropped over $50. Any opty 144 and higher with a 939 board from DFI, Asus, MSI all will get you going.

 

[HeavenZKnight]

hm...i have the vid card, case, hard drives, RAM, power supply...i think i really just need cpu n motherboard. I'm probably lookin at spending ~$250. I read somewhere on here that the biostar one's pretty good....but I just saw another "hot deal" for an Asrock 939SLI for $78 and am wondering if that is better than the biostar one. Thanks for the reply!

 

[buzzsaw13]

Opteron 144 $130

DFI Lanpart Ultra-D $120

This is a pretty good combo to learn how to overclock, and its within your price range. You can also look into the ASRock Dual if you want to spend a little less and still have a good board for overclocking.

 

[RallyMaster]

With buzzsaw13's recommendation, I would also add that you might want to get a CPU cooler...since OEM processors don't come with one. Visit Cases & Cooling section for details (on this forum).

 

[5t3v0]

I second Buzzsaw, the 144 & Ultra-D. In retrospect that's the board I should have bought. Epox is OK though but the lack of memory dividers p1sses me off. MSI also have same dividers as DFI I believe. You'll need a better cooler than stock if buying boxed. I have the AC Freezer 64 Pro & am very pleased with it. It is very quiet & blows the air to the back of the case where I have an exhaust fan extracting it out of the case. The clamp can be rotated so if you have the ultra-D with the socket alignment the other way, you can still set it up to blow to the back. Also consider getting a 3rd party cooler for the GTO2. I have the AC ATI Silencer 5 rev .2 which lowered my gpu temps about 10C from the stock cooler & its much quieter too. It also exhausts air out the back of the case which lowered my cpu & system temps another 2C. You need to choose your mobo carefully with this cooler though as it sits over the NB HSF on most models. You'll need to mod the cooler casing slightly for the ultra-D. On my Epox it just sits above the HSF without making contact but the clearance is only a couple of mm.

 

[Zap]

I have three Opteron 144 chips, two great overclockers and one is so terrible that my former 130nm socket 754 2800+ Newcastle chip outclocked it by 300MHz. BTW, mine doesn't get too hot even with the lowest end retail box cooler ever made - testing at 2.7GHz overclock using a Sempron 2600+ retail box cooler.

I've got an Ultra-D and Tforce, and the Tforce is "easier" to overclock because... well, there are fewer BIOS settings to mess with. Haven't had a chance to push my socket 939 Tforce boards beyond 300MHz HTT yet, but my socket 754 version can do around 330MHz or more.

That ASRock SLI board for $78, isn't it the one with the ULi chipset? That may not "always" support SLI, just FYI, because Nvidia keeps changing the driver to "break" SLI support on non-supported chipsets. Also, IIRC the board doesn't allow voltages, or only very little.