Upgrade Question.

[Tx3kgtman]

Ive ordered

motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813180064 .i know this isnt a PCI-E board didnt want to get one right now but im getting one here shortly. This is the best 989 mb with a agp slot.

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103539

Ram: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145480

Besides this i have a radeon 9600XT 128Mb Gfx card. Ill upgrade that later.

Will these 3 parts help my gameplay any? I play all steam games. "CS:S, DOD:S, F.E.A.R, BF2, Ect.

Im coming from a amd 3200+ "not 64" socket A 400 FSB. 768mb Ram offbrand crap... to that?

 

[TRDCorolla1]

Yes, it's fine. That CPU is pretty damn good. The RAM is ok, but it's Value RAM so you can't OC that much. Still good, regardless.

 

[Tx3kgtman]

what do you think i can overclock my cpu to? All i have is air cooling but its pretty good. 8 fans total. not including cpu heatsink fan or anything.

 

[TRDCorolla1]

That's a good amount of fan. I have similar setup too. I would say you can OC that easily on stock cooling to 2.4GHz without any kind of problems. You can push it higher to like 2.5, 2.6 but I would consider aftermarket heatsink/fan combo. Stock cooler just wasn't made for overclocks higher than 2.4 GHz

 

[Tx3kgtman]

ok cool.

 

[TRDCorolla1]

Yup, the reason why I know so is because I have a 3500+ not too far from what you plan on getting and I've got it OCed to 2.446 GHz right now. Or I should say, it's running on this new speed now. Temps are a little high like 37 degrees idling, but that's still damn good.

 

[Tx3kgtman]

That's a good amount of fan. I have similar setup too. I would say you can OC that easily on stock cooling to 2.4GHz without any kind of problems. You can push it higher to like 2.5, 2.6 but I would consider aftermarket heatsink/fan combo. Stock cooler just wasn't made for overclocks higher than 2.4 GHz

im not to experienced on overclocking yet.. to get to around 2.4 will i have to mess with any of the voltage or anything. or just the fsb speed.

 

[TRDCorolla1]

Just the fsb. The HT multiplier is already set to 11x (at least on mine). Just raise the bus to 220 and you'll be running at 2.420 GHz. Rule of thumb is take it easy on OCing though. You may want to bump it up to like 210 to see what the reaction of the system will be. If it's running fine with everything, movie it up to 215 and so on until you hit 2.4GHz. I personally don't think it will crash on you if you immediately bump it up to 220MHz though.

 

[Tx3kgtman]

ok.. if i upgrade the heatsink and fan. you think ill be able to get up to 2.7 "my goal" or will i have to get water cooling or something? Do you have any recommendations on a good heatsink and fan?

 

[TRDCorolla1]

I don't have personal experience on OCing that high before but water cooling would be best. OCing from a 2.2 to a 2.7GHz can prove unstable results if not properly cooled down. If you do get water cooling, try going up to 2.8GHz-3GHz if you can. That would be so cool to see.