Hey guys,

I haven't had much luck overclocking before and I think its because I didn't put much thought into it when purchasing hardware. I've been looking into some of the current CPUs on the market to see what kind of OC people are getting these days and well, I was pretty blown away to be honest.

For reference I currently have:
AMD 64 3500+
ECS RX480-A MB (had a hard time trying to remember this when I was in MB on Saturday)
1GB DDR
X1950GT - Soon to be 8800 GT
Seasonic S12 550w power supply

The processors I've been eyeing in particular seem to be (and possible OC values):

Amd 5000+ Black Edition (3.1GHZ with stock voltage - cheapest but slowest)
Intel E6550 (3.8GHZ with OC)
Intel E6750 (3.8GHZ with OC)

I know the E6550 is more comparable to the 5000+.. but its still more expensive (and faster). All of these processors seem to be great for a fairly massive overclock. I've been on AMD for some years now - more so because of price.

I guess what I would ask of anyone that knows about overclocking is:

Which CPU do you think is the best choice?
What motherboard would you recommend?
What memory would you recommend? (2GB 2x1GB ideally)

Ideally these parts (incl CPU) would be $500 taxes in ($438 before taxes), but I'm not necessarily limited to that. I'd like something that will be stable with longevity as well. I'm not really interested in any kind of water cooling. I will get a better CPU fan than Stock however.

Right now I'm leaning towards the E6550 because well.. its cheaper than the E6750 and can get about the same speed.. Any comments on that?

When comparing Intel and AMD chips you should also be comparing the boards you would pair them with in either case. Right now Intel has their chips placed very nicely for price/performance but I still find their boards cost more on average then what can be found for the AMD chips. When you start looking at the higher end chipsets for either though things start evening out in price.

I agree thats true. I already know that the AMD could be cheaper by quite a bit if you don't get a fancy motherboard. Really I don't "need" a fancy motherboard (i.e. SLi), just want one that will allow me to do the OC and get away with it.

It just seems that the Intel chip is going to be that much faster than the AMD to warrant the extra $$. Especially if I can get something running at 3.8Ghz.

So I guess what I'm really saying is that I don't need the super motherboard new stuff (like DDR3). Unless someone tells me a good reason to go for the higher end ones.

Even if you can't hit 3.8GHz from what I remember seeing the C2D's seem to be faster in games when speeds are compareable in other apps and benchmarks. Since you are soon upgrading to an 8800GT I'll assume this is what you are most interested in.

So I would say if you can find a reasonably priced board that is about what you would spend for the AMD the extra price for Intel CPU would be worth it.

As for motherboard and memory choices I'll let some others throw in their opinions because I really don't have a lot of hands-on experience with the newer stuff yet.

Yeah, I tend to only really use this PC for gaming. My retired 3500+ will be going to my HTPC replacing the budget stuff thats in there now.

I'm thinking a P35 chipset is what I'll want for the Intel chip. Unless there is good reason to go for the NVidia chipsets.

13398 ASUS P5K-E/WiFi-AP S-775 P35 3PCI/2PCI-EX/2PCI-E 16X 4DDR2- 1066, SATA RAID0 WIFI 1394 1xGbL $169.00
12838 Kingston 1GB / 667MHZ / PC5300 / DDR-2 / MFG Lifetime (MB 1st yr Hot Swap) $70.00 (for 2 sticks)
13332 INTEL Core 2 Duo E6550 2.33GHz 1333MHz 4MB LGA775 CPU, Retail $185.00

Total $483.36 with taxes

Funny I was just looking at those Motherboards. So I guess that Ram would work ok if I were to OC the E6550 to 3.8GHZ? Isn't it better to get a kit with 2 sticks?

What about something like

12262 Super*Talent T1000UX2G5 Dual DDR2-1000 2G(2X1G) PC8000 5-5-5-15 (2.2V) (Lifetime) 119.00

It helps if they're matched, but usually when you get them at the same time they are anyway. I've not had a problem buying individual sticks (i845P, i865P, K8T800, NF3 Ultra, NF4-SLI, NF570i, 690G and P965 chipsets all worked fine)

Kits are just an easy way to get 2 modules that are close to identical. As long as you buy good memory in pairs there's no real advantage to getting a kit. I've had kits and seperate modules bought in pairs and I just go for what's the best deal when buying.

Ahh good facts to know. Would the RAM I listed there be worth the extra money if I had it?

i got the E6600 and it does anything I tell it to.. and it did reach 3.8 but just not stably.. due to bad cooling.. since then I've gotten better but never had the time for it... I'm thinking of getting rid of my Supertalent dual channel set if your interested.. their PC6400 (800mhz) with tight timings, 2X 1GB. I'm upgrading to 2Gx2 so I can have 4gigs to help rendering.. =) PM me