E4300 & Asrock Conroe945G-DVI

Soldato
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Has anyone tried this combination yet?

I keep hearing things about the lack of a PCI lock on this board, what effect does this have on overclocking potential? I've read reports of people getting 300FSB out of these boards, but does this mean that the PCI bus will be overclocked by 50%? If so, is this going to mean system instability as I may be using a PCI TV Card?

I'm after two new systems with the following spec:-

Intel Core 2 DUO E4300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.80GHz (800FSB) - Retail
£95.99 (£112.79)
Asrock Conroe945G-DVI (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
£41.99 (£49.34)
GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX21GB6400UDC)
£57.99 (£68.14)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB ST3320620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
£56.99 (£66.96)
Antec NSK1300 ATX Cube Case - 300W PSU
£49.99 (£58.74)
Sub Total : £302.95
Shipping : £8.95
Vat : £54.58
Total : £366.48

Any suggestions as to alternative specs?
 
Basically, yes. You have a significantly higher risk of system instability without the PCI lock.

If you don't really need the overclocking of the Core2Duo, then you should maybe have a look at an NVidia 6100 chipset board with the AMD processors. These are also dual core and clock much better without the drawbacks of the Core2Duo mATX boards.
 
melbourne720 said:
I'd go for 2GB of RAM for starters - also, do you have a budget?

I'm not sure I can justify going for 2GB at the minute. Prices are only going to come down, and I can always add another gig or two later on.

I want to keep everything under £400 inc VAT if possible.

Having done some more research following WJA96's advice, and confirmed that getting either an E4300 or E6300 much above 2Ghz was unlikely, I decided that I'd go full ATX as people have been expecting a decent clocking mATX for some time now, and they don't seem to have materialised, and I think I'll value the extra 1Ghz of power over the space I'll lose.

What do we think to the spec below?

Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
£103.99
Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
£69.99
GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX21GB6400UDC)
£57.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB ST3320620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
£56.99
Antec NSK4400 Mini Tower Case - 380W SmartPower PSU
£42.99
Sub-Total
£331.95
VAT
£58.09
Grand Total
£390.04
 
Kingy said:
I'm not sure I can justify going for 2GB at the minute. Prices are only going to come down, and I can always add another gig or two later on.

I want to keep everything under £400 inc VAT if possible.

Having done some more research following WJA96's advice, and confirmed that getting either an E4300 or E6300 much above 2Ghz was unlikely, I decided that I'd go full ATX as people have been expecting a decent clocking mATX for some time now, and they don't seem to have materialised, and I think I'll value the extra 1Ghz of power over the space I'll lose.

What do we think to the spec below?

Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
£103.99
Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
£69.99
GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX21GB6400UDC)
£57.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB ST3320620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
£56.99
Antec NSK4400 Mini Tower Case - 380W SmartPower PSU
£42.99
Sub-Total
£331.95
VAT
£58.09
Grand Total
£390.04

The higher multi of the E4300 makes clocking easier, might be easier to go with that than the E6300.
 
Gigabyte GA_965P_S3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

The S3 is about a tenner cheaper - only difference is 3 year warranty versus the 5 for the DS3 (D for Durability). This is based on Solid State Capacitors.

Built an S3 today with the 4300 with a stock cooler and some Geil 6400. Very very happy.

EDIT

In fact apart from the DS3/S3 we have basically the same components - including case. It goes together like a dream!

Second EDIT The 4300 will give you an easier overclock to basically the same levels.
 
Last edited:
Minstadave said:
The higher multi of the E4300 makes clocking easier, might be easier to go with that than the E6300.

I thought that the easier overclocking of the E4300 was only really of benefit if you had a board that wouldn't do the higher FSBs required by the E6300?

I think Easyrider said that the E4300 needed more volts to OC and was hotter than the E6300?

Is it not the case that a 3Ghz (for arguments sake) E6300 will be quicker than the E4300 because it has a faster FSB?
 
artaxerxes said:
Gigabyte GA_965P_S3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

The S3 is about a tenner cheaper - only difference is 3 year warranty versus the 5 for the DS3 (D for Durability). This is based on Solid State Capacitors.

Built an S3 today with the 4300 with a stock cooler and some Geil 6400. Very very happy.

EDIT

In fact apart from the DS3/S3 we have basically the same components - including case. It goes together like a dream!

Second EDIT The 4300 will give you an easier overclock to basically the same levels.

Have you overclocked your's yet? If so, how did you get on?

I did notice the S3, but for the sake of a tenner, I thought I'd go for the DS3 as that's the board that I've seen a lot of people get such good results from. I know I'd be really annoyed if it turned out that those different capacitors were the difference between getting a stable overclock or not...

How quiet is the system? My brother had an Antec Aria, and the only way I knew that it was on was because of the Lights on the front. That's why I originally wanted the NSK1300 (the Aria's replacement), but I figured that it was worth a gamble on the noise front for the sake of a 50% higher clock.
 
Assuming both clock the same - it depends where that sweet spot falls.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17680797&highlight=e4300+gigabyte

That thread has the discussion.

Most mobos will easily do 400FSB, but higher is not guaranteed (neither is 400!). You will get better benchies at at 7x500 than 9x400, but you are more likely to get 9x400 stable.

Cheap RAM, cheap(er) chip make this gamble all the more tempting.
 
artaxerxes said:
I have yet to install windows! However following this guide http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17636047

I was up and running without a hitch. I could boot at 333fsb at *stock*. 366 would refuse to boot. I have not yet touched the voltages. However this lacks the Orthos mark of legitimacy. Will post tomorrow when i have a 12 hour stability test.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17610180 has the whole discussion about the DS3 and what to expect.

Cheers, I'll read through those now...

I've just realised that I haven't seen integrated graphics mentioned, does the DS3 have that?
 
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