O C blast

d.nomaid · 3 May 2006 at 22:20

I've decided to go for this Asrock P4VM800 mobo and am putting my 3.06GHz HTT northwood skt 478 cpu onto it. Its gotta be mATX by the way :-)

So - am I
a) being nuts if im to O/C it ?
b) wasting my money
c) facing a mountainous climb for very little gain
d) over-reacting ?

All I want to do is play TES IV Oblivion on my PC for as little outlay as possible and have a bash at clocking.
I am going to keep my agpx8 FX5200TD256 GFX card even if it is on the bottom of the list for the game,as my current mobo is agp x4

And what about re-activation , is that scary or what ?
Im only on OEM thingy with recovery disc.
Your help or thoughts would be appreciated.
D.

d.nomaid · 4 May 2006 at 17:27

benjo · 4 May 2006 at 17:31

As for the reactivation.. i read on these forums that you can activate XP a maximum of 3 times.

And also, dont those CPU's get a bit toasty? And i presume your gonna be putting it in a mATX case? Make sure you have good cooling if your gonna clock it

oceaness · 4 May 2006 at 18:02

Windows is weird depends very much on your specific license.

A friend bought a package PC and the license agreement you have to accept by pressing F8 during install specifies that it can be used on up to 10 PC's

d.nomaid · 4 May 2006 at 18:05

Cooling

What case fan cooling would you reccomend ?
2 extra 120's or stick another 3 80's in (noisey) ?
What CPU cooler could I use (inexpensive) ?
D.

iraiguana · 4 May 2006 at 19:52

activation is fine, calling microsoft and telling them u reformatted and need a new code is just about as hard as it can get. so go for it.

m3csl2004 · 4 May 2006 at 22:07

benjo said:
As for the reactivation.. i read on these forums that you can activate XP a maximum of 3 times.

And also, dont those CPU's get a bit toasty? And i presume your gonna be putting it in a mATX case? Make sure you have good cooling if your gonna clock it

northwood cores run pretty cool, i have a 2.8 northwood cely in a matx case with 1 92mm case fan and the 80mm of the stock cooler and idles ~38

benjo · 4 May 2006 at 23:05

m3csl2004 said:
northwood cores run pretty cool, i have a 2.8 northwood cely in a matx case with 1 92mm case fan and the 80mm of the stock cooler and idles ~38

Fair enough

cooler than my barton

ajgoodfellow · 4 May 2006 at 23:10

Doesn't that motherboard have a Via chipset?

I'd personally go for an Intel based board - should be more stable and a better clocker

The Northwoods are pretty cool, it's the Prescotts that generate loads of heat

d.nomaid · 5 May 2006 at 09:22

Intel Boards

What do you suggest for Intel boards ajgoodfellow ?
Please feel free to suggest but dont forget my budget is <£50 !
The cheaper the better.
I'll be going down the air cooling route me thinks...
Im not really after massive overclocks just want to be able to say I've tried it, that sort of thing.
With regards to re-activation - over time I've added more RAM, a second HDD, and the GFX card, I'd have thought a mobo change could trigger the activation bit but I'm not going to reformat unless it goes badly pear-shaped !
D.

ajgoodfellow · 5 May 2006 at 11:22

I'd go for the ASUS P4P800SE or the ABit IC7

When new these were more than £50 though but you should be able to find some in Clearance or second hand for that kind of money

Great, stable boards

VoG · 5 May 2006 at 11:40

ajgoodfellow said:
I'd go for the ASUS P4P800SE or the ABit IC7

another vote for the IC7 here.

i had one with a 2.8 30 capper northy, ran it at 3.5 stable 24/7 with no fuss or drama from the mobo. the only down side being the IC7 has a dummy lan port so you need a nic to get online. how ever they also made the IC7-G which had inbuilt Gigabit LAN so no nic's needed for one of those.

d.nomaid · 5 May 2006 at 16:51

Unfortunately the ASUS P4P800SE is an ATX form factor, I need mATX.

ajgoodfellow · 6 May 2006 at 01:57

Ah - that's trickier then. You did mention that, sorry

I'd basically go for a motherboard from ASUS, ABit or Epox with an Intel chipset. If you're unsure about the clocking options then you can always download the motherboard manual off the website and see what options are available

d.nomaid · 6 May 2006 at 08:52

I was thinking of doing that, sound advice there Aj. I'll continue browsing websites for a board based on everybodys reccommendations.
Should I go for an 865 or higher (newer) ?
I will post back later for you to peruse my final choices and hope you can help finalise before commitment to purchase !
See ya later !
D.

h2ocooler · 6 May 2006 at 10:01

XP can be a git for changing mobo's, did you say it was an OEM copy with just a restore disk? if it is think you might have problems. I use a corporate XPpro with no activation on it and it wont boot if i put the hdd on another Mobo just BSOD's, you might have to get a new copy of XP.
SHame you need mATX as the p4p800 is a cracking board, got a P4 3.0E pressie @ 4GHz on 24/7 with no problems with one.
Good luck with the change over.

Praxxus · 29 May 2006 at 09:19

Update

Went for Asrock p4vm800.
Well I swapped the mobos over (first time doing this) and I am elated at the ease and unproblematic time I had doing it ! I didnt have to re-install WinXP (I used SYSPREP.EXE in TOOLs in my windows folder) even though I backed up all the important stuff anyway.
I even managed to re-activate Windows over the internet without problems !
BUT I can only notice about an 5% increase in playability in TES IV so I think I should have gone all-out PCIe mobo & GFx card, but atleast Ive now got the confidence and know how to do it later when that money tree starts growing again !
Thanks for your help - I will let you know how I get on with over-clocking my Northy !
D.

h2ocooler · 29 May 2006 at 12:31

Nice one, glad it went without any problems.