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- Date:
- Friday , November 07, 2003
- Author:
- Morry Teitelman
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
System Building Guide 0403
We help you build a solid gaming and overclocking rig that will leave the alien-headed voodoo boys circled by the buzzards.
CPU:
The heart and soul of any great computer system is the CPU, or Central Processing Unit. When it comes to gaming and enthusiast activities, there are only two ways to go. You either go AMD or Intel. The fanboys on both sides already know where their loyalties lie, but our editors lean both directions. Morry likes his AMD while Kyle is back to being an Intel man for the time being at least. We think we are all waiting for sub-$200 Athlon64s to show up!
AMD
On the AMD side of the argument it's a fairly easy choice. There is one AthlonXP that is a clear winner in the price and performance category. The AthlonXP 2500+, based on the Barton core. This CPU comes standard with 512KB L2 cache, giving it a bit of a speed advantage over the older Thoroughbred core. Although a bit slower than its 200 MHz FSB brethren, the 2500+ does come standard with a 166 MHz FSB.
Overclocking-wise, the 2500+ is a gem. Its default speed of 1.86 GHz (11 x 166) is high enough to give it some teeth, but moderate enough to give some very good overclocking potential with decent cooling. Coupled with a board that can unlock its multiplier, you should be able to easily push this chip to a 200 MHz FSB at a minimum clock speed of 2.2 GHz. At that speed, the chip becomes faster than the top of the line AMD chip at default speeds. Coupled with the right RAM and HSF unit, a higher FSB and overall clock speed should pose no problem at all.
You might be asking yourself, "Well, what about the Athlon64 and AthlonFX CPUs?" While those processors do offer much in the way of sheer speed and performance, they are relatively new and untested. Not to mention that they are both available in relatively small quantities, driving the price for either processor a bit high for our budgets. We recommend you wait and see with these processors, unless you’ve truly got the money to burn. If that is the case, we do not think anyone will be disappointed in their stock performance, but overclocking is not currently their strong suit when compared to our picks here today.
Intel
In the Intel camp, the current price/performance king is definitely the Pentium 4 2.4c CPU. The 2.4c processor comes standard with HyperThreading support as well as an 800 MHz FSB. The one downside of Intel CPUs compared to the AthlonXPs, is the fact that it is multiplier locked at a "12" setting. This means that you can only alter the Front Side Bus when overclocking this CPU. However, this is actually less of a hindrance than you would think due to the massive core clock potential of this CPU.
The overclockability of the 2.4c mirrors that of the other great Intel overclocker, the Celeron 300a. Given the fact that most P4s can overclock to a minimum of 3.0 GHz with the retail HSF unit and with little more than default voltage, that 12x multiplier becomes critical. When coupled with an FSB of 250 MHz, the CPU’s clock speed is a mere 3.0 GHz. When used with the proper motherboard, memory, and HSF combination, a 3.6 GHz overclock with a 300 MHz FSB can certainly be a possibility and one that we have experienced firsthand more than once.