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"Beefing up the PC"

Right, as many of you may have seen I know pretty much nothing about computers.

A year and a half ago my parents got me a Dell Dimension 2400, mainly as it was quite good value for what I wanted it for. (Internet, writing essays and storing music/pictures).

However, I kind of want to play new games on it now but this system isn't that great for it... so I'm going to upgrade it as best I can. I probably should just use the money to buy a mac or something but my parents would go mental, probably.

Here it is here [URL]http://www.dealtime.com/xPF-Dell_Dimension_2400_Cel_2_20GHz_128MB_40GB[/URL]

I have only have one slot for memory, so I'm thinking of getting a stick of 512 RAM, plus I need a really good graphics card.

Erm, so please help tell me what I need and any suggestions. Plus, do I need a new motherboard?

...

Surely you went through a long process of working out the lowest possible stable voltage.....?

15*200 i think...i dunno, i did it like 6 months ago...i cudn't tell you the voltage.

I have a mobile athlon. It's already unlocked.

What FSB/multiplier/voltage are you using then?

mermoid wrote:
> I might see just how far I can push my mobile barton... just need to
> buy "this high speed fan to which like sucks the air in really
> quickly and packs it down all over the chip".
>
> That should be more than enough to hit at least 2.7GHz I reckon.

If you contact AMD, they have good suggestions when it comes to fans. I would recommend care when overclocking an Athlon XP 3000+ to 3 gig though, if the cooling fails you get pretty f**ked. I mean i accidentally got an IDE caught in the fan once and you shud have seen the temperature go up...i know they have safety cut outs nowadays but still...scared the crap outta me, went from like 28^ to like 68^ in seconds! I just cut the power! Also, to unlock an Athlon, there are instructions online...its a physical process but its worth it. Maximum you can get it to go locked i think is 166*14 which gives you 2324MHz but unlock it and you have so much more to play with. I dunno if it wears out the chip though, spose if you keep it cool enough, shudn't do too much damage. I am replacing the cooling system soon, gonna invest in one of those water cooling systems.

I can get my 64-bit 3200 running stable at about 2.4GHz or so with just air cooling - 11 fans though...

I might see just how far I can push my mobile barton... just need to buy "this high speed fan to which like sucks the air in really quickly and packs it down all over the chip".

That should be more than enough to hit at least 2.7GHz I reckon.

I even understand what you're talking about now.

Notorious Biggles wrote:
> But still YEY I reached over 2.6 GHz with a desktop barton and air
> cooling.

Still crappy compared to his 3GHz on air with no problems at all :' }

There were two versions, the 333 and 400 MHz FSB versions. Depending on when they were made they could be unlocked, mine is. I reached 240 * 11 on mine once, on air. But it wasn't exactly stable. Don't think my RAM could handle it, as it locked up within about ten minutes.

But still YEY I reached over 2.6 GHz with a desktop barton and air cooling.

Sorry SHEEPY.

Yeah, probably waiting a bit and starting from scratch is the better idea. That way you get a beast that matches up to your reputation and has no compromises.

I still want to hear more about this guy's Athlon XP at 3.0GHz.

XP3000s have the multiplier locked, right?
So that means he's gone from the stock 166x13 to 231x13 to get to 3000MHz.
That's a hell of a jump for the FSB.
He must be at about 3v.