Best Board and Ram For Overclocking Pentium 1.6a

[Harry]

I want to upgrade and I am strongly leaning toward a Pentium 4 1.6a 512k processor because of the great overclocking it seems to be getting averaging 2.4ghz. Because of that, it doesn't make much sense to pay the extra money for a 2.0aghz or even a 2.2aghz.

So if I overclock, what is going to be the best board that will support overclocking? Is it still the Asus P4S533 or another board?

What will be the best ram to get for overclocking as I understand that ram can also make some kind of difference?

Is upping the voltage to get the higher clock speed going to in anyway affect my older 16 meg PCI all in wonder 128 video card, hard drive, cdrom, printer, scanner, network card, scuzzi card or anything else?

And though a system may be initially stable from overclocking, is there anything written about the possibility of overclocking causing greater wear and tear on your processor or system so that everything will come to screeching halt after a year or two?
I mean there are people who say you should never overclock.

[HAL9000]

The ASUS P4S533 is probably the best bet as it will support PC2700 RAM in the process. A close second would be the ASUS P4B533's, but they only support PC2100.

[DrZaius]

I second HAL's suggestions, both good stable boards.

[Cricket]

Hi Harry,

For overclocking, Mushkin RAM is the best. Be prepared to pay the price though.

Is upping the voltage to get the higher clock speed going to in anyway affect my older 16 meg PCI all in wonder 128 video card, hard drive, cdrom, printer, scanner, network card, scuzzi card or anything else?

No, upping the CPU voltage won't affect your other components. But upping the FSB (Front Side Bus) speed will.

And though a system may be initially stable from overclocking, is there anything written about the possibility of overclocking causing greater wear and tear on your processor or system so that everything will come to screeching halt after a year or two? I mean there are people who say you should never overclock.

There are always risks when overclocking. You must understand that if you decide to overclock your system, you are ultimately responsible for whatever happens to it.

Cricket

[morriswindgate]

The Soltek SL-85DR2+-L or the Soltek SL-85MR2-SL are also very good boards for this as they feature an AUtomatic over-clocking chip, or you can over- clock manually. Also these boards have AGP and RAm overclocking ability built in and explained in the manual.
Als will support PC2700 DDR.

[Harry]

Thanks for all the great info and recommendations.

i no some1 that has a p4 1.6a on a epox 4G4A+ and hes got it up to 2.7ghz on air cooling...

[Furius92]

Well I once pushed my PC (in sig) up to 2128MHz, since I can only have the FSB up to 133, the BIOS doesn't allow anything higher. It ran fine really, all except Return to Castle Wolfenstein which wouldn't recognize my processor at all (said something like "No supported processor recognized"). I didn't really notice a difference though, since I am running a Geforce 2 MX 400 which kills any 3D performance gains I might have gotten. What a mistake buying that card...

[Mr N8]

I would say go with the Asus P4S533. I've used a few of these boards and overclocked one with a 1.6a to just over 2.3Ghz with no stability issues.

For memory, take a look at the Corsair XMS modules. I've been hearing that they are excellent for overclocking. My friend was a loyal Muskin buyer, until he put some of the Corsair in his system. It overclocks nicely, and has a heatspreader that comes with each of the pieces.

nate