Kamakazi guide to building an overclock computer

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Building an Overclocking Computer

One of the common mistakes that people make when delving into overclocking is to build a computer, and then decide that they’d like to overclock it to gain that bit more performance out of it.

What must be considered before building a computer is how much overclocking you would like to carry out on your computer. If it isn’t much, then fine, go and buy that unbranded, off the shelf PC. If it’s a little, stick to the branded stuff. If you want to try and get into the upper echelons of PCMark05, then this guide is for you!

(just to point out, I’m not going to go into how to overclock- I’ll save that for another guide!)

First things first, is:

KNOWLEDGE.

When approaching the building of a computer, most people go to a website, look at the parts which they need, and get a little overwhelmed and as a result, end up with a sub-par computer built from special deals and generic parts.

What you must do is research, research, and research. I myself, when building my current computer, carried out around 8 months of research prior to the build until I felt that I had a more than sufficient knowledge of the components I’d need and the components which I wouldn’t need. This did mean that when I built my computer, 2 or 3 months later, Core 2 Duo processors were released, but still, because I had done enough research, I had that upgrade path.

You have to make sure you understand the importance of buying quality parts which work together well, and you need to understand what will be bottlenecks in your particular setup. Another mistake that people make when attempting an overclock is comparing it to other people’s, who may have a totally different setup. This means that you will rarely ever be able to reach the same overclock as many others, but in that lucky instance when your components just gel together well, you may blow away the competition.

Next, is:

PLANNING.

Go through your whole component list, and make sure you have every component that you require for the build before you attempt it.

This means looking at the packages which you get with the components themselves, such as do you get the SATA connectors which you need with your motherboard, and do you get the right connectors on your power supply for the build?

Then, go through it again. It’s extremely easy to miss that part you need, like a 6 pin PCI-E power connector for your swanky new video card.

The Importance of Brands

Most of the time, you can get away with buying generic unbranded stuff, but when buying parts for a PC, get out of that dirty, dirty habit.

The big brands have a very good reputation, and usually this is founded on the fact that they do indeed perform better than the less renowned non-brands.

PSUs

Hiper Power is my brand of choice, but other excellent brands include Enermax, Corsair, Tagan and Seasonic. Getting a branded PSU is vital to the core of your build, as buying a generic one will most often mean you have an unstable one which often will not push the power it is rated at. It is common for an unbranded 500Watt PSU to only actually push 300Watts.

Also, the power rating isn’t always the most important thing when choosing a PSU. You have to think about the Amps across the 12V rails too. The PSU should have at least 30Amps across the 12V rails on the PSU.

This can be worked out by finding the wattage of the 12V rails (this isn’t the total output of the PSU) and then dividing it by the volts, which gives you the amperage.

Motherboards

This is probably the most important part to think about in build focused upon overclocking. The northbridge chipset is the most important thing to consider, as it determines how much headroom you have.

I myself only ever use boards with the Intel P965 northbridge due to its more streamlined nature in comparison to the bloated D975X chipset with its extra ‘features’, and in terms of brand, I only ever use Abit boards due to their excellent support and additional features, such as the excellent uGuru chip on board their motherboards which is specifically designed to aid overclocking.

RAM

Now, this is where it gets a bit more, shall we say, subjective. I would never use any other brand than Corsair RAM. Never. I have never come across a problem with it, and it is often awesome for overclocking.

Now here however, comes one of the scams of the PC building industry. Forget RAM marked as ‘overclocking RAM’. Most often, it is just relabelled generic RAM to bump up the price. Corsair Value Select is some of the most stable, overclockable RAM I have used, and is often 50% cheaper than ‘overclocker’s RAM’.

Choosing a Processor

Now, here comes probably the most debated part of building an overclocking computer, which is do you buy a low end CPU, and try to overclock the hell out of it, or do you buy a higher up CPU and do the same?

In the age of the Pentium D, I would have said that buying a cheap CPU was the right answer, with the Pentium D 805 being the king of overclocking, easily reaching 3.66Ghz (a whole extra Ghz for nothing). However, we are now in the age of Core 2 Duo, and I’d have to say that buying a mid range CPU is the better option as they have a little extra headroom and are able to handle a little extra voltage when overclocking, such as the E6600.

But anyway, it’s up to you what you choose; just don’t expect to get that E4300 up to 3.2Ghz on air.

This brings me to the second most important part of your overclocking build:

THE COOLING!

For example, you wouldn’t want to build your £1500 monster rig, and then sticking the Intel generic heatsink on, would you? (oh, wait, most of you do :P). a good aftermarket cooler is the keystone to a stable, long term overclock and essential if you want to avoid damage to your processor (and your PWM circuitry which regulates voltages).

I swear by my Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro, which lets my E6600 overclocked to 3.2Ghz to idle at sometimes 24oC, and under load, hit a high of 54oC. This is awesome, considering it cost me only £12 from ebay, and gives performance comparable to a water cooling kit.

Also, case fans are very important. Generic ones rarely ever push enough air through a case. As a result, I use high RPM Sharkoon Silent Eagle 2000 case fans to push loads of air through my case (which is regulated by uGuru to keep the noise down). The case itself must also be good quality, in that it must have a good air flow through the whole case in an effort to minimise hot spots. Thermaltake make great cases in terms of air flow, but they aren’t cheap.

And finally:

Hard Disks

In a computer, the hard disk is often the slowest, most unreliable piece of hardware. It won’t help your overclock one ounce, so maybe you are thinking I’m going a bit mad. But, if you want the higher scores in benchmark programmes, you have to consider the hard disk. So, a long hard look at all of your options should be taken before committing to purchase. For example, that Raptor X isn’t always the best option. The Samsung Spinpoint T166 HD510LJ is a 500GB hard disk that has comparable performance to a Western Digital Raptor, but is a lot cheaper at £75.

I would never use an EIDE drive since I started using my SATA II drive, mainly because they are much faster, but also because they are a lot more user friendly to use in terms of cabling and connecting inside the computer.

A RAID array may also be of consideration, but I won’t go into details about that as that’s a whole other area of PC building.

Well, that’s the end of my guide (for the moment). If you think I’ve missed anything important out, don’t hesitate to suggest it!
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