Is the Intel Pentium D 930 actually worth buying?

[Tomlo]

Well if you havent overclocked before then read alot of guides and be very patient.

Dont try and do a max OC on the first day, learn to overclock your video card first then your ram before you should even attempt to OC your cpu.

Some Tips:

Patience, only go ~5Mhz at a time. Run a long benchmark each time and pay close attention to the sensors.

Just because your CPU temp is running cold doesnt mean your northbridge isnt turning into jello.

The Clear CMOS jumper is your friend.

Do not up the voltage until you are certin that its whats holding back a higher OC.

[semicolo]

The psu does eat some power, it only converts 80 to 90% of the energy, there's some heat generated (heat means power dissipation).

What motherboard will you buy ? I don't recommend the asus p5rd2-vm, since at least 1 out of 4 we use where I work are bad, don't know if it's a driver problem, some work like a charm, others aren't stable at all.

[MrTeressaBond]

well i was recommended ASUS and DFI...

but i am also wondering if ESC or ECS (dont know which order) is a good motherboard to buy, and is god for overclocking. i did actually hear its a good motherboard, just like MSI, but i dont know if you lot will agree.

i also had in mind either 930-940-950 intel pentium D CPus to but, and if 940 and 950 they can work stable wen overclocked.

[Tomlo]

WARNING: DO NOT BUY ECS

Their Motheboards have a tendency to fry processors and ram, I have gone through 4 CPUs on one ECS mobo and im not the only one. I would not recomend anyone to use them. Their motherboards do not allow any overclocking either.

Also like semicolo said a powersupply does use some power, just to run the fan and when converting AC-DC some power is lost but it is neglible.

ASUS makes some good motherboards but they like to be pioneers with new technologys and this can bite them with compatibility, usually their boards get better with age through BIOS updates.
They can be either a dream or a nightmare, but they usually offer the best overclocking option next to DFI.

[MrTeressaBond]

oh cool.

well thanks very much Tomolo, i wish i knew as much as you do.

but i am going to stick with Intel and overclock it. i am not even sure how to do it, either by software or hardware?

and which fan do i stick in before i overclock it or wen i first buld the computer? the stock fan or the Zelman's?

[Tomlo]

It dont matter which fan you stick in using the zalmans shouldnt cause any problems and overclocking a processor is completely done through the bios.

[MrTeressaBond]

oh right.

i always thought u need to overclock the CPU with a kind of software or something.

wat exatly do u have to do then?

[Tomlo]

wow, do ALOT of reading.

Usually to get into the BIOS you have to press delete or F1 when your computer is first starting, good luck after that...

[MrTeressaBond]

ummm ok then.

if i were to overclock it, according to that site i linked, they did it at 4GHz on the 930, thus would it be possible if i should do the same when i get my 930?

also, i think i just won a dodgy item:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...MEWA%3AIT&rd=1

[Tomlo]

Well you would need a good motherboard, ram, and cooling to reach the OC they got.

In that article they used ASUS P5WD2-E Premium mainboard, Corsair CM2X1024-6400PRO, and Zalman CNPS9500 cooling.

Like I said get a good ASUS board and good ram and maybe you can reach what they got but when overclocking its mostly luck, Identical items can perform completely different from each other...