Overclocking an AMD Athlon 64 3000+

[notEworthy27]

Hello. I'm trying to get the best out of my PC right now. It's primarily used as an NLE system. The programs I use are from the Adobe Suite. Right now I'm using the CS3 suite. I primarily use Premier Pro CS3 as I am a filmmaker. I usually edit videos on SD and HDV (for quite a while) formats. My main forte is on sound design.

I'd like to overclock my editing system to see whether I will be upgrading or not.So here are the specs of my system:

AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3000+ 1.8Ghz
(2) 512 mb PC3200 Twinmos RAM
(2) 1 Gb PC3200 Transcend RAM
Mobo: MSI RS480M2 K8 S939
Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce6600 512mbDDR
Sound card: Sound Blaster Audigy SE
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm Sata 200Gb
(2) CRT monitors

So is it advisable for me to overclock my system based on these specs? If so, how do I start? Thank you! :)

[casecutter]

Re: Overclocking an AMD Athlon 64 3000+

That motherboard will not help much if at all. Also, running 4 stick of ram with that CPU would extremely limit your results. You don't list your power supply as well. If it is a generic low power unit it will not be up to the task. Finally, you need to go to a dual core if not a quad core since your work could used the CPU power. I'd honestly have to say you'd be wasting your time trying. You could easily build a budget dual core for well under $1K and possible a decent Quad core. Overclocking is never a good idea with a machine that is being used for work that cannot be easily replaced if something fails.

[notEworthy27]

Re: Overclocking an AMD Athlon 64 3000+

how is it that running 4 sticks of ram with this cpu and mobo will limit the results? is it the processing power or the mobo capabilities? Speaking of budget dual or quad core, what could you suggest? :)

[casecutter]

Re: Overclocking an AMD Athlon 64 3000+

S939 AMD CPU's hardly like to run 4 sticks of memory, and when you try to overclock them like that they become very unstable very fast. And your motherboard has very limited overclocking capabilities on it's own.

What is your location and possible budget? That would help greatly in figuring out that request.

[notEworthy27]

Re: Overclocking an AMD Athlon 64 3000+

hmmm. but then there's a big difference between running it with just 1gb or ram and 3 gb of ram. so is there any way for me to maximize my resources / system without overclocking if overclocking is not a wise choice? perhaps the removal of the audigy soundcard, and I use the motherboard's built-in audio card (AC97)? Editing in HDV is a pain in the ass in my desktop but in SD mode, its quite manageable. Regarding the S939 AMD CPU, I could see the performance gap in rendering with it versus my laptops core duo cpu (which is running at about the same speed).

Location: the Philippines
budget: none in particular but I'd like to maximize what I have for the mean time. if a new setup could accommodate the hardware that I have already it would be much better. Perhaps I'd be changing the motherboard and cpu at first. :)

[casecutter]

Re: Overclocking an AMD Athlon 64 3000+

Your best possible option NOW is to get a dual core S939 CPU and pop it in there. Keep the sound card since onboard uses a few CPU cycles. You can keep the 3GB of ram, it just forces you to run the ram 2T. You get more benefits from 3GB of ram VS running it 1T. I'd say try and find a 4400+/4800+ or 175/180/185 Opteron so that you'll get higher stock speeds and not really need to overclock. There are too many variables and for a system like yours that is just not geared towards overclocking at all, your absolute best bet is the dual core CPU. You would see a huge jump in performance even at stock speeds going to a 2.4GHz+ S939 dual core CPU.

[notEworthy27]

Re: Overclocking an AMD Athlon 64 3000+

what do you mean by running running the ram at 2T or 1T? And what do you mean by keeping the soundcard? do I remove it from my system and use the onboard sound or do I use the separate soundcard? I'll start looking for S939 dual cores over the weekend. :)