Help me build around X2 3800 and overclock to 2.4 for low money

[Baccusboy]

I'm a newbee here, and would appreciate your help. Thank-you in advance!

I am interested in perhaps building a 3800 X2 dual-core system, and want to run rock-solid stable at 2.2, but preferrably rock-solid at 2.4 for home video editing. My goal is to edit HD video when the 720p camera costs come down.

I'd like dual-channel Ram (512x2 enough for now until I have to upgrade to edit HD next year?), but I don't want to spend a ton of cash on the ram side if I don't have to. I'm not afraid to get a nicer power supply or cooling, but I'd like a simple to install heat pipe or very quiet fan.

What mainboard, ram, etc., would you suggest? I can get about anything here in Korea (sometimes sooner than the average joe can back in the states, and sometimes a bit later). Am thinking of getting a 10,000 RPM hard drive for the operating system, and storing video to an external HD via firewire.

My main question, though is: how simple is it to OC to 2.2 or 2.4? Can I do it without changing from stock voltage, or buy just changing a few simple settings?

Oh, and while I've got you, if I get dual-channel ram (512x2) is it the same as if I had 1 gig of ram? I mean, I know it's faster, but is it like 512 running at double-speed, or is it actually a full 1 gig of ram? I don't know how to ask the question I'm thinking of, really, but I know Premiere runs so much better with 1 gig as opposed to 512.


Thanks!

 

[n7]

Hi


How 'bout an Abit AN8 Ultra.
Passive cooling for the mobo, so it's silent.

For RAM, i'd consider a single GB dimm for now, so you can add another GB dimm later when you can afford to, since 2 GBs wouldn't hurt for heavy video/multimedia/image editting.
Just stick with some good value RAM like OCZ, Crucial, Muskin, Corsair.

OCing to 2.4 GHz isn't too hard.

Read this: http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=28&threadid=1497607&enterthread=y

Set LDT multi to 4x
Set RAM divider to 166 or 6:5)
Make sure CPU multi is set at 10x
Set HTT to 240 (slowly work your way up to that)
Bump up vcore lightly if needed.

 

[Baccusboy]

Thanks. I have been considering that board.

But I really want Dual-Channel Ram for the speed increase (I heard it's a fair increase), although I don't understand a lot about it yet. Don't I need to buy 2 identical ram sticks sold together to make it work?

And I guess I want to get by with this very easily -- as in change a simple setting or two in about 30 seconds and be there. From what I've read, that is not likely in getting 2.4, but I wonder if it would be for 2.2?

The tests and stuff outlined in your link seem like a lot more than what I want to do (for a start, anyway).