X2 3800 - Put to the test

[Paradoxxx]

In an attempt to keep my system up to date I decided to swap out my old 3200 for a cheap dual core (the X2 3800). The upgrade did not cost much (a bit over TT$400) and gives me a chance to add some much needed power to my existing system.

Games have become more CPU demanding, newsgroups do quite a bit of decompressing/verifying and HD decoding stresses your CPU. I had my old CPU clocked at 2.5GHz which was a result of a 250MHz bus X10, this time around I wanted a bit more.

I started at 250MHz and worked my way up in increments of 10 doing all the little magic in between to keep things stable. I finally reached 290Mhz and decided to stress test it, sad to say a core failed after 12hours of a heated stress test. I reworked my calculations and settings and re-ran the tests which thus far (as of 800am this morning) look good.

Sad to say I did something wrong in terms of getting the best out of the thermal paste, I may re apply the paste if I see it as being necessary.

Attached is the results of the OC, keep in mind this CPU runs at 2.0GHz natively.

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2.9GHz Stable - 24Hr Prime testing.

[mojo]

u did this on that old dfi nf4 mobo?

i think i might get that cpu also... until the quad core market gets more competitive.

[Paradoxxx]

Yeah dude, I try to upgrade by need not want. This should keep me happy for a while.

[ecktt]

Yes those chips rock. I remember building a cheap asrock setup that did 2.5 easy and a Biostar system that did 2.8. both systems with stock voltage 939s

[P30N]

Retail HSF?

[Paradoxxx]

Thermaltake Big Typhoon.

[Captain Awesome]

Back when I had my 3800 AM2, all I could get stable (1 week continuous stress testing) out of the damn thing was 2.7 Ghz with an Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe. Nice one.

Oh BTW, Orthos is already multi threaded, one instance stresses both cores, no need for two to be running.