INTEL's TOP CPU the Pentium 4 3.4Ghz Extreme Edition Intel
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44> 7625274 81181 Chips and chipsets. They’re the heart of any computing system, and as usual, we have packed this issue of PC Modder with dozens of pos- sible processor and motherboard matchups. Our Case Studies will THE PARTS SHOP help you discover what sort of performance you can expect to 19 AMD’s Top CPU achieve when overclocking various chip and chipset combos. When The Athlon 64 FX53 you’re ready to crank up your own silicon, our Cool It articles will provide tips on keeping excess heat under control. And then when 20 Intel’s Top CPU it’s time to build the ultimate home for your motherboard, our Cut Pentium 4 3.4GHz Extreme Edition It section will give you some case ideas to drool over. Whether you’re a modding novice or master, you’ll find this issue is filled with all the 21 Grantsdale Grants Intel Users’ Wishes tips and tools you need to build faster and more beautiful PCs. New i915 Chipset Adds Many New Technologies 22 Special FX SiS Adds Support For AMD’s FIRST-TIMERS Athlon 64FX CPU 4 The Need For Speed 23 Chipset Entertainment Take Your CPU To Ultimate Heights VIA’s PM880 Chipset One Step At A Time Ready For Media PCs 8 Cutting Holes & Taking Names & HDTV Your First Case Mod 24 May The 12 Water For First-Timers Force Be Tips To Help Watercooling With You Newbies Take The Plunge NVIDIA’s nForce3 Chipset 16 Benchmark Basics A Primer On 25 Essential Overclocking Utilities Measuring Power Modding Is As Much About The Your PC’s Right Software As The Right Hardware Performance 31 Sizing Up Sockets How Your Processor Saddles Up 33 The Mad Modder’s Toolkit Minireviews, Meanderings & Musings Copyright 2004 by Sandhills Publishing Company. Computer Power User is a trademark of Sandhills Publishing Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction of material appearing in Computer Power User is strictly prohibited without written permission. Printed in the U.S.A. GST # 123482788RT0001 (ISSN 1536-7568) CPU Computer Power User USPS 020-801 is published monthly for $29 per year by Sandhills Publishing Company, 131 West Grand Drive, P.O. Box 82667, Lincoln, NE 68501. Subscriber Services: (800) 424-7900. Periodicals postage paid at Lincoln, NE. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Computer Power User, P.O. Box 82667, Lincoln, NE 68501. 68 AMD Athlon 64 3000+ & Jetway CASE STUDIES S755MAX CRANK IT 70 AMD Athlon 64 3200+ & Gigabyte 39 Silicon Meets Silicon 99 Overclocking Dual-CPU Systems GA-K8VNXP Our Overclocking Series On Chip & Double Your Overclocking Chipset Combos 72 AMD Athlon 64 3200+ & SOYO CK8 Madness Dragon Plus Intel 74 AMD Athlon 64 3200+ & ASRock 102 Race For The Gold 40 3.0E GHz Pentium 4 & Biostar P4TSV K8S8X AMD vs. Intel For The (Intel 865G) 76 AMD Athlon 64 3400+ & Albatron Performance Crown K8X800 ProII 42 3.0E GHz Pentium 4 & ABIT AI7 108 ATI & NVIDIA Square Off 44 3.0E GHz Pentium 4 & EPoX 78 AMD Athlon 64 3400+ & AOpen Where Things Stand Between AK89 Max EP-4PCA3+ The GPUs & VPUs 46 3.2E GHz Pentium 4 & ECS 865G-M 80 AMD Athlon 64 3400+ & ECS 755-A2 82 AMD Athlon 64 FX-51 & ASUS SK8V 112 The Great Video Card Pyramid 48 3.2E GHz Pentium 4 & Shuttle How 3D Cards Stack Up AB60N 84 AMD Athlon 64 FX-51 & ASUS SK8N 50 3.2E GHz Pentium 4 & Chaintech 86 AMD Athlon 64 FX-51 & Gigabyte 114 What A Difference 9CJS Zenith GA-K8NNXP-940 A Drive Makes 52 3.2GHz Pentium 4 Extreme Edition How A New Hard Drive Affects & ASUS P4G800-V Graphics Cards Your Rig’s Overall Performance 54 3.2GHz Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 118 Do Motherboards Matter? & Soyo SY-P4I865PE Plus Dragon 2 88 Need Speed? One Chipset, Six Combatants 56 3.2GHz Pentium 4 Extreme Edition We Test 10 Video Cards To Find Out & Chaintech 9CJS Zenith Which Is Fastest 124 My DDR Can Beat Up Your DDR 58 3.4GHz Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 89 ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 9000 PRO Memory Speeds Advance Faster Than Industry Standards & Gigabyte GA8I1000 Pro-G 90 ATI Radeon 9200 60 3.4GHz Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 91 Sapphire ATI Radeon 9600 PRO 130 Clocking Corner & Chaintech S865PE 92 Sapphire ATI Radeon 9600 XT Push That New CPU To The Limit 62 3.4GHz Pentium 4 Extreme Edition & MSI 875P NEO-FIS2R 93 Sapphire ATI Radeon 9800 SE 94 BFG Technologies Asylum GeForce FX 5200 Ultra AMD 95 AOpen GeForce FX 5500 64 AMD Athlon 64 3000+ & ABIT 96 ABIT Siluro FX 5600 Ultra OTES KV8-MAX3 97 eVGA e-GeForce FX 5700 Ultra 66 AMD Athlon 64 3000+ & Chaintech Zenith ZNF3-150 98 PNY GeForce FX 5900 SE Customer Service JUST FOR FUN (For questions about your subscription or to place an order or change an address.) 182 Remote Control Wizardry [email protected] Install & Modify Your 800-733-3809 FAX: (402) 479-2193 Transmitter/Receiver Combo Computer Power User P.O. Box 82667 COOL IT 184 MP3 Evisceration Lincoln, NE 68501-2667 Tear Out That Microdrive & Use It Hours 132 Heatsink Heaven Wherever You Please Mon. - Fri.: 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. (CST) Sat.: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. (CST) The Right Product Will Save Your CPU Online Customer Service & Subscription From A Fiery Hell Center MODDER’S http://www.cpumag.com 140 A Fine Grind LIBRARY Web Services Lap Your Heatsinks To Increase (For questions about our Web site.) Cooling Efficiency [email protected] 188 Intel Chip Reference (800) 368-8304 Guide To Intel’s Newest Processors 142 Working With Grease Authorization For Reprints Get Lower Temps & A More (800) 334-7458 192 AMD Chip Reference FAX: (402) 479-2104 Overclockable Chip CPU Manufacturer Extends Its Athlon Editorial Staff 144 Dry Ice Destruction 64, Opteron & Mobile Lines [email protected] FAX: (402) 479-2104 Supercool Your CPU On The Cheap, 194 Intel-Compatible Chipset Reference 131 W. Grand Drive Mad-Modder Style Several Chipsets Add Features To Lincoln, NE 68521 Intel-Based Systems Subscription Renewals 148 Seal Your Socket (800) 382-4552 Don’t Let Condensation Devastate 196 Guide To AMD-Compatible Chipsets FAX: (402) 479-2193 http://www.cpumag.com A Super-Cooled System SiS’ & VIA’s New Chipsets Add 64-bit Support Advertising Staff 151 Hot Fans, Cool Case (800) 848-1478 The Quietest, Most Powerful 120 W. Harvest Dr. 198 Mainboard Mayhem Lincoln, NE 68521 & Best-Looking Fans 17 Motherboard Manufacturers Bring FAX: (402) 479-2193 Us 34 Of Their Most Popular 156 Keep Your Cool The Gang & Feature-Rich Motherboards Editorial Staff: Ronald D. Kobler / Samit Gupta Don’t Let Your PC’s Temp Get Out Of Control Choudhuri / Jennie Schlueter / Blaine Flamig / 215 RAM-ping Up Your System Corey Russman / Rod Scher / Christopher 158 Chill Chat Trumble / Calvin Clinchard / Kimberly Fitzke / We Chart The Top Modules From Katie Dolan / Raejean Brooks / Rebecca Keep The Heat Down With These Handy Tips Christensen / Tara Weber / Sally Curran / The Top Manufacturers Michael Sweet / Katie Crooks / Shawn Kupfer / Dana Montey / Nate Hoppe / Sheila Allen / Jennifer Hansen / Trista Kunce / Marty Sems / CUT IT Chad Denton / Nathan Chandler / Kylee MODDING Q&A Dickey / Josh Gulick / Andrew Leibman / Eric 160 Project Metropolis Reed / Vince Cogley Web Staff: Missy Fletcher / Dorene Krausnick / Nick Ray Customer Service: How Artist Paul Capello Built His Latest 217 Modding Q&A Alisha Lamb / Brandie Humphrey / Becky Modding Masterpiece We Answer Your Pressing Questions Rezabek / Lana Matic Subscription Renewals: Liz Kohout / Connie Beatty / Matt Bolling / Patrick Kean / Charmaine Vondra / Miden 166 Mod(ern) Art Ebert / Kathy DeCoito / Stephanie Contreras / Enjoy Browsing This Collection Of Nicole Buckendahl / Travis Brock Art & Design: INDEX Lesa Call / Fred Schneider / Carrie Benes / Creative Mods Ginger Riley / Sonja Warner / Leigh Trompke / 223 Manufacturers & Products Aaron Weston / Aaron Clark / Lori Garris / 176 Light My Fire Jason Codr / Andria Schultz / Erin Rodriguez / Lindsay Anker Newsstand: Garth Lienemann / Illuminate Your Hot PC, Rave Style Kelly Richardson / Chris McGreer / Jeff Schnittker FINAL BUILD Advertising Sales: Grant Ossenkop / Cindy Pieper / Brooke Wolzen / Eric Cobb / Emily Getzschman 180 The Paint Booth 224 The Ultimate Disaster Mod Marketing: Mark Peery / Marcy Gunn / Heather Tips & Tricks For Cutting, Sanding & Painting Mentgen / Amber Coffin / Jen Clausen Lab Crew: Kevin Morgan / Coby Boring / Chad Dalton / Andy Gerace / Jeff Roberts THE NEED FOR SPEED Take Your CPU To Ultimate Heights One Step At A Time verclocking, or pow- components, overclocking ex- er modding as it is periments and results, extreme Oalso known, is a goal cooling systems, case mods, of many advanced computer and other fascinating reads for users. Overclocking a system the power user. lets it run faster than it would at the supported speeds of its Before You Start components. For instance, you If you built your computer could overclock a 2.4GHz yourself, you already have an processor to run at 3.2GHz. A advantage when it comes to successful overclock will help overclocking. Systems built from games run smoother, pro- the ground up are usually easier cessor-intensive tasks run to overclock than proprietary, faster, and overall performance prebuilt computers. In fact, improve. However, there is a some manufacturer-assembled reason power modders are so computers come with many of proud of their overclocked the BIOS settings locked. If this systems. Overclocking is really is the case, you may not be able quite an art form, requiring to change the FSB (frontside patience, experimentation, bus), a setting that is the key to knowledge, and just a bit overclocking a modern system. of luck.