Build Advice Starting a new budget build

Yeah I can't agree with that enough tbh. It's really annoying when you build a rig and the CPU starts holding things back and there's bugger all you can do about it

Always sensible to buy a decent unlocked CPU. That way you can get a year down the line and overclock it when you need to.

I'll never buy another locked CPU as long as I live. They're not even disposable prices.

 

Here's it's the board rather than the CPU The cheaper 970s allow overclocking but the VRMs will overheat and throttle, and the poorer phase design will give up.

 

My Extreme 3 is 4+1 but I still managed a 4.2ghz overclock Prime stable with my 8320.

Any more and yes, the VRMs throttle the CPU. I would imagine you could easily get 4.5ghz out of the 6300 on 4+1? it's got two cores missing.

As much as the VRM throttle annoys me I do like it. I had an Asrock board once and I fried it by overclocking a 140w Phenom 9950.

 

People get very good results with the Asus EVO (it's 6+2, but very high quality). 4.5GHz on an 8320 on that board isn't unusual.

If you put a small active fan over your VRMs you might get rid of the throttling and get up higher.

 

Scan are doing the 580GTX with their warranty and returns for 113 quid.

( Which after much debate with the folks bought for my second PC - given how much aof a bargain it was [ because of strict budget ] )