So I want to do my first Overclock

[Snowman]

I am ready to try my first overclock on my desktop. My processor looks to be quite promising for how old it is. Here is the reason I find it so promising AMD Geeks profile of an overclock on the Athlon 64 X2 4000+ and of course Validation of said overclock. Now he states this was based on an aircooled system and am just wondering if I could achieve the same stability or if I would be hurting anything doing this. I am still contemplating my first water loop as well.

[mDust]

Now he states this was based on an aircooled system and am just wondering if I could achieve the same stability or if I would be hurting anything doing this. I am still contemplating my first water loop as well.

Are you using the stock heat sink? If so, your OCing is very limited. You need to keep the temps down and feed the chip just as many volts as it needs to be stable. If you're only OCing a little bit, then you likely won't have to mess with voltage at all. It's probably best to keep it simple while you learn.

You won't cause damage unless the chip gets over its thermal or voltage spec. Which appears to be 1.35v and 72C?
http://products.amd.com/en-us/Deskto...f11=False&f12=
I don't believe that's the maximum temp for your CPU but I can't find anything that says otherwise. It just seems a bit low... Anyway, if you can't keep it below 70C then you need better cooling.

[Snowman]

I am still on my stock heat sink just because am2 coolers are fraggin awful on a price scale there is no affordable only cheap worse than oem and arm and a leg. Where as I could set up a water loop for my cpu for about the price of what seems to be a good air cooler.

[x88x]

Look closer. A lot of heatsinks are compatible with a large variety of sockets. ...not that I would discourage you from going liquid.

Here's a couple good ones that are compatible with AM2:
ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 64 Pro 92mm: $30
ZALMAN CNPS9700: $46

[Trace]

Snowman, if you want some help, feel free to PM me for my IM address and I will be happy to help you via IM.

[Snowman]

I appreciate the input but it seems more and more what was a good idea for a hardware profile 2-3 years ago is now coming together as a cooling nightmare unless i go liquid based almost souly on clearance issues alone.

[diluzio91]

what are your space restraints?

[Snowman]

This is the case
This is the mobo
and because of how the cooler is oriented most of the bigger coolers run against the psu, back of the case, or just have clearance issues with the side panel because of depth. I am not against getting a new case whatsoever so that my server can have a new better looking home. Matter o fact I have been looking around at pre-drilled cases for water cool and the bottom mount psu just havent seen anything that caught my eye.

[Snowman]

I think I finally picked a cooler and also found a drive tray so that I can remove my hdd cage and relocate everything to my empty 5.25" bays in case I want room for a res and pump and all that liquid cooling jive. Anyway here is the cooler I am thinking of and of course its Rosewill, some how I am always drawn to their heatsinks because they are super affordable and always get good reviews.

[x88x]

I would go with this one instead. It's $10 more, but the whole thing is copper, which provides much better heat dissipation, which is important especially in a HS/F as small as these are. I actually had this one on one of my older machines and I have been very happy with it.
EDIT:
Forgot the link:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835106073