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The X2 3600 Newegg Combo |
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Featuring the Biostar T-Force 550 |
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by Josh Walrath |
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The Asus M2N32-SLI petered out around 290 MHz HTT, giving the final CPU overclock of 2761 MHz. The Biostar T-Force 550 had a max HTT speed of 340 MHz, but when dialing HTT down to maximize CPU speed I ended up with 2916.5 MHz (307 x 9.5)- give or take a few MHz. That is essentially 150 MHz higher than the more expensive M2N32-SLI. This was achieved using 1.47v for the CPU core. Using the Core Temp Beta 0.94, the overclocked X2 3600 hit around 20 C in a room with ambient temperature around 18 C. Using Prime95 the core temp would climb to around 55 C. In fact, if left on long enough the BIOS would read the temp as going to 70 C and shut down by itself. In that time the board and chip would never spontaneously reboot, rather the motherboard shut it down when it appeared the temp went above 70 C. Changing that value in the BIOS to a higher temp stopped the system from shutting down while at full load.
The power components are all exposed and passively cooled. Biostar does recommend that there is good airflow through the case. Note the solid caps between the coils and the CPU. For not being a hardcore overclocker, I was quite happy with the results I achieved with this combination. Going from 1.9 GHz to 2.9 GHz is no small feat. Also consider that there are others with these chips that are achieving 3 GHz+ overclocks. For the price of $164 US the X2 3600 and Biostar T-Force 550 combo offers a lot of bang for the buck. Conclusion I cannot say enough about the Biostar T-Force 550 and X2 3600 combination. While it is not the fastest X2 in the barn, the price point it achieves makes it a surefire winner. Consider that buying the Biostar/X2 3600 combo is actually cheaper than the low end E4300 Core 2 Duo without a motherboard. The extra money saved can go into getting a better video card, more memory, larger harddrive, etc. Most people should easily be able to clock this combo to 2.6 GHz without issue, and those with the really nice chips could get to 3.1 GHz. The Biostar board itself is a gem. I have rarely had an experience as smooth as this one when testing a motherboard or trying to achieve a large overclock. It just took everything I gave it and kept pumping along. All versions for sale now are the 1.3 revision, which greatly improves the clocking headroom over previous versions. While it sports no fancy features, extreme cooling, or LED lighting, it is one of the best little motherboards I have yet come across. When you consider the standard $79 price, its value really is hard to beat. Its overall performance matches most other AM2 boards, and I noticed no issues in I/O or networking speed. It just skated right along without issue.
While the board does not support Firewire, it does feature two more USB headers, the parallel port header, and the reset and power buttoms at the bottom right. Taken as a whole, the X2 3600+ and Biostar T-Force 550 really redefine the budget enthusiast, and this combination should be considered when building a new system or upgrading an old one. These products offer performance and quality, all at a very low price. It is great to see AMD really pushing the budget sector with an inexpensive dual core chip, and it is wonderful to see Biostar take its time and develop a really outstanding budget board with overclocking features that match products at twice its price. Something to consider is that I purchased this board and combo, it was not provided to me by Biostar or AMD. Since this was hard earned cash out of my pocket, my conclusions should be viewed as that of a well educated consumer. The board might not be for everyone, but overall I am very pleased with it as a full featured and inexpensive product.
Biostar T-Force 550 Excellence in Engineering Award
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