[Daryl]

First I just got a new computer (yipee!).

I'm poor but Tiger Direct had that sale on the emachines W3609 for $239.99.

My old computers are 1ghz machines so 3.33ghz is a big deal not to mention Vista and and and a DVD writer.

I use the speed of my computer for digital signal simulations related to my audio hobby.

Sometimes I let my computer think for an hour while it generates a chart running through calculation loops billions of times.

I have seen some posts on the internet where people are overclocking processors up to 100%.

The Celeron D 356 I have in my new computer is extremely well suited toward overclocking since it has fewer transistors and smaller 65nm transistors and therefore dissipates less power for a given clock frequency.

I have seen several posts from guy's who have overclocked this processor to 5.2-5.4ghz with a stock fan and with liquid nitrogen 6.66ghz.

This was compared to an AMD FX dual core overclocked to 3ghz and was faster with the super pi program calculating pi to 1 million digits.

I would like to set my computer up over time to acheive a 67% overclock with a water cooler which would give me a screaming budget machine.

5.55ghz processor speed, 888mhz bus speed and 888mhz memory speed.

So does anyone know what inexpensive motherboard might have the necessary capabilities.

I have read so far that stock motherboards wont allow easy or varied clock changes nor control of processor and memory voltage.

Also I have read that some people have trouble with SATA and PCI ports not working because of improper speed (my new computer has an 120gb SATA II drive).

I gather some boards have the option of maintaining proper SATA and PCI speed even though non-standard clock frequencies are being used, I think?

Regarding memory, can I use any memory so long as it is rated for a faster speed than I will be using even though the motherboard might only recomend 533mhz or 800mhz.

Some 1066mhz memory is affordable could I use that clocked to a slower speed and then use lower latency settings since it is uderclocked?

[Daryl]

I used to program computers in the early days, Atari, Apple.

After that I didn't bother for years until I needed a computer to run a loudspeaker measurement system I bought.

In modern times it seems nobody does any programming where it was a necessity in the old days.

Last year I noticed someone posting their own computer simulations and asked how they were able to do it.

He said Excel does it and I got a copy and found out that it has a 'visual basic' feature which I can use for calculation routines.

However I cannot create or read .wav files in Excel so that I can analyze aquired data.

I have seen where others have access to some sort of programing environment where they are operating sound cards, acquiring data and then processing the result.

How can I do this?

[Daryl]

This one is probably easy.

This new computer doesn't make any noise?

I heard a loud roar for like two seconds when I first plugged it in but now nothing.

Does it just turn the fans on when it is working hard?

It has a fan in the power supply, one on the case and one on the processor with a shroud extending to a vent at the side of the case.

I have a laptop which uses the fan only when necessary and has two fan speeds but it appears to run from software that is unstable because the fan often will no come on at all and the computer gets too hot to touch and shuts off.

If I wait couple of minutes and turn it back on the fan comes on.

You don't think this new computer is going to cook do you?

I don't have Excel installed yet (not even shure if Office 2000 will load on Vista) otherwise I could give it workout and see if I get any fan action.

The quiet is nice but is it too good to be true?

[randytsuch]

Hi
Asus makes good motherboards, that overclock well.  They are also one of the bigger motherboard companies.
Gigabtye is another one.  Abit had gone downhill for a while, but they are supposed to be back again, I had an abit a long time ago, but my last good overclocker was an Asus.

There are many others, and each has their following.

Last year, I bought a Core2duo, and it basically came with a free cheap motherboard, so I am using that, but it does not overclock.

Good luck, it is nice to get something for "free"

Randy

[Bob Reynolds]

Since we are talking about Windows, there are a couple of routes.

1) Windows scripting: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms950396.aspx  Depending on your background either VBScript or JScript will be more comfortable. The scripting environment has a FileSystem Object that has nice and easy to use facilities for reading and writing files -- any kind of files.

2) Microsoft gives away "Express" versions of their development tools: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/  The .NET framework is huge, but makes everything much easier than it was years ago. Again, there are different flavors of languages -- VB variant, C variant and Javascript variant.

3) I'm pretty sure that you can read and write files using VBA within Excel. That same scripting FileSystem object is available, but you'll proabably have to create a reference to it.

Hope this helps some.

[F-100]

From my experience with Emachine, they are designed for beginner user ... Good for surfing the net and basic word/Excel duties so they are very slow and built with cheap parts. Also, Emachines are not an ideal machine for overclocking so don't waste any money and time trying to overclock them. Save your money and buy a overclock friendly motherboard like Asus as Randy had suggested.

[Bob Reynolds]

You might spend some time at Tom's Hardware site. I recall there being info there about motherboards and overclocking.

http://www.tomshardware.com/

[Papajin]

You might spend some time at Tom's Hardware site. I recall there being info there about motherboards and overclocking.

http://www.tomshardware.com/

http:www.anandtech.com is also good.

As to the fan noise... many modern system DO use fans that will vary their speed depending on how hot things are running, so it's not that much a shock.

[bpape]

You should be able to read the .wav files with the VBA inside Excel with no problem.  You'll just need to do it via a button that you manually launch. 

As for overclocking, I wouldn't try 67% or anything close to that.  You can tweak things to get maybe 20-25%.  Also, you can tweak memory timing to increase apparent speed without actually making the CPU run any faster

Other than that, I'd spend my money on good RAM, and a program that allows me to use a USB thumb drive for my virtual memory instead of the hard disk.

Bryan

[ctviggen]

I thought Vista would use the thumb drive, or was that only for putting the computer into sleep mode (and saving state to the thumb drive)? 

[bpape]

It may - haven't played with Vista yet.

Bryan

[jb]

I used to program computers in the early days, Atari, Apple.

However I cannot create or read .wav files in Excel so that I can analyze aquired data.

How can I do this?

I regularly read, analyze, modify, and write wave files using programs I write in C. I don't recommend Excel for hard-core number crunching. Download the free MS compiler. Copy the code samples that show how to read and write wave files, add your custom analysis code, and you're done. You don't have to bother with the Windows GUI. Use the command line interface, just like programmers did in the old days.

Alternatively, you could use the Winamp framework to get the serial data from a wave file and do your processing with a Winamp plugin module. That gives you the wave file data and access to the Windows GUI with very little effort on your part. Download the Winamp SDK and copy the relevant sample code.

[randytsuch]

One more suggestion, asrock is the economy divison of asus, so if you are looking for something cheap, I would take a look at them.

Newegg sells make different motherboards, you might check them out.

Randy

[Bob Reynolds]

Other than that, I'd spend my money on good RAM, and a program that allows me to use a USB thumb drive for my virtual memory instead of the hard disk.

Can you provide some details as to why using a USB flash drive as your paging file is an advantage? I thought USB was slower than ATA (or SATA).

I've often wondered why there aren't ATA (or SATA) caching hard drive controllers available.

[bpape]

It's more the physical drive reads and writes that are the issue.  USB will be faster than those for sure.  Realistically, if you have 2 gig of good RAM, you won't need to page to the hard disk too often.  But if you do, having an extra 1 gig on a stick for the page files is great.

Bryan