New mobo and memory...is this ok?

[jonathan_phang]

Hi there,

I'm about to upgrade my comp and wanted some info from you regulars (who probably know a lot more than me!). I've just pre-ordered an XP-M 2500 and plan to oc it and the next two parts I'm looking to buy are mobo and RAM.

1) I'm looking to get a NF7-S (Cheap/good oc). Is this gonna be good for ocing? Any more decent alternatives? If an Abit one, which is the best overall?

2) Gonna get 1gb RAM, and as I'm going to oc, I thought about getting low latency RAM (Corsair, Kingston). Then, I read an article in Custom PC magazine, which was a RAM roundup. They said that there was no real difference between expensive RAM and Crucial, which is waaaay cheaper. Whos right? I dont want to buy cheaper RAM then be limited in what I can do with it.

I'm just looking to run the xp2500 at 200fsb, so its like a 3200, can the crucial cope with that?

Thanks for even getting this far down the post!!

JP

[skattrd]

I think half this forum uses the NF7-S and most of them are overclocked, hope that answers that question.
Personally I don't like crucial RAM, if you want cheap value for money RAM you could do alot worse than twinmos, just make sure you get RAM that is capable of doing what you want - the NF7 and xp should be able to do 220-230 fsb, most pc3200 RAM won't, but if you're happy @ 200fsb it'll be fine.

[mike_w]

1) NF7-S is fine for what you want, probably the best you can get

2) If you're going to be running at 200FSB then any PC3200 RAM, whether its Crucial, TwinMOS or Corsair should be able to run at that speed, since PC3200 means a speed of 200mHz. I think the article refered to using RAM without overclocking (correct me if I'm wrong). If you're going to be doing some heavy overclocking then Corsair is the best, but if you're on a budget then something like TwinMOS would be fine at 200FSB.

Hope this helps

Mike

Edit: Damn, skattrd beat me to it!

[mt50]

i've just got a NF7-S ver 2, it arrived this morning so i fitted it and just a very quick go at overclocking(waiting untill i get a better cooler and paste) and i've got my xp2000 at 2.013ghz so far, thats with crap pc2100 ram(need some proper stuff now)
i'm happy at 2ghz though, just waiting for my 9500 to arrive and i'll be happy for a while(untill i get some better ram)

[jonathan_phang]

Cheers peeps,

Yeah, think I'll settle for the NF7-S, but still unsure about the memory. I'm trying to get a discount from a friend who works at Kingston Tech. for some of their dual-channel HyperX kits. Do you reckon these are any good, or should I just save and try to get some corsair 3500/4000 if I want to really try to push the cpu/mobo?

Thanks for the help though,
Much appreciated

JP

[skattrd]

HyperX is good RAM, iirc some of it has BH-5 chips as well (bh-5 is the daddeh), just avoid Kingston valueRAM - it sux

[jonathan_phang]

Skattrd,

I've emailed my mate just now about looking into some HyperX. One question. I've heard that your computer will run best when the RAM frequency and the FSB(in DDR) is in synch with each other ie. 200mhz FSB and PC3200 Ram.

What about if I get PC3500 or 3700, so i can (hopefully) oc my XP-M a bit more that 200mhz. will it matter if it isn't in sych? Like if I get 3700 mem and only have a 210 FSB. Is there much performance difference?

Thanks for any help

JP

[planetgong]

It will perform better if it is in synch. You lose some of the speed you have gained from overclocking.

[Allen]

You can overclock PC3200 RAM too, if it's good enough. My XP-M is currently running at 11x200MHz and my cheap ass PNY PC3200 RAM is running at it's stock speed with 6-3-3-2.5L timings. It'll boot up in Windows running at 210MHz FSB (haven't tried higher, but I'm not too bothered) and the RAM is at 100% speed of the CPU (I think the Abit call this 6:6?) so will run at 210MHz as well, still at 6-3-3-2.5L.

Personally, I'd only pay for highly overpriced overclockable memory such as Corsair if I was worried about telling everyone I had too much money to waste, when my current memory is more than capable or running at reasonable speeds for me.

[daz_uk]

yeah, the Nforce chipsets only perform well when the FSb and RAM speed are in sync. So if you took your RAM up to say, 213 but left your FSB at 200 then you might think it would be faster, but if you benchmarked it - you would notice that the scores would be lower than when you had the speeds in sync at 200.

Oh and the guy who slated Kingston ValueRam.... hehe... I had 2 sticks of 256mb Kingston ValueRam running at 178 (fsb was also 178) with pretty aggressive timings and I was more than impressed for a whole year with this ram! I mean its not the best overclocking but for the cheapo ram, i never had one crash and it was 12mhz over spec for a year. So personally as far as normal ram goes - its great. So you HyperX stuff should be great

[steve threlfall]

Definately go for the NF7-S motherboard. Half the forum does have them and they are brilliant for overclocking. You really need look no further

RAM- no point in getting high end memory like corsair unless you have a p4 really and you overclock to the very limit. Crucial is easily good enough. 2*512 sticks or 3200 crucial would be fantastic. Also worthy of investigation is TwinMos memory (with the winbond chips). I have this memory myslef 2*256mb (winbond) with an abit nf7-s and i get a very good overclock . 2*512 TwinMos w/winbond chips would be great. Personally i would see which is cheaper at the time you buy and get that

Let us know what you go for mate.

[jonathan_phang]

Yep,

to be honest, i was just going to go for 3200 crucial, but after hearing what the XP-M could possibly do, I'm a bit in between two places, as I hear that it can go a LOT higher and if I only have 3200 then will it just limit me to a 200mhz FSB ceiling and I'll have to rely on multiplier ocing from then upwards.

Still waiting for my XP-M from CPU City (Apparently in next week!!), but Still to order my mobo! Student, money, lack. You fill in the rest of the words!!

Will have a look into TwinMOS as well. Thanks for the recommendation

JP

[daz_uk]

if you look at TwinMOS, then as Steve says - make sure its got WINBOND chips on it otherwise it won't work with the Nforce2 chipset (unless u underclock it to 166).
Also, if your clocking on a barton 2500+ up to 3200+ speeds (200 fsb) then how much more do you think you will get from it? I mean, you think you can get up to 215 fsb for example? I just wondered how far this native 333 chip can get....?

[jonathan_phang]

Daz,

Well, I've ordered a 2500 XP-M which apparently is a great overclocker. I dont know if it is, but i'm asking all these memory questions as I dont want my RAM to limit a potentially great OC cpu.

From what I've read in reviews and on forums, most people have got it consistently at around 200+ FSB.

[What have I got myself into!! Too much info to make a decision!!! ]

JP

[Allen]

From what I've read in reviews and on forums, most people have got it consistently at around 200+ FSB.

It will do 200FSB, and more. If you really want to push it higher, then go for PC3700 or PC4000 memory, but you still don't need to go for the really expensive stuff unless you're too worried about timings.

PC3700 will do 233MHz standing on it's head and PC4000 will do 250MHz so that should be more than enough for your CPU overclock!

[daz_uk]

I only ask because I recently screwed up in a way. My brother wanted a new system and I built it him - like ive built hundreds before. But This was gonna be one of the most powerful ones i've built, so I ordered the parts and when I recieved them I got to work.
Now I ran into all sorts of problems and wish I'd researched more - though no matter how much you research, there's always something to catch you out and no matter how much you know - every tim eyou build a PC, you learn something (either the hard way or the easy way).
Now my first mistake was the CPU. My brother isn't as tech savvy as I am so I wanted it to be a non-overclocked system with some raw power and very stable so I ordered the 3000+ AMD , on a MSI k7N2-L Mobo (my second mistake). The memory I ordered was 2x 512mb TwinMOS on TwinMOS RAM (my THIRD mistake). Put these all together and theres a problem.

Actually, I ended up with the 3200+ AMD due to Ebuyer sending me 3 of the wrong CPU's and me shouting at them....got it for the price of the 3000+. But anyway, After some problems with POST, I researched and found that Nforce2 is very dodgy with 2x512 3200 RAM in particular (and other ram but less so). Ahhhhhh...... So to cut a long story short, I got some other type of RAM for myself already on order which I put in his machine, which worked at 3200 speed, but I had to run it in SIngle Channel mode for it to be stable. Now I have the TwinMOS in my machine (2700+ 333) but I underclock it to 166 (along with my FSB) so thats its in sync and stable.

Now the morale to the story is, you can't have too much info (unless its wrong info!).

Personally If I was building it for him again, I would choose an NF7 with a 2500+ overclocked to 3200+ speeds, then stick 2x 512 sticks of TwinMOS on WinBond (about £120 inc.vat) in it and run it all nice and stable in dual channel mode at 200fsb/200 Ram.

You live and learn..... Sounds like your on the right track, just make sure that the RAM you choose is on the Nforce2 memory compatability list...

http://www.nvidia.com/content/nForce...patibility.asp

there are more than whats listed there but i dont have the link.