Advice On Buliding a P4 System with ABit IS7

[thorthemighty]

I'm about to put together a new P4 system and have already bought an Abit IS7.
Reading through a few posts I see that PC3200(DDR400) is the recommended memory but I also see that there could a few problems with the tight memory timings. Does this mean that it would be better to get superior memory? The advantage being that the system will be more stable(but not any quicker than ddr400 unfortunately).
Also if I wanted to overclock a P4 2.8Gig cpu by upping the fsb, is trial & error the only way of determining what the processor voltage should be? Is there a site somwehere which can give guidance on what the voltage should be set to for each fsb and processor setting?

 

[Crashman]

If you're overclocking buy memory rated for at least the bus speed you would like to achieve.

For instance, the max most people can get a 2.8C to with great cooling is 250Mhz FSB/3.5GHz. Now, that's the same 250MHz clock that DDR500 runs at (PC4000).

I believe the OC7 PC3700 Gold Rev. 2 would be a great choice for you as it supports bus speeds beyond its rating, and supports lower latencies below its rating.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[thorthemighty]

PC3700 will be able to run at 233MHz at the least? Am I right?
If so then do you think that a P4 2.8Gig(800 fsb) will run stable at this speed without any extra cooling(will even ddr400)? I'm upgrading from a P2 300MHz so even if I don't overclock hugely, my new system will still seem like it is going at the speed of light. Hence I want to overclock using the least amount of resources I can get away with.

 

[Cybercraig]

Yes it will! Use the copper core H/S to get above 3.2ghz.
Build one, or get out of the way! PII is do-do!

"I am become death, the destroyer of worlds. Now, let's eat!

 

[Crashman]

Yes, and the reason I mentioned the OCZ Gold Rev. 2 version is that it's a little more "flexible", offering additional adjustability over other modules of similar speed. 233MHz bus gets you up to 3.26GHz, which is about the limit for many people with the stock cooler. With added CPU cooling and a bit more RAM voltage, both should take you to 3.4-3.5GHz.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[Cybercraig]

The bad news here is as we speak memory is increasing in price. I tried to order the memory Crashman is talking about and NewEgg was out of it. The price elsewhere was $280.00/GB. NewEgg is still out of it, but prices overall have gone up 10% in two weeks. JUMP ON IT!

"I am become death, the destroyer of worlds. Now, let's eat!

 

[thorthemighty]

OK guys. 3.2 GHz it's going to be. You're damn right about memory prices cybercraig, you would have thought that in the age of ddr2, the older technology prices would have started dropping instead of going up!