I wanted to buy a Barton 3000 then i thought "why don't i buy a 2800 and overclock it to 3000+?".

im getting ddr400 ram (same cost as ddr 333 and 266 rom my supplier) and my motherboard can go up to 220 fsb.

i also have an audigy 2 sound card, a 9100 saphire gfx card and a nic.

the motherboard has a small fan on the northbridge already, and i currently have a large fan and heatsink that i was using with my palimino 1700. it came with the motherboard and cpu in a deal from overclockers.co.uk, its a big cooling solution and i don't think it will need replacing.

i'm just wondering what sort of performance i would get from this setup, whether i can clock it to over 3000 and whether i should try lowering the multiplier and raising the fsb instead of just raising the FSB on its own.

im also wondering whether the amount i could overclock it would actually make it worthwhile, or maybe i just shouldnt bother and stick with the standard speed. i really fancy making use of the ddr400 potential tho

of your CPU fan is nice, and not cheap OEM..I'd buy the 2600 for even cheaper and hit 3000+ levels...

edit: make sure barton core

Your profile says MSI KT3 Ultra2 & that board doesn't support the Barton at all ( even with the latest BIOS update ). You will not get it to run properly at stock speed, let alone actually OC it.

Actually, the only supported CPU with a 166mhz FSB seems to be the 2600+ ( Thoroughbred ). But that CPU is only supported by the KT3 Ultra & the KT3 Ultra-ARU.

I think you're out of luck on this one.

hmm that nearly cost me money, thanks alot - i was pleasantly surprised when i read my mobo could take a barton now, think i read the wrong page.

soooo much thanks

Ok ive just resurrected this thread, i still have the same motherboard and didnt ever get round to upgrading till 2 days ago when i placed an order for 512mb of crucial 2100 ram to go in the third slot (making 1Gb of ddr) and an athlon 2400 @ 266 fsb.

however, on looking at the msi site here it looks like it now supports barton processors or maybe it always did?

i seem to remember there were two versions of the board, and mine was an earlier version that didnt support it but i cant find anything about this now.

any information anyone has would be much appreciated, hope fully to put my mind at rest..

the bios update was released nearly a year before i posted about upgrading originally.

i cant help feeling a lil peeved that i was given wrong information here, im sure i checked it myself at the time too.

ah well