NF7 + XP2100 Tips for a newbie

Hello people.

Well its been a long time since I was on the overclocking scene (last system was a dual celeron 550 on Abit BP7 which now acts as my devserver) and based on reviews on here, toms hardware and anandtech. I've decided to play again.

my spec is as follows

Abit NF7, XP2100 Tbred B with Volcano 9 +as3, 2x256 pc2700 cas 2.5 DDR with cm al hs, Gainward ti-4800se 64MB with TT cooler and mem hs's, 80GB ata133 HDD. 550W PSU, aerodynamic cabling.

Having read up on the forums i just want to check a couple of things.

a: to have any chance of getting 200MHz fsb APIC must be disabled?

b: can i fiddle with memory timings on std pc2700 cas 2.5 ram ie aggressive setting etc?

c: Applying thermal compound, i take it you just apply it to the central cpu core (all my old processors have had a flat face)

d: Best way to overclock reliably is max fsb/minimum multiplier?

e: If the above is the case what do i have to do with regards memory/pci/agp to protect them.

Quite a few questions i know but with the cash i've spent i'd rather not get it wrong.

Cheers for any info you can give me. PS if there any more i should know please tell me.

Right off over to the GC section to get tips on overclocking my geforce4.

a: no
b: depends on the brand/rating
c: right. just a thin layer. many people run it into the heatsink and then wipe it off to fill the micro channels in it.
d: yes, for max performance
e: make sure memory is stable. NF7 has locked PCI and selectable AGP.

anymore questions feel free to ask

woohoo well happy now.

Windows xp has been installed and i've updated my drivers including bios and found that my stupidly high temperature prob has been solved.

Was all down to an early bios version (god knows how long it's been sat in the warehouse)

Now running a steady 32 degs at idle when o/c'd to 2167MHz @1.575v rather than the 49 degs the bios was reporting before.

managed a tidy 12293 in 3dmark 2001 se about 500 off the benchmarks given for same spec by tomshardware.

Still yet to mess with the graphics card o/c'ing as the gainward util doesn't want to install. All in all i'm well happy though.

has easily gone through the 200MHz barrier too. 210*11 @1.575v

I've either been very lucky component wise or some people are forgetting to change their memory fsb when o/c'ing.

Thanks for the help guys.

With the nf7 would I have access to higher multis with a juihb 1700?