need help buying new system!

[buu]

here are my current thoughts .....

P4 2,6 ghz (which serial number should it have for best performance?)
ASUS P4 Canterwood 800 FSB

i wanna reach stable 250 FSB so i can run at 3.25 ghz, what kinda RAM should i buy for that ? since i want 1 gig ram i dont want the most expensive ones.

thanks for the help

[sp00L]

A simple oc to 3.25 (250fsb) is about 80% guaranteed on any of the new 2.6C's. For ram, go with 2x256 of PC4000 to save a few or pay $380+ for a gig of any PC4000 by Corsair, Mushkin, OCZ. The alternative is Geil, which is not dependable from stick to stick. Or go with 5:4 divider and run PC3200 at 200 on mem, and 250 on FSB of the cpu. A gig of good PC3200 should go for under $300.

As far as steppings, check the cpu database on 2.6C's on overclockers.com main page. Usually "L"'s do better.

[batboy]

I haven't seen any significant difference in s-specs or batch codes with the 2.6C. A stepping change like the new M0 stepping does seem to be a little better, but they are not available in the 2.6C yet. If you want budget minded RAM, then it's hard to beat Kingston HyperX PC3000 (it has BH-5 chips and is rated 2,2,2,6,1T timing). Price is $195 for 2X512 MB modules at newegg.com (shipped). I have this Kingston HyperX PC3000 RAM and it beats my OCZ PC3500 EL RAM.

[gustav]

i've heard mushkin pc3500 level 2 is really good too. you might consider it too...the question is, is it better than the kingston pc3000?