Athlon 3200+

I have 1700+ right now with a gig of ddr2100. What im wondering is if I buy my NF7 board and a 3200+ will I be able to run it without having to buy a gig of new ram? Or should I just get somthing like a 2600+ and oc the crap outa it.

PC2100 overclocks from default 133 FSB to 140s or low 150s FSB only on average (100% insync).

MHz speed = [FSB] x multiplier

3200+ is 2200 MHz = [200] x 11

Since there's no way you can hit 200 FSB with PC2100 RAM, your BIOS will not display 3200+ but if the multiplier isn't locked on it, you may increase the multiplier x lower FSB.

With PC2100 RAM, I'd get $62 Thoroughbred B 2100+ at newegg.com, then buy a copper heatsink like Thermalright (pricewatch.com) then maybe get a Thermaltake Smart Fan 2 to adjust the fan noise level to choose noise to performance as I like, then overclock slowly to rach

low 150s FSB x maybe 15 multiplier for close to 2.3 GHz overclock with increased Vdimm voltage to the max and increased Vcore voltage to 1.8 or 1.85 volts.

This is because getting a gig of PC3200 RAM would be very, very expensive.

What 1700+ do you have right now because if it's a Thoroughbred B, you may only need to invest in better cooling and power suply brand.

my friend has kinston value ram pc2100 that does ddr400 at cas2.5

but most wont

Well as for the gig of ram I was thinking of 2 x 512 of ddr3200. As for the cpu im not very sure as of its type. How well would a 2100+ with ddr2100 on the abit nf7-s board overclock. 500watt psu, and for cooling i still have my SLK-900A. Up until now iv been content with stock speeds.... now I wanna see what I can do

Again, your limiting factor is the RAM. Even if you push the multiplier all the way up and keep the FSB low, in real life applications and games you won't get much of an improvement because the RAM at a lower speed will be a bottleneck.

So really without having to drop the cash on ram as well as a new mb and cpu, what would be the best setup using the ddr2100, or is it time for me to buy new ram and just bite the bullet. Also what kind of ram should I be looking for because up untill now iv always baught the generic crap in the stores. My current chipset being a kt400 seems like crap compared to all the stuff iv read about the nforce2 thus my reason for buying a new mb.