Lack of Stability? Please Help!

Hey guys, I Just got the rest of my system

A7N8X-Deluxe
barton 2500+
Corsair XMS PC 3200 low lat
440 watt ps
Asus 9800xt


and I attempted to benchmark it at a couple speeds.

First I benchmarked at 166 fsb in 1:1 memory... and I got 4900 3d marks in 2003. Now considering with that same system but a mix of pc 2700 and pc 2400 ram, I obtained 6000 3d marks, I can't figure out what the hell is going on. Both tests we run at 166 fsb.. yet with my "faster" ram, I get a score just over 1000 less points. wtf?

SECONDLY:

I push my fsb to 200 and first am completely unable to get it to post. Finally after adjusting settings I can get it to post, but gee now it wouldn't get into windows. So I raise my vcore to 1.8 (after slowly moving it up) and finally post into windows. Now I have a complete lack of stability. I run 3dmark 2003 and it gets through 1.5 tests and freezes/restarts my cpu without an error message.

WHAT IS GOING ON.

I have a barton 2500 and NICE PC 3200 ram, pleanty of power... why in the WORLD wouldn't it stay stable?

Can ANYONE PLEASE give me ANY sort of advice? It would be sooooooo appreciated.


Pllllease help.

You may just have a crappy chip. Try upping the Vcore to 1.85V, hopefully that will bring stability. You could also try upping the AGP voltage (I heard that it really is the Northbridge voltage). Other than that, try running the RAM at it's stock timings, and perhaps up the Vdimm just to make sure. Don't run with CAS 3, I've heard NForce 400s don't like it, go with CAS 2.5 or 2.0 (you've got low latency RAM anyways).