[oc jason]

I first started on a Slot 600 Classic, moved to a Slot 750 Tbird, then a 1.33 socket, 1900xp then a 2200+xp. After getting tired of dealing and worrying about system temperatures, and haveing 60+ c idle temps with the first batch of 2200+ using a AX7 and 53cfm Metatronics fan I was fedup. I moved and still have a 2.26b p4 that does 3000 and 3200w a volt mod. Decent speed with my Mushkin pc3000 17x176 at cl2 and fast mem settings. Now I am looking at selling my Abit Bd7-II and 2.26b and coming back to AMD. I was looking for stable overclockability. But have been out of the schene for a good while now. I was looking at a few part, and just wanted recommendations on if these parts would give my any noticeable porformance boost over the parts I have now.

I dont really need any OnBoard sound and I dont need RAID so just a basic mad overclocking board that will do a fast memory speed is what I need.

"Epox 8K5A" (is that correct)
"Epox 8K9A" (is that correct)

As far as the chip is concerned I was looking at the AMD Tbred 2400+ that i believe runs at 1.97ghz, and not knowing of the OCability of the chip id assume I can get 200mhz on average with a default voltage of 1.65v Say i mod it to 2.0+ v probalby more.

Can anyone steer me in the correect direction now that im back in the game.

[Emericana]

nice to see ya back amds are always more fun to oc than intels

for the motherboard, the best one available right now is the new Epox 8rda+ Nforce2 mobo or the Asus A7n8x nforce 2 mobo. the epox is cheaper and lacks some of the features of the asus, however as usual the epox has better overclocking features.

the nforce 2 boards lock the PCI at 33mhz all the time so if you have a bitchy hardrive that currupts at low pci speed (my wd currupts at 38mhz) this is especially good for you.

as far as overclocking with stock voltages, the 2400 should serve you well as you can probably get atleast 150 mhz out of it maybe even 250mhz if you are lucky.

if you want to up the vcore to 1.8v you could probably get 2.4ghz as the new AIUGA stepping is quite good.

about the memory obviously get the fastest corsair you can afford. dual channel ddr which is supported on the nf2 is mostly a gimmik and will only give you a very slight increase (aorund 100 3dmark points). so i would save the money and just use 1x512mb of preferably PC3500.

the nforce 2 mobos that are available right now both only go up to 211mhz so pc3500 would be especially good if you are lookin at runnin 2-2-2-1 at that fsb which should give you excellent ram speed.

the abit nf2 does up to 237mhz fsb however it is not released yet and after readin a recent review at hexus.net it looks very buggy.

[The Coolest]

Best mobo right now is the nForce2, which AFAIK comes in 2 flavors, the ASUS A7N8X and EPoX 8RDA(+) (and later 8RGA(+) which will have onboard GFX).
Best bang for the $$$ right now is the 1800+ and some 1700+ with AIUGA stepping TBreds.
The FASTEST chips around are the XP2600+ 333FSB and the 2700+ which have AIUGB stepping and should OC to about 2.5 on air or 2.6 with water.

The 1st mobo u have mentioned is a KT333 and the 2nd is KT400 which both are now pretty much obsolete in comparison w/ the nForce2, and upcoming KT400A

[RedDeathDrinker]

nForce2 is rather nice, especially with the lockable PCI bus speeds, but for a kt400 board, the EPoX 8K9 series are IMO the best out there at the moment. Full voltage/frequency adjustability, plus EPoX's legendary overclockability apeal

[quegyboe]

I agree with everyone else here, get an NForce2 mobo (Epox) and some Corsair PC3500 ram. That along with a good tbred and some decent cooling will yield some nice OC results I would think...

[Vertical_Zer0]

Welcome back from the dark side! I knew people always had good left in them (LOL j/k) Uhmm...anyway.... Yeah AMD is a heck of a lot more fun to OC with because there is so little room to work with! This isn't like the Northwoods or Williamettes; you can't just crank the speed up to 3 gHz. Just remember to start off slow, be very careful, and WATCH those temps. AMD's generally put out a lot more heat than Intel.

[RnPgrosz]

The only con about the 8K9A(KT 400 series) is that 2 Vcore is the limit instead of 2.2V. The Nforce 2 boards seem good but currently the Epox only goes up to 211 MHz FSB but unless your coming from a KT333 or KT400 board that limitation isn't really a big deal.

[Yodums]

Keep in mind that if you go with the 8RDA+ and Corsair PC3200 or PC3500 that it is working out some bugs at the moment - People are getting C1 Errors (Memory) when they boot up yet the memory works fine. I personally like the nForce 2 chipset better. nForce 2 is much more reliable than VIA is (No stinkin' 4in1's) and less buggy not to mention the options in the nForce 2 chipset. Dual DDR, locked PCI/AGP Buses, 3-5% increase in memory bandwidth etc.

Yodums

[oc jason]

Yodums after all this time you dont even say hello

[Pinky]

Originally posted by oc jason
Yodums after all this time you dont even say hello

I'll say hello, but I won't really mean it! lol

How be things at xtreme?