Well, with 256 Mb of ram, it's very possible for Windows to be slow if you have a good amount of programs running. I seem to remember that Windows needs somewhere around 100 Mb to run, and anyother program after that is really going to drain resources. It happens on the computers I have a work. They have 128 MB of SDRAM, and they will lag in My Computer, and usually take about 20 secs to bring up a program after double clicking on it.
I'd keep the NF7 personally. It's the best socket A board out there, Shuttle doesn't have nearly enough BIOS options to let you overclock chips to their full potential. Especially if you have WC. So I'd keep looking around for some ram and see if that helps. If it doesn't, I'd try re installing Windows, because sometimes it just needs a refresher. I've had to do a rein. twice so far and it really helps.
As for memory to choose, you have several options. If you want to save a good amount of money, but have the same overclock as performance ram, go to Best Buy or Circuit City when they are having a sale on their Kingston Value Ram. Look at their 2*256 DC kits of DDR400, but you have to find a specific ram chip on them. It has to say Hynix BT D43, like this chip.
That ram will overclock to around 260-270 Mhz at 3-4-4-11 timings on an NF7. So usually your boards chipset will stop going before the ram will.
If you want performance ram, the main ram that I would look at would be Low Latency models. OCZ pc3200 Platinum Rev.2's, Mushkin LVII REVII., PQI pc3200 Turbo with 2-2-2-5 timings, or Corsair XMS LL pc3200. All of them will have the timings 2-2-2-5, and they all have Samsung TCCD chips on them. The newest revisions of this chip will do 2-2-2 up to 240 Mhz with 3.1V vdimm, which is incredible. Some people have gotten this ram up to 340 Mhz at 3-4-5-9 or something like that timings on a A64 setup. Set a world record.
Personally, I'd go with the TCCD from OCZ or Corsair. I'm sure Mushkin is a good brand, but I personally don't know much about it. The OCZ has a very good chance of having the new revision of TCCD on it, but do some research to see where people are buying it from.
Here's a good review on TCCD based ram.
http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=getarticle&articID=233
owerUP 350watt
