OC'ing newbie little advice needed

[Phrequency]

I'm about to build a new system and thought I'd gather some opinions before hand.

Specs:

CUSL2
P3 800eb
Asus V770 Deluxe GF2 GTS
256Mb Corsair pc133 CAS2
SB Live! MP3+

I know the p3 800 is bum for oc'ing. This will be my first OC so I'm not worried about how high I can go. So my question is should I get the 800 and practice on getting it at about 900, and still be safe at 800MHz if I decide I'm running into to many problems. Or get a p3 700 which I heard can OC better/higher than the 800 and still be safe at 700MHz 'same reason'?

One last thing, which mobo would be best for this, the CUSL2 or the CUSL2-C? I heard the CUSL2-C scored better benchmarks for OC'ing but is crappier quality than the CUSL2.

Thanks for any advice

- Jordan

 

[DaveB]

Just get a PIII 700 and go for it. I've been running one O/C'ed at 970 MHz+ since July. It never crashes. Since October it's been running at 994 MHz with the core at 1.95V. Get an Alpha to keep it cool. Mine never get above 34C under load with my PEP66. If you've got good cooling you can push the core to 1.95V with no problems.. Going with a PIII 700 will save you cash, and get you higher.

About the mobo, you're on your own. I'm not a fan of Asus, but everybody else seems to be. The CUSL2-C is cheaper and is supposed to have the i815ep chipset. But I read that the Asus site has a disclaimer saying that either the i815e or i815ep could be on the board.

 

[Tachyon]

The CUSL2-C was originally shipped with the 815E chipset and had the on-board video disabled on the chip. Apparently the newer ones have the EP chipset.

 

[DocClock aka MadClocker]

If you decide to get the 800, get an EB or 133mhz ver, as they might clock as well as their 100mhz bretheren, but will have better bandwidth, when o'c'ed, although you have to make sure you have really good memory for the high bus speed, and you might have better framerates because the agp will be faster than spec, but I also agree that if I had to choose, I would pick the 700e, but there ARE rare 800's that will smoke a 700 in raw speed, but they are rare.
And don't go for a cBo model, as they top out at around 933....(in my experience)

 

[Ericsson]

a 650E or 700E would really be nice...

133mhz is almost 100%...and you might be able to get a cC0 700E...so that'd be cool....