Confused Overclocker Wannabe

[Mankal3]

Wow, I'm new to overclocking and and building my new PC. So far I have a ASUS P4P800 Deluxe board and 3.0 P4 chip (800 FSB). I plan to slightly overclock this chip to 3.2 or 3.3 only and need to decide on RAM. From what I read PC3500 ram is what I need, but I'm confused on the brand to get. I dont know much about timings and not accustomed to voltage changing, rather I need STABILITY. I can pick up Kingston Hyper-X PC3500 1G pack for 285 bucks, is that good enough for me?
I think I'm confused as to whether I need PC3200 or PC3500 or PC3700 ram. Now with no overclocking on a 800fsb chip the PC3200 would run 'normally'? If I overclock my processor then I'd need PC3500 or PC3700? What minimal/maximal timings are needed to run the computer? If I stick PC3700 or higher ram on my computer without overclocking it, will it run "out of the box" or will I have to make modifications to "slow it down" As you can see I'm a newbie on this memory thing

[trader88]

If your target is 3.2 to 3.3g, PC3500 should be good enough for you. Kingston Hyper X or the Corsair TwinX are both fine choices. These modules should allow you to run at 440MHz without any problem. That will be 220 FSB on 1:1 memory ratio (15 x 220 = 3.3G), will give you 3.3G. If you're not sure about the memory timming, just put them on SPD and fire away. These rams are programmed with pretty good timming and should do just fine.

Just a reminder, high speed ram requires a lot of power these day. You might need to raise your ram voltage to make them run correctly. Normally, 2.7v to 2.8v will be enough. For instance, my Kingston need 2.8v to run correctly. For the CPU, most P4 with 800FSB can run 3.3g at default voltage. I believe you should be able to boot up 3.3g fine at default cpu voltage.

Have fun now.

[RolandC]

Originally posted by Mankal3
Confused Overclocker Wannabe

hey, that sounds like me!