New OC'er, would like some Memory advice

[Rustafur]

Hello Anandtech community, I've been readding posts in the overclocking threads and I'm impressed with this community's advice so far, so I'll bring my questions to you all. I am brand spanking new to the OC lifestyle and would like some advice on some good, cheap RAM to use for overclocking my upcomming rig. The specs are looking to be as follows...

Intel P4 2.4c, with an upgraded air cooler.
ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe motherboard
sitting in an ANTEC 1030 SOHO with 4 80mm case fans, two intake and two exhaust.
ATI Radeon 9600XT video card.

To start off, I realize the videocard is going to be a hella big bottleneck indeed... this card is just to get me by until I can grab a nice new ATI x800

Now for my burning questions...
1) What kind of RAM recommendations would you all make to help make the jump to 3.5GHz. I'm wanting at least a 3.2GHz(12x267) clockspeed out of this, and possibly 3.3 - 3.5 GHz (12x275-292). So far I'm looking at purchasing some OCZ PC-3500. Cost is definitly something I am scrutinizing, and would like to keep it in the ballpark of $200. If there is a less expensive alternative such as this Geil PC-3200 memory, that would still fullfill my needs, I would love to know about it also!

2) Am I going to need to upgrade my power supply from the current 300W to 400W to help the overclocking?

3) Also I was wondering how I could gague my core voltage. How would I know how much to increace the voltage, if at all, when I go to overclock my proc.

4) And finaly... as for overclocking my video card, how in the world would I go about doing this! lol

Thank you all for your input, I really appreciate it all.

 

[imported_shadowchaser]

hey great idea I am doing the same with a soyo pe845 and 2.7 celeron with 1024 ddr pc3200 ram and would like to see how fst it can really go i would like to be able to learn how to and when change the voltage to the cpu to overclock faster tham just using the mutiplier for fsb

 

[charloscarlies]

1)Well you're going to have to end up using dividers if you want 3.4-3.5 ghz unless you get some TCCD chips. Gskil has been making chips that have hit 300 fsb. :Q

If you spent a little more ($30-50 over your budget) on a gig of the PQI Turbo 2-2-2 stuff, you might be able to run 1:1 even as high as 280-285 fsb. If you are pretty set on your budget, I would suggest a gig of the Patriot 2-3-2-5 stuff at Newegg. It's good stuff and is only like $179 a gig.

2)Yes you will most likely need a beafier PSU...but remember it's about quality power not just quantity. A name brand (Enermax, Antec, PC Power & Cooling, Forton, or OCZ) 400 watter is still head and shoulders better than a no name "550". This really depends on your budget though. I'm a big fan of the Enermax 460 because of the 34 amps on the 12v rail.

3)As for vcore...there are several ways of doing it but I've always pushed my chip as far as it will go on stock voltage before increasing it. Then I slowly start feeding it more until I've reached the max OC. If you have decent cooling you should be ok up to 1.6-1.65 volts. Don't go any higher.

4)There are several software utilities designed to do this. Try ATI Tool or Power Strip. Either should do you well.

 

[Rustafur]

Thanks for the advice charloscarlies, I do very much appreciate it. I sent you an e-mail with some more questions and comments, hope you recieve it and didn't emmediatly count it as spam.