My wicked new toys :)

Right on man, it is on ebay right now, here is the link http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...402328518&rd=1

Humm, was hoping you would just give me a price. I'll be needing it pretty quick. I'm putting together a new system. Can't decide on a 2800 or 3000 and what memory to buy. :P

What do you think about this memory?

CORSAIR MEMORY XMS Extreme Memory Speed Series 256MB 32MX8 PC-3500C2 With Heat Spreader
Speed 434MHz
Organization 32M x 64
CAS Latency 2-3-3-7-T1

i think the corsair's xmspc3500 is really over-rated

What would you suggest instead?

I would not use anythng but the corsair 3500 for overclocking. Gives me the best timings! If you are going nforce and want the best performance use the matched stuff and only 2 sticks, I sacrafice a little bit running 3. But the thing is I needed more than 512 and could not afford 2 stucks of 512 so I went with 3 sticks of 256 and that gave me the perfect amount of ddr memory. If I could have afforded it I would have gone with the 2 sticks of 512. Also I would go with nothing but the asus mobo and volt mod, if you do not wanna do the vmod go with the abit nf7-s. I am hopefully looking at the barton this week if all goes well, going to have it overnighted to me on wednesday or thursday but we will see what happens... not sure if I can afford it right this week but who knows! I want it before I go to the lan part. Also note that from what I have seen is on games which is all that matters to me, the barton really is not much better than the 2600-2800+ reg family. A killer 2600+ will only run ya $249 at newegg right now and it is one heck of an overclocker. Your looking at 2450mhz with ease.

Oh yeah the reason I use 3500 and not 3200 or any other brand but corsair is that with 3 sticks I am running on a daily basis 2.5-2-2-4 timings and can run that at with 3 sticks on place at 194fsb before I need to up the timings, I have not ever seen any other ddr do that in the config I am useing, and bet your butt I have checked around Also DO use dual channel and go with an nforce board.

I think your corect on the Corsair memory. It seems to be the best 3500 memory out there at the moment. However, I can't seem to find the matched 256MB sticks anywhere.

In addition, I'm considering getting the Epox board over the Asus board (nforce2)

Use Twinmos PC 3200 or other DDR PC3200 and up uses winbond chip (Corsair XMS PC3500C2 is not recommended, they are really over-rated)

http://8rda.com/page2.htm

just something i read
i would keep my mind open for other brands though
corsair isnt the bible u know

I know it is not the bible, but for serious serious overclockers and for all the guys getting the best scores I have not seen any better or anyone getting the very top scores useing anything else but pc3500. Also there is no matched pc3500 at the moment sorry, did not mean to mislead ya, only matched pc 3200, I would not even concider running pc 3200 to be honest with ya after useing both. Not even close to the same beast at high speeds what features are you looking at in particular with the epox that is leading you that way..?? Just curoius.

Stability mostly... from your accounts and reviews the Epox seems to be much more stable than the Asus. In additon, I can't verify the Epox board supports the xp 3000.

If bought 2 sticks of the Corsair 256MB, can I get the same performance/stability as a matched pair of something else? Do I "have" to get matched pairs? There is matched pairs of corsair 512mb sticks (1GB) but I don't want to pay that much for memory.