Technohydra

More than that, DDR2 ram won't fit in the socket. The position of the key slot changed between the two types. Also, a DDR socket only has 184 pins to make contact, whereas DDR2 requires a socket with 240 pins. DDR3 is also 240 pins, but again, the position of the key slot changed, so you can't accidentally mount a dimm of DDR3 in a DDR2 socket. As to would it work if it fit? No, in fact, it would kill the board. I've been a part of a force-fit test, and the board went boom.

No, that board will not run DDR2. DDR, DDR2, and DDR3 are the same size of dimm. DDR2 and DDR3 even have the same pin count, but they are not interchangeable, and shouldn't mount in the same sockets. The position of the key slots has been moved so that the dimms aren't physically possible to interchange. DDR2 clocking kits? Buffalo Firestix PC2-6400 kit, Ballistix PC2-6400 kit, and most of the Team Group Extreme stuff are excellent.

Bump for adding the psu.

D'oh, that's right, because DDR 400 was the JEDEC standard of memory speed for DDR's top end.

Coming off of a Lanparty board, I'd have to recommend the 680i chipset. It seems to do very well with OCing, and the bugs some complained of are long gone. The P35 is also a good choice, in most cases it clocks higher than the 680i. If you're not used to the Intel bios, it can be a pain to work with. The DFI boards for either of these chips is a good choice as well as BFG, eVGA, and Gigabyte. Stay away from Asus, they're all hype. Poor products selling for high prices based on brand name, I think. Your other option is to wait for the x38 chips to come out, but I'd only do that if you have a hard-on for DDR3 at it's current prices.

I'd say the best you'd get would be something like 2-3-2-6, and that's a stretch. You'd need a significate jump in volts to do this. More likely, 3-3-3-8 is what you're looking at for timings. The performance shouldn't suck at those timings...that's the JDEC standard of 2x1GB at DDR 500, I believe.

Another thing about Crucial, two actually. First off, they are a division of Micron, so they always have a steady supply of good IC's. Second, their tech support and RMA people are awesome to work with.

And also, wiping down the surface before you start lapping and between each piece of sandpaper will help out a lot. Last thing you need is grits of silicon carbide gouging up the surface.

OK, an update, the IC's on Kingston HyperX are Infineon BE-5, which aren't the best overclockers in the world.

I ran a 2x1G kit of Ballistix at 275 DDR at 1T, so I'd say it's decent stuff. Redlines as well are great memory. I haven't used a kit of Kinston HyperX, so I can't say from experience how it performs. I think they are a fairly decent clocker as well, but I'd look at Mad Shrimps or Anandtech to see if they've reviewed it. Both of those sites are on my A list for accurate reviews.

I purchased a surface plate recently. It's a piece of granite that is calibrated to be flat within 1/1000 of a millimeter, and it only cost $20 plus S&H. It doesn't get much better than that. Here is the sellers Ebay profile. I just bought one of the small plates, like a 12x16, and it's perfect for this stuff.

I'm going to have an OCZ 700 watt GameXstream coming up as soon as the Thermaltake Toughpower 1000 I won from the contest at Extreme Outervision comes in. Multi-rail, 2xPCI-e 6 pins, 2xMolex(3 plug) with floppy, 2x SATA(3 plug), 20+4 pin main, 4+4 pin EPS/P4, Active PFC, 80%+ efficient, runs at about 17-20 db of noise. Been a great unit for me, I ran my DFI SLI-DR Expert with a 3G FX-60 on it, and am running my sig rig with it now, never a hitch. Unless you want to run 8800 GTX SLI(not enough 6-pin plugs), this supply will do almost anything. PM me if you're interested.

I can e-mail you a copy of the original drivers from the BFG install disc. As long as you own a 680i chipset board, it's legal, and they should be the original release drivers.

OK, it's time for a long CMOS clear and minimum startup. Switch off the power supply and unplug it, pull out the battery, switch the jumper to the clear position, hit the power button, and wait for an hour. Come back, put the jumper and bettery back in position, and make sure you only have the following installed: 1 stick of ram, one opticle drive, one hard drive, one video card, and NOTHING else. Then try to start up. Usually this solves most DFI 3 led issues. If not, we need to go further.

The results of the 3-year anniversery contest are in, with the winners listed on the site. Check it here. I got lucky and will be reviewing the Thermaltake Toughpower 1000w supply when it comes in. We have any other winners here? In any case, take a moment to drop the folks that run the site a thank you for not only holding the contest, but for inviting us to participate. The utilities they've developed are a huge help for we builders/enthusiests, and I'd like to see them continue to contribute to the community.