ok atm im running my barton 2500+ at 217 x 11.5 (2.5ghz)@1.85, although my abit nf7-s undervolts so thats actually 1.8V, i have my kingston hyperX dual channel (2x512) running at vdimm of 2.8. I would like to increase my fsb while keeping a respectable overall clock speed but i don't want to increase vcore because of the heat. any ideas? thanks.

A Barton being overclocked to 2.5GHz is quite a leap, don't you think? Have you checked the stability of the system using programs such as Prime 95 or Sandra Burn-in? Also your memory has been stretched to its limit if you are using 1:1. About the voltages, what does Hardware Doctor program tell you? Is it fluctuating quite a bit? Well if you want to keep going with FSB, lower your multi to 8.5 or 9 or 9.5, 10 or 10.5 is not going to work for FSB higher than 220 if your CPU interface is enabled (it may work if you disable the CPU interface, but your memory bandwidth will take a hit). And you will need to use CPU DRAM ratio of 5:4 or 3:2 because of your low speed memory and you need to relax your ram timings. My experience with this mobo and CPU combo is they are unstable with FSB anything higher than 218 with HyperX PC4000, air cooling with an SLK-947 and a Thermaltake smart fan. Which is consistent with some reviewers saying NForce2 chipset has limitation in FSB of 218. But it may be because I'm using the stock Vcore and Vdimm and a relatively tight timings 2.5-3-4-7 for my ram.

Hi, i have decided to stick with fsb of 217 and keep tighter timings of 2-3-3-7 as opposed of higher fsb and slower timings. ive kept my multi at 11.5 and everything is prime stable. i might try increasing vcore and going for higher multi's purely for some benchmarking fun but 24/7 i'll keep it as i have it now. im very pleased with this Z barton.