Best 2x1GB DDR2 micron D9 kit as of today?

[RPGWiZaRD]

Hmm, where to start....

I got the new mobo DFI UT P35-T2R today and it didn't meet my hopes. Well the most annoying about it was the quite loud high pitched noise during load (windows startup, orthos etc.). Then it didn't like the Cellshock kits at all, I'd say it was even slightly worse than the Abit board. So it's not only D9GKX chips it doesn't like, it doesn't like Cellshock kits at all for some reason. I wasn't even able to get 4-5-5-10 DDR2-1000 @ 2.2~2.23v stable.

The guy I bought it of was nice and accepted that he will return the money I paid for it as I'm going to send it back. It's a shame as it really looked like it would be a board I'd love and I liked the heavily configurable bios too.

BUT then I decided to give my old Gigabyte P35 DS4 a try that has been resting for like 8 months or so I think (when I was still using a E6750 cpu) as I wasn't sure if it was screwed up due to bios flashing or if it was infact incompability with the Team Xtreem ram with latest bios and to my suprise it booted up just fine with the Cellshock PC2-6400 4-4-4-12 D9GMH kit. Now I tried of course see how this board clocks the Cellshock kit and finally it seems I've found a mobo + ram that plays well together. It seems like this board runs the ram at 1000 4-4-4-x at pl7 even (abit board needed pl8 for this kit) and a voltage of 2.15v set in bios (+ Gigabyte P35 DS4 overvolting) ~= 2.21v. I haven't tried to see yet exactly how low it can go on timings or if it would do even go towards 1200. Mem performance is a notch better than on the Abit board too but it's only by a small margin.

I nearly ruined the OCZ Vendetta 2 cooler when I was installing the components quickly on the Gigabyte board as I nearly ruined one of the push pins that I had to bend back and then also managed to get a little piece of it breaking but it doesn't really affect the usability though. Was a bit upset after the DFI board didn't meet my hopes, so wasn't as calm and careful as I should be. I don't know how this board clocks my E8400 either but at least it does at least as good job at the Abit IP35 Pro board but I think it might even clock slightly better but that remains to be seen. It's late now, will have to try more tomorrow.