Hey Lighters!
Sorry If I was a little brief in my post before but I guess I didn't read your first post correctly . . .
right so your using an Intel® Core™2 Duo E7200 (nice!)
Multi: 9.5
FSB: 266MHz
System Bus: 1066MHz
(FSB x4)
CPU Speed= Multi x FSB = 2527MHz
So right out the box that processor needs DDR2-533 (aka PC2-4200, 266MHz) to run at stock speeds above (9.5x266MHz) using synchronous memory ratio 1:1 (memory running identical to real speed of FSB, FSB=266, Memory real=266MHz but DDRDoubled to an effective 533MHz)
PC2-4200
Real MHz: 266
DDR2/Effective MHz: 533
So an Intel® Core™2 Duo E7200 in an Intel® P45 Express Chipset with DDR2 memory running at 1:1 has the following *main* frequencies (there are others such as PCI, PCI-E etc but I'm omitting them from this example), all frequencies are directly linked apart from one . . . . DDR2 Speed (in Yellow)
2527MHz
1066MHz
533MHz
266MHz
If you change any of the other frequencies it will effect them all . . .
Only the memory divider (aka DDR2-Speeds, Northbridge Straps, Memory Dividers, Memory Ratios speeds etc etc) allows you to directly change the speed of the memory without any increase to the other frequencies . . . and that's your key to becoming a memory overclocking gEEk!
You have already done a lot of testing which is good, you know
roughlyhow many MHz your CPU can produce, you also know
roughly how many MHz your Chipset
(aka Northbridge, MCH, FSB) can run . . . so what you need to do next is kinda start your testing from scratch but the second time around you are changing your memory from 1:1 *sync* to a faster speed using the dividers, as you start increasing the FSB the memory MHz will go flying off and you got Memtest86 at hand to do your testing.
Now does all that information answer your question? probably not but a bit of background doesn't hurt for anyone else lurking/reading lol!
"Best potential configuration"
It is my belief you will get better performance from your Intel® Core™2 Duo E7200 if you can get that memory running at an effective 1066MHz (aka DDR2-8500, 533MHz)
If you did that you would be an overclocking god! but I don't think you will be able to safely/stably
You just need to give those sticks a good test and make some notes, once you realise its speeds you can make the final adjustments, a balance of CPU MHz, FSB MHz and Memory MHz/Timings and volts
You want them all (CPU/FSB/MEM) to be as high as possible for the best overall performance boost!
The real world difference would be worth it, your computer would be faster, games would be faster, encoding would be faster, everything would be faster!
