[airspirit]

You're worrying too much. First, DO NOT GET THAT TBRED CHIP FOR GOD'S SAKE IT IS A POS TBRED "A"!!!!!

See the stepping? AIWG!!!A!!! (emphasis added). Don't buy it.

As for bartons, you could never be sure. You may get one that caps at 2200 and no amount of voltage will get it higher. You may get one that runs 2400 at stock voltage. There is a large variance in those chips and you really have to learn to overclock and troubleshoot if you're going to continue on this road. Truly, if every chip were the same, then there would be no challenge in this ... that's why it is an art: no two systems are alike. The only way to really know what will happen will be to pick one up and see if you can get it to scream hail to the king ... know what I mean?

The variance on A chips is 1800-2100 (generally).

The variance on B chips is 2200-2600 (generally).

The variance on Bartons is 2200-2500 (generally).

Bartons at equal speed spank TBreds, generally.

Bartons at slightly lower speeds (+/- 15%) generally perform equally or better than TBreds in real world applications.

You be the judge.

edit: NF7-S r2 is a good board. The top range in V on a barton is determined by what you want out of it, though on watercooling is around 1.9V and on top end aircooling around 1.85V. On mediocre aircooling I wouldn't push past 1.775V.