Well, I guess this thread has turned into an argument on overclocking.
At about 155FSB, you get 1700MHz, which is a 2050+ . 2000+ costs about $175 (that was price listed this morning at computer show).
Anyways, in answer to your question/statement/god-knows-what-remark, I have never tried to boot the 1700+ into Windows with an overclocked PCI bus. I have 2x80GB Barracuda IV's that don't seem to like overclocking too much, plus an old, but still good SCSI setup I'm not keen on burning out, especially considering replacement costs. Plus, re-read my last post and note that I'm using one pretty old heatsink that was decent for it's time (cost me $10, but comes with a quiet 80mm fan). Even with 150FSB the drives will slowly return errors (I did this on my last board, 8KHA+), so I only tinker with memory and FSB in multiples of 33. I'm considering getting nForce2, cause I hear nForce has locked PCI/AGP.
Oh, and I've never upped the VCore past default. I've only had this chip for a couple months (Got it in May) and haven't had the chance to try it out with winter weather. Summer's bloody hot, so I underclock (see previous post). If you really want to know how far I can push it, wait until winter rolls around and I get a new heatsink (This one I bought long ago for a Duron 600. Baby hit 800+, too, if I remember correctly).
About that "ringing endorsement of overclocking", you can see it how you want, I never said AMD overclocks well, nor did I say it overclocks bad, either. I just said for the money, 1600+ for $65 seemed to be a good deal given my personal experience with a sibling. I have also tinkered with a 1.6A and VIA mobo combo from Fry's. That chip hit 127 and stopped. I couldn't up that thing any farther, even with max voltage (which was like 0.1V, I think. If you're thinking "Voltage mod", I didn't wanna burn the chip in summer heat and only reason I upped it was cause it runs cool to begin with) So, anyway, I backed it down to 100 so I wouldn't kill my PCI cards, and booted to WinXP. I ran
this and, boy, was I surprised. My 1700+ could crunch 800K iteration points per second, 600K at 1100MHz, but this pitiful 1.6a could barely manage 250K. I ran Metal of Honor, and noticed 60+FPS when switching maps (It's usually above 90, even with a Radeon 7500 PCI).
Suffice it to say, I returned the combo. Figured even at 133MHz, the memory (Good old Corsair PC2400) would pretty much reduce performance unless I switched to Rambus, and I don't exactly have deep pockets. That's why I bought an AMD setup in the first place. Good bang for low buck, even considering overclocking. For the kinds of programs I run, at least.
So, in conclusion, I still think this is a good deal. It may change when new steppings come out, but for now, my experience has told me AMD will give best bang/buck when considering light (aka, no peltier, water, $50 heatsinks) overclocking. When Intel puts out a dual channel DDR board, I may change my mind. If you really want to get into which chip overclocks better, I think it's time for a new forum.