Choices

[banja]

I'm a little confused about core duo cpus, memory and overclocking.

As I understand it, multipliers are locked, so if I bought a conroe 6600 and 6400 ram I'd have to run at 9*400fsb to run the ram at 1:1. That's 3.6 GHZ!! (Or can multipliers be lowered??)

So I could run the ram on a divider and lower the FSB to say 320 (4:5), but then isn't it just worth then getting the 5300 ram instead anyway?? Is there actually any performance benefit to running ram on a divider??

But if I'm clocking to 2880MHZ, surely I'd be better off with the much cheaper 6300 CPU, go back up to OCing at 7*400fsb and run the 6400 ram at 1:1?

What's the best way to go and what are the advantages / disadvantages.

As I see it, only the 4mb cache is a differing factor. Unless I can clock a 6600 to 3.6GHZ, there's no reason not to go for the 6300 and slower ram instead.

I think.

I'm puzzled.

 

[banja]

Could someone recommend a good website / forum where I might get answers and opinions on these type of questions?

Please

 

[Cob]

Getting an e6600 to 3.6Ghz isn't easy. A lot of ppl are only getting 3.4-3.5, and that's with decent cooling. Mine craps out at 3.6Ghz (400x9 or 450x8) under water at 1.5v.

And yeah the C2D's multipliers can be lowered to x6. I run my e6600 at 450x8 as my Geil PC6400 can handle 900Mhz @4-4-4-12 at default voltage (2.1v).

An e6300 and some decent CAS4 pc6400 should get you to atleast 3.1Ghz, more if your RAM can handle it.

 

[banja]

Thanks Cob, that answers it. The fact that you can lower the multiplier gives more choices. Now just have to work out if the extra cache is worth the bunch of extra cash.