do i need to overclock?

xrich_ · 29 Mar 2009 at 16:08

heres my components:

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 3.00GHz (1333FSB) - Retail
Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3 Intel P43 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Corsair XMS2 4GB DDR2 PC2-6400C5 TwinX (2x2GB)

The motherboard peaks at 1333FSB aparently, which is what the CPU runs at, but the RAM aparently maxes out at 800FSB. Is this a problem? Would overclocking be worthwhile? or is it unnecessary?

Ps - im clueless about overclocking

Cheers

siumatfung · 29 Mar 2009 at 16:20

u can clock the fbs to 1600 the ram just noted at half the fbs duno y

xrich_ · 29 Mar 2009 at 16:23

so do i need to clock it to 1600? or will it run faster than 800FSB by itself (and its just noted at 800FSB for some random reason). Is overclocking it even necessary?

95thrifles · 29 Mar 2009 at 17:08

You dont have to overclock no, and if you're not comfortable/dont know what you're doing its best not to. Its fine that the RAM and CPU have different speeds, dont worry about it
How it works is: the computer (set by the CPU) has an actual FSB it uses of 333MHz, this is what you amend to overclock anything, the processor can run 4 instructions per clock cycle, so its effective FSB is quad pumped, 333 x 4 = 1333. RAM is different and what happens with your RAM is the motherboard uses a divider to adjust the speed, if you do alter your FSB then you need a different divider to keep the memory at the same speed, they have lots to choose from so its ok. On your standard speed of 333, this equates to 666 as it is DDR2 RAM, 333 x 2 = 666, so to make it run at 800 MHz your BIOS uses a 5:6 divider, 666 x 6 / 5 = 800 (roughly) You might not understand all that but its the basics of how it works. As I say until you know what you're doing its best not to start altering the settings as it can cause quite a few worries if it goes wrong

xrich_ · 29 Mar 2009 at 17:21

thanks for clearing that up

JonJ678 · 29 Mar 2009 at 22:20

Do you need to? No
Should you? Yes

If you overclock without researching the topic adequately and your computer dies, it serves you right for not researching it enough. Read many guides in order to no longer be clueless about overclocking and you'll be rewarded with a much faster system (and more knowledge).