Hows my clock !?

[Damien.]

Spec;

Q6600, Gigabyte P35C-DSR, 4 GB Crucial Ballistix, 280 GTX.

I've bought a 5870 which should be here tomorrow. I cant really afford to upgrade everything else yet i.e. CPU, mobo and ram, so I am trying to get as much as i can out of my current hardware. I've read about the Q6600 bottlenecking the 5870 at stock speeds, so after looking over a few guides I've tried over-clocking it but still keeping within safe limits.

Would someone mind having a look at my screeny, just to confirm ive got a good speed etc.

Thanks.

 

[Big.Wayne]

Looks good!

I'd say you could get 3.4GHz or 3.6GHz but your temps will probably be too high . . . . . also what speed is your 4 GB Crucial Ballistix? . . . Can you squeeze any more MHz from the Ballistix as the extra memory bandwidth would be nice with such a fast quad!

[edit] just noticed the timings are 5-6-6-18 at DDR2-800? . . . . shouldn't that be 4-4-4-12?

 

[Damien.]

Looks good!

I'd say you could get 3.4GHz or 3.6GHz but your temps will probably be too high . . . . . also what speed is your 4 GB Crucial Ballistix? . . . Can you squeeze any more MHz from the Ballistix as the extra memory bandwidth would be nice with such a fast quad!

[edit] just noticed the timings are 5-6-6-18 at DDR2-800? . . . . shouldn't that be 4-4-4-12?

The standard clock on the ram is 667MHZ.

Is it worth adjusting the timing to 4-4-4-12 ?

 

[SMAndy]

If that RAM is rated for 667, then you're probably right to leave it at 5-6-6-18, unless its from a good manufacturer.

60°C isn't too high yet. You can probably manage 3.4 without much trouble there. Don't forget that in normal, or even extreme use, you're never going to push a chip as much as Prime does.

 

[Damien.]

If that RAM is rated for 667, then you're probably right to leave it at 5-6-6-18, unless its from a good manufacturer.

60°C isn't too high yet. You can probably manage 3.4 without much trouble there. Don't forget that in normal, or even extreme use, you're never going to push a chip as much as Prime does.

The RAM is Crucial Ballistix, the ones with gold coloured heat sinks.

What would you recommend changing the clocks to, to acheive 3.4, IIRC, the RAM FSB goes up too, im not sure what the max clock the ram would handle is.

At the moment im using 400X8 for the CPU and 2.00 for the RAM

EDIT: PS. ive got a noctua cooling the CPU, im tempted to Lap it on the weekend.

 

[Big.Wayne]

Hey Damien, Crucial Ballistix is pretty capable stuff and I thought its timings were as such

666MHz @ 3-3-3-x

800MHz @ 4-4-4-12

1066MHz @ 5-5-5-18

Obviously you have to find your own way forward but if I had your kit and was at 3.2GHz with a quad core I would be paying more attention to my memory/northbridge set-up.

If you fancy exploring memory overclocking then its normally easier to reduce the CPU MHz back down to stock 266MHz-FSB and set the memory to an upwards memory divider so its running at [3:2] DDR2-800, you will then be able to slowly but surely raise the FSB and the memory will start flying up in speed . . . . by the time you have the FSB at a humble 355MHz your memory on the [3:2] divider will be zooming along at 533MHz (DDR2-1066), it may struggle to reach that speed but with 5-5-5-18 timings, some extra volts and added RAM cooling you stand a good chance!

CPU MHz are good but having a fast FSB and memory plays an important role too in overall system speed!