Never bothered to clock Core 2 yet - questions.

Mercutio · 5 Apr 2009 at 11:04

Setup is as below. Gigabyte P35 board with a Q9450.
Will be adding 8GB (4 sticks) of 8500 RAM.

Questions:
1) I'm guess the ram runs at something other than 1:1 being only 1066MHz compare to 1333Mhz FSB processor? Or am I hopelessly confused here?

2) What's a good expected clock on this board?

95thrifles · 5 Apr 2009 at 11:08

Id recomend reading the guides stickied at the front of the forum

Your system has a FSB of 333, this is quad pumped to give you your CPU's rated FSB of 1333, this is because the CPU can send 4 instructions per cycle. The RAM is on a divider of 5/6, 333*5/6=400 and as its DDR2 that means it runs at 800MHz

You should be able to get 3.2-3.4 easy enough Id say

Edit Ive just re-read and seen your RAM is at 1066 not 800, but the principal is the same

RJC · 5 Apr 2009 at 11:35

You may need to up the northbridge voltage a notch or two. (MCH)

Mercutio · 5 Apr 2009 at 11:40

Ok, so if i've got everything right i'm looking to run a 400ish FSB. Do I need to worry about a divider on the RAM or just go for 1:1 and tighten the timings? (i'd guess 8500 cas5 would happily tighten up at lower speeds? I'd also guess i'm probably better off buying PC 6400 with very tight timings and running it 1:1?)

95thrifles · 5 Apr 2009 at 13:05

No you're better with 8500, it allows more headroom for clocking, you can just run it at lower speeds if you want. Basically lower the RAM to 1:1 and loose timings whilst OC'ing your CPU, get your CPU as high as you can, then look at raising the divider and tightening the timings to improve your RAM, once you've found the max for your CPU