OC'd 2500k vs extra RAM?

Soldato
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Ironically, as I browse this forum, I've never been bothered about overclocking, its just never taken my interest, hence my current Q6600 remaining completely stock.

So joy, as OCuK have pre-overclocked bundles, saves me the hassle. However as I want 8GB of RAM in the system, they warn that it'll reduce the overclock speed. So I messaged one of the OCuK boffins, who tells me its for system safety, but I'll notice more difference with the extra RAM than the 3.3 -> 4.4 overclock as it "isn't much difference"

Firstly, really? I would have thought it was, as thats about a 25% increase. Secondly, does extra RAM really have that much effect?

But most importantly, whats the point if OCuK selling pre-OC'd bundles with extra RAM option, when, if you select their offered RAM increase, it practically obliterates the overclock?

This isn't a moan, I'm just don't understand. If I want 8GB of RAM, am I better off just buying them seperate and looking into OC'ing it myself at a later date??
 
If I was a businessman, I would try to sell the product I make most money with, i.e. try to get the best margin.

That said, it all depends on what kind of applications you talk about. There are virtually no games out there that can assign more than 3.6 GB of RAM. So at least for gaming performance the difference between 4 and 8 gigs will be neglible, unless you want to leave 40 firefox-tabs open (20 of which are youtube videos) while gaming, as I tend to do it.

If the CPU will make much difference - I'm not sure about this either. At least today, the GPU will most probably be the bottleneck, since CPU and RAM just provide the graphics card with raw data it has to transform into displayable images.

Obviously, these statements are pretty useless when we start talkig about office use, image processing, video editing etc. What I'm trying to say is: every general statement has to be wrong somehow, it all depends on where you need the performance.
 
Having 4 slots filled in Sandybride has little effect on the overclock, or so I've been told.

Odds are the pre oc'd bundles have 2x4gb sticks so it's likely just an outdated description.

Link to the bundle in question? :)
 
Technically, more RAM slots used means more strain on the memory controller - but on sandy bridge it doesn't seem to make as much difference as it did on previous platforms. However, when running at a high overclock you are unlikely to be able to run two more memory sticks without slightly tweaking your settings (which for a pre-overclocked bundle is not ideal).

However, OCUK do sell pre-overclocked bundles with the i5 2500K and 8GB of RAM, for example this one (8GB is in the drop-down menu and costs £10 more than 4GB - presumably this is in the 2x4GB configuration).
 
reiyushin - it applies to all bundles; if you look in descriptions it says that by increasing the RAM they will reduce the OC, which was confirmed by one of their tech's when I messaged them a few days ago.

Bundle in question was this one though:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-080-OE

A user review suggests that increasing to the optional 8GB of RAM reduces the overclock from 4.4 to 3.6, therefore only gaining 0.3...

However, OCUK do sell pre-overclocked bundles with the i5 2500K and 8GB of RAM, for example this one (8GB is in the drop-down menu and costs £10 more than 4GB - presumably this is in the 2x4GB configuration).

But if you select the 8GB option, OCuK knock the clock back for system safety - this is fair enough, I just find it odd as to why it makes such a difference.
 
The warning at the bottom of the product discription is for adding additional RAM sticks yourself. With more memory sticks there is more load put on the memory controlled which could affect overclocked system stability and require new settings. I would think that the guy you talked to thought you were meaning adding additional memory yourself (ie buying the system with the 2x2GB RAM installed, and adding an identical 2x2GB kit to make 8GB with four sticks).

The guy who gave the review sounds like he hasn't enabled the overclocking profile in the BIOS, so he is just seeing stock speeds plus the standard intel turbo boost.

However, choosing the 8GB option which they provide in the product page really shouldn't affect the clockspeed they give you - since it is still two memory sticks (just 2x4GB ones instead of 2x2GB) and no more load on the memory controller than two 2GB sticks. When you do select this option, there is no mention that you won't get the full overclock - so hold them to this.
 
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Please note that adding in additional memory to the spare slots will require new BIOS settings and the maximum clock speed attainable may be significantly reduced.

Important part in bold :) you'll be sweet with 2x4Gb sticks ^^
 
Thats what I thought, but the OCuK guy was implying otherwise:

Me said:
I'm looking to purchase one of your Krypton Z68 590i pre-overclocked bundles, but I wanted to clarify the memory upgrade - the note in the product description seems to suggest that upgrading the memory may "significantly" reduce the overclock - is that if I purchase memory myself at a later date, or if I chose the optional memory upgrade for £10 during the order?
One of the reviews for one of the system suggests its the latter, so I just wanted to clarify.

Then they said...

OCuK said:
The reason for the fall in overclock is because once the memory modules are used up we have to make sure that we don't overclock it too much without damaging the modules. I would say that it's more beneficial to upgrade the memory as 3.3 to 4.4 is not much of difference to be honest.

Note how he says "we have to make sure..." - firstly he implies that they just stick another pair in, then that they will reduce the speed. Otherwise, surely he'd be telling me I'd need to be reducing it if I added extra RAM?

Maybe I'm just reading into it wrongly. And I think their statement is pretty ambiguous, it could imply both selecting their upgrade OR adding it yourself, so it'd be difficult to reject it based on that if it didn't hit the advertised speeds I think...
 
Generally speaking, my experience has always been, more memory = lower memory overclocks, rarely if ever cpu overclocks.

IE 2x2gb sticks of memory a few years ago, lets say ddr 2 could hit 1200mhz, but put 4x2gb sticks in, and you might only be stable at 1050-1100mhz.

I would seriously, seriously doubt you would lose much cpu overclock by using another 2 memory slots, if any.

But, its also worth mentioning, the pre-overclocked bundles really aren't worth it either.

Near as I can tell that bundle is £20 of memory, £171 chip, £24 heatsink and a £90 mobo, or £305 separately, and, lets be honest, it WILL do 4.4Ghz, its not hard to overclock and you'd be paying OCUK £40 extra, for a bios setting?

Personally I'd buy separately and get a better cpu cooler AND still save money.
 
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