Overclocking options with my proposed spec...

davejm · 21 May 2007 at 09:39

I wonder if anyone can help me clarifiy my clocking options with the following spec... hopefully the components I've chosen will let me oc slightly, but I'm not 100% sure on the RAM. I've heard it's good for overclocking, but I've been warned off it because faster ram means that "i'll be able to push the c2d and keep the ram at 1:1 easily". I'm not too sure what that means. I've been advised to get ocz ram because "ocz's guarantee allows for vdimm voltage increase over stock". but again, I'm not too sure what this means. Is this crucial RAM going to be fast enough for me?

Anything else of note from this proposed spec before I order?

I've been advised to change the motherboard to this:-
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-222-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=

... and the cooling fan to the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7, which is cheaper. Any thoughts on these?

Will_3rd · 21 May 2007 at 09:48

I would stick with that setup, the so called "problem" with the Crucial RAM is bs IMO

As for the M/B unless you want SLI, I wouldn't bother personally.

The AC7 is good, but not as good as the Noctua

Jaffa_Cake · 21 May 2007 at 09:50

Leave it like it is. Nice spec, Noctua is better cooler than the AC7.

Depending on how high you want to clock theres a few options.

2 I have personally tested are:

400*8 @ 3200MHz
RAM divider at 2.5 for 1000MHz with VDIMM + 0.05.

The above is very stable, you can also try this for 3.6GHz

400*9 @ 3600MHz with vcore @ 1.4v
RAM divider at 2.5 for 1000MHz with VDIMM + 0.05

Sp00n fed

ramdor · 21 May 2007 at 10:25

400*9 @ 3600MHz with vcore @ 1.4v

I wish. I am not sure if recent chips are as good as the early ones. I know i've got a 'made in malaysia' chip, but still.

Ran prime for 24hrs with fsb at 400* 6 to give stock cpu mhz on a week old e6600. I did this to check stability of mobo.

Then I've been running prime at 400*9, and it is needing 1.53v to become 6hrs (so far) orthos stable. Temps are ~50'c full load.

This is on an abit in9 32x-max wifi mobo with bios 1.2 beta 06.

Richie.

Jaffa_Cake · 21 May 2007 at 10:50

ramdor said:
Then I've been running prime at 400*9, and it is needing 1.53v to become 6hrs (so far) orthos stable. Temps are ~50'c full load.

Was a bit unsure on that second one. I know someone who has 3.5Ghz on 1.39 vcore.

1.53 is very high for a c2d.

davejm · 21 May 2007 at 10:53

I'm a bit confused now. Should I be looking at RAM that is better rated at stock? The Giel RAM is cheaper, and is rated faster, so would I be better with that?

I still can't quite get my head round fsb, multipliers, dividers etc. If the stock speed of that memory 667mhz and I set the fsb to 400mhz, would I need to change the divider to 2 to run the RAM at 800mhz? or 2.5 for 1000mhz memory etc?

At 400mhz fsb, would the cpu multiplier need to be 6 for stock speeds and then set higher as I start to overclock?

or am I barking up the wrong tree?

Buffalo2102 · 21 May 2007 at 16:01

I'm pretty sure that the 965P chipset does not allow memory dividers - the lowest that is allowed is a multiplier of 2. That may be why someone suggested that ASUS board - maybe it has memory dividers?

If you are planning on overclocking on the DS3 it is better IMO to get faster rated RAM. With 667MHz DDR2 memory you could go to a FSB of 333MHz and still be running the memory at stock. Anything higher than 333 would be overclocking the memory (at the lowest multiplier). If you buy 800MHz memory, you can raise the FSB to 400MHz before overclocking the memory.

That Crucial is pretty good stuff but timings are not that important any more and you would get more headroom from some PC6400 IMO. Plus you could save some money.

davejm · 22 May 2007 at 10:31

So will I need another motherboard in order to use dividers? I'm still not sure I understand this overclocking thing, and I'm even more confused than before.

As I understand it, the stock FSB with a E6600 is 266mhz with a 9x multiplier.

Can I increase the FSB to 400mhz with a multiplier of 8x to get 3.2ghz? If so, do I set the RAM multiplier to 2x giving me 800mhz memory? Is the crucial memory OK to do that, or do I need memory that will do that at stock with this motherboard, i.e the GieL RAM?

Sorry for the noob questions, I think I'm working things out slowly but surely.

Buffalo2102 · 22 May 2007 at 10:48

You are correct in all of the above.

You don't necessarily need 800MHz memory - the Crucial will probably be OK to overclock to 800MHz. However, it's not guaranteed of course. With the Geil it would be guaranteed because at 400MHz FSB you would still be running it at stock.

davejm · 22 May 2007 at 10:51

oooh, I'm getting there then.

And how do memory multipliers work... can they increase in fractions, i.e 2.5x giving me a memory speed of 1ghz? If so, would I be better off going for RAM that has a stock speed of 1ghz?

sidefxv1 · 22 May 2007 at 10:56

Buffalo2102 said:
the Crucial will probably be OK to overclock to 800MHz. However, it's not guaranteed of course.

Put it this way though, I haven't seen one person fail to get the crucial over 800MHz. Mines at 930 at the moment and looking pretty solid (timings are a bit slack, but I haven't spent time tightening them yet.) And many people are getting over 1000MHz. Very nice RAM that.