Overclocking with the Gigabyte DS3

[manveruppd]

Got some short Qs re: the BIOS options in this baby!

In the "MB Intelligent Tweaker Menu":

- "CIA2" and "Performance Enhance" - I assume these are some crappy automatic memory-timing tightenning features that are best left alone when overclocking?

- "System Memory Multiplier" - I'm guessing this is the FSB ratio, which at the moment is set to 667:867, but I don't understand what the explanatory rolleyes: ) text on the right pane means when it says:

+ --> 800 strapping
~ --> 1066 strapping
# --> 1333 strapping

I know the numbers are DRAM speeds in MHz, but each of those numbers is achievable under +, ~ or # using the different options available under this menu! So basically there's 3 different "flavours" for each ratio selection, and I don't understand what each of them is for!

- Finally, "(G)MCH OverVoltage Control" - is this chipset voltage?

 

[Cob]

CIA - The automatic overclocking setting. Leave disabled.

Performance Enhance - Changes the tRD memory setting, and can increase memory bandwidth quite considerably. It's a good option to use.

System Memory Multiplier - The FSB - Memory ratio. You can pretty much ignore the strapping blurb as the only multiplier than lets you choose more than one strap is the x4.0 one. And it's only really available to use if you're only running at 200-266mhz FSB.

(G)MCH Overvoltage Control - The northbridge voltage. The FSB Overvoltage Control is the CPU VTT voltage control.


Once you get used to the odd names you'll find that it's an incredibly simple board to overclock.

 

[manveruppd]

Ah, nice, thanks Cob, pretty much as I guessed then! That's not what I found with the FSB ratio though - I can see all of the options to choose from, and for each ratio there's one each of +, ~ and #! My chips are DDR2 666 by default, but they're Ballistix which people have clocked up to 1066.
Could you not be seeing the other signs because you're on a different BIOS revision? I'm using F11.

 

[Cob]

So you have three different x2.0, three different x2.4, three different x3.0, three different x3.25, and three different x4.0 memory multipliers to choose from when you hit Enter on the System Memory Multiplier option?

 

[manveruppd]

Oh, no, you're right, I just checked again and I was talking out of my rectum, it's just x4 that has three options. I bet I COULD manage x4 though, since my memory is only 667MHz, so which of the three should I go for?
(not that there's much point because apparently the C2D's FSB gets choked on anything more than 800MHz, but I might do it out of curiosity, or for the kudos and the infinitessimally better benchmark scores)