RAM or CPU speed, which is better?

TerryS

TerryS

TerryS

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In order to run my current setup stably for games, I can either OC the FSB to 280 which increases the E6700 to 2.8Ghz and the RAM (Corsair 6400 C4) to 840Mhz or reduce the CPU multiplier to 9, increase the FSB to 333 which increases the CPU to 3Ghz and leave the RAM at 666Mhz effective. Which is the better solution, 200Mhz on the CPU or RAM? If I adjust the RAM ratio with the FSB beyond 280, the system won't even boot. I've had the RAM up to 900Mhz and the CPU up to 3.33Ghz but not at the same time. I'm worried about how many volts the NB on my Asus P5B could take 24/7.
 
Generally speaking CPU speed gives larger gains than RAM speed. However I am not entirely familiar with DDR2 RAM so it may well be different.

SiriusB
 
ahh, was wondering this also, not wanting to highjack but... Am i better off with 240Mhz ram & 2.4Ghz CPU (current) or, 200Mhz RAM or less and a higher clock?

AMD 939 obviously and just DDR
 
Personally I would go for the higher CPU clock speed! RAM was always a secondary consideration when overclocking my 4400+.

You should find the absolute max CPU overclock you can and then mess around with the dividers, FSB and multis to see if you can get a big overclock on your CPU and perhaps some overclock on your RAM. Don't try too hard though :D

SiriusB
 
SiriusB said:
Don't try too hard though :D

SiriusB
Click to expand...

lol now you tell me :D , had to reinstall XP a couple of weeks ago as I killed my install with being greedy on a 1:1 lol

Is it worth going all the way down to a 133 divider though just for a little extra speed? hang on, common sense tells me no, lol. Ignore that! I have been too focused on the RAM speeds tbh so i shall put them aside and get clocking my CPU more methinks ;)
 
Most of the 3800s I have seen get to at least 2.6GHz. So lets say you got that by using a multi of 9 and FSB of 289. Sticking your divider at 166 would have your RAM running at 236MHz.

See, you can get a high CPU and RAM OC. This would have course depend on whether you can get a stable FSB of 289 and whether the memory controller can handle 236MHz RAM at a higher OC!

This is why overclocking is so fun :D

SiriusB
 
why not just benchmark the two and compare? 3dmark03/05 and SuperPI are what I used - 3.6Ghz & 670ish gets 2 sec's less and 1200/200 extra marks that 3.4Ghz & 800ish (can't remember ram timing perfectly sorry)
 
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lol, offered love, got refused went to give money, nope! Neither would convince my little 3800 to put up with anything over 2.41Ghz lol, not even on a 100Mhz divider! :eek:

Put it down to a useless mobo personally ;)
 
More than likely is.. 2005 after all, as for the mobo ---> Asrock Dual SATA2 939, and yeah i know im probably asking too much from a cheap board. Just that on the thread for that board generally the clocks achieved are pretty good, just does not like an FSB above 241 lol, no matter what multi or divider. Link speeds make no difference either, the only thing i could think it would be is the lack of power, i can only get 1.4V in the BIOS max, and dont really want to volt mod. Well i guess its at its limit for this rig... will have to stop trying now lol
 
ooo, nice board! Unfortunately will have to wait a while, but will get in a month or so possibly as it would be well worth it!

But hang on! Are you working for OCuk? lol, i only ask as i seem to remember you prompting me to upgrade my GPU not so long ago, which i did lol. However my reason for hesitation then is now even more intense! Women :rolleyes:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17593786 :p
 
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That board is excellent, it's what I have in my rig. And no I don't work for OcUK :p

Just you always seem to need a shove in the right direction! :D

SiriusB
 
lol aint that the truth! I always dread replacing the mobo, means i have to take everything out lol, i'm lying really, i love it, great excuse as it happens ;)
 
Since the OP is on a Conroe I'd go for clockspeed over RAM speed, since those CPUs have large efficient caches and FSB probably won't make such a massive difference.
 
Thanks for the advice. I am now OC'd to 333 x 10 with 3.3 Ghz CPU and 666 effective RAM. All voltages are on auto. I assume that the P5B automatically increases VCore as it is 1.38v. I was initially concerned about temperatures but after a couple of days thay have settled down to CPU idle 42 C, Load 49 C, MB 30 C. I'm using AS5 and Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro with 2 120mm case fans in an Antec Sonata 2. Initially the CPU idled at 50 C at stock speeds which just goes to show that it does take a couple of days for the AS5 to 'set'. I have left speedstep on and it seems to work well. I've been playing GRAW, LOMAC and FS9 for extended periods with complete stability. Definately a big improvement over my last system based around a watercooled FX57.
 
Hi Foehammer2003, SuperPI 1M is 15s. I've still got the Swiftech watercooling kit but would need a new cpu block. I'm happy enough with the system now as it is. When I built the FX57 system over a year ago now, the cooling system worked fine for about a week then one morning I noticed a green puddle under the case. I nearly **** myself but fortunately it had leaked from the bottom of the external radiator and didn't do any damage. Ever since then I've been a bit paranoid about watercooling.
 
Thats one of the things that puts me off water cooling, well actually there is a list lol

1. Too expensive
2. Seems too complicated
3. Can be disasterous
4. Benifit outweighed by the above imo
5. Useless unless i learn how to OC a bit better :rolleyes:

Thats an immense SuperPi time, i got 34s lol, tis a amd X2 though. Just wondered how much quicker Conroe was... now I know! :)
 
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