Just thought I'd post some experience from my last two motherboards. I've been running overclocked and unlocked AM2+ Athlon X2 5000+ (@ Phenom FX-5000) and AM3 Athlon X2 5200+ (@ Phenom FX-5200). The multipliers on these chips are 11 and 11.5 respectively so any limitation on my overclock has been down to the maximum hypertransport bus speed.
With my Jetway HA08 Combo I found the maximum bus speed using 1.8v DDR2-800 was about 286 MHz. Anything higher than that wouldn't POST. Raise the Ram voltage to 2.1v and the same board would hit 300 MHz.
Likewise on my Gigabyte GA-870-UD3, raising the voltage slightly on my 1.6v rated DDR3 1600 raises the maximum FSB the board will POST at. I've not tested this extensively yet.
In both cases the ram was running at or below its rated speed and timings so I'm pretty sure it was genuinely giving extra headroom for the hypertransport bus (or FSB in old money), rather than pushing the limits of the RAM itself.
This might make life difficult for the overclocker on a budget like me, as high voltage DDR3 is getting like hens teeth. All the newer stuff is low voltage, designed for keeping Intel chips happy.
With my Jetway HA08 Combo I found the maximum bus speed using 1.8v DDR2-800 was about 286 MHz. Anything higher than that wouldn't POST. Raise the Ram voltage to 2.1v and the same board would hit 300 MHz.
Likewise on my Gigabyte GA-870-UD3, raising the voltage slightly on my 1.6v rated DDR3 1600 raises the maximum FSB the board will POST at. I've not tested this extensively yet.
In both cases the ram was running at or below its rated speed and timings so I'm pretty sure it was genuinely giving extra headroom for the hypertransport bus (or FSB in old money), rather than pushing the limits of the RAM itself.
This might make life difficult for the overclocker on a budget like me, as high voltage DDR3 is getting like hens teeth. All the newer stuff is low voltage, designed for keeping Intel chips happy.