Advice before I drop 500 on some more memory!

[klepp0906]

The Scenario - I have 4x1gb sticks of some gskill 6400, cheap stuff but it fares ok if I only use 2 sticks. I usually can get-er stable with mild timings @ 450 fsb or so. Once I stick in the other 2 sticks, I have to work to get it stable @ 430fsb with the same timings.

Ive heard it is harder to OC with 4 sticks than 2. Some have said fact, others have said fiction. regardless, if I buy some quality pc8000 is it a safe bet that I'll be able to get those numbers up quite a bit?

I mean, if i know my chip is capable of a hell of alot more, then better ram ought to allow my bus up higher with both 2 and 4 sticks no?

Or I could just be getting 1 crappy stick, cause your only as good as your slowest peice of ram right? Either that is my issue, or the 4 stick is harder than 2 clause is in full effect. Regardless im trying to remedy the situation by buying some better ram.

Good idea or nay?
have some cash burning a hole persay, and i know the previous owner of my chip had it running @ nearly 3.5 on air stable. I cant muster anything higher than 3.0 stable. However he was using better ram, and only 2 sticks as opposed to 4.

Its a Gigabyte 965 s3 with the newest bios.
Ive got 4 1 gig sticks of the bnq gskill pc6400.
an E6300 @ 430 fsb with timings set to 5 5 5 15. Anything else timing wise or fsb wise will fail orthos. My temps under orthos load is 52c or so. Entire box is watercooled.

Now if i remove 2 sticks of ram, I can get 450 fsb or so stable. tinkering ive even booted close to 500fsb into windows. At the moment switching boards isnt really an option, ive got everythign watercooled into a midtower which is a super tight fit so R&R'ing it is outta the question, if ram wont fix it ill leave it as it is!

The memory im looking into getting is the crucial ballistix the pc8000 stuff.

What do we think as far as it making the box more overclockable? As far as performance gains etc?

By the way not that it matters a TON but is the orange on the ballistix sticks flourescent? (cold cathodes ftw!)

 

[Roguestar]

The E6300 will start to cap out in terms of stable everyday high-demand usage at around 3.5Ghz so you can't really expect to get much more out of it. You'll be dropping $$$ to get an unnoticeable performance increase on an already blazing fast PC. Frankly I think it's excessive but to answer your questions:

- 4 sticks is sometimes harder to overclock with. Not as bad on Core 2 Duo from what I've heard.
- The PC8000 will remove your memory from the equation in terms of what's limiting you. You may still peak at aroun 450FSB in terms of stable use, mind.
- Seriously buy a better graphics card or something if it's burning a hole in your pocket. Or another monitor.
- Your CPU was overclocked by a previous owner? I'd not buy a pre-voided warranty or something someone else has been screwing with.
- The Crucial Ballistix is a pretty good set of RAM should you indeed set your sights on spending so much for so little gain.
- If the orange on the sticks flouresces or bothers you (I don't think it does, though) why not get Ballistix Tracers? I mean, you're already spending way too much on RAM, why not get RAM with frickin' lights in it?

 

[mercanucaribe]

You want to spend $500 to overclock an E4300? You know an E6600 costs $300 right? An E6700 is $500.

 

[Roguestar]

When you put it like that... :laugh:

 

[yh125d]

>.<

just use a mem divider man, no need to waste money on new ram when you're likely not gonna go over 475fsb with that cpu anyway. you'd likely only notice the improvement in benchmarks, you prob wouldnt see a difference in games etc.

Curious, you running vista or xp?

 

[klepp0906]

roguestar, actually the difference from 430fsb to 475fsb+ is quite substantial, might be only a few framerates in particular games but it certainly makes a difference in other areas, benchmarks included! Granted enough of a performance difference to justify 500 bucks? probably not. However, atleast I know i wouldnt be limited my computers potential then. Assuming the ram is the limiting factor anyhow.

As for buying another monitor, im running a 24" wide, id like the 30" wide but 500 bucks wont cut it =(

As for a better vid card, im running a 8800gtx flashed to asc3 and watercooled so thats not an option atm either =( plus its a full block so ill probably be keeping the card even after the next gen releases =(

The cpu was oc'd but the previous owner was a forum regular who only had it for a few weeks. I actually bought it with the board he used it with, however a bad psu ended up RIP'ing the board =(

The orange on the ballistix wouldnt bother me, id actually PREFER if it was flourescent, which is why i asked.

In the end it isnt just about the gains I would see from the ram alone, it kind of futureproofs me if ya know what I mean. The ram will be there to "not" bottleneck my next cpu/mobo etc. The only reason I bought the gskill 6400 is because I was on a budget and figured cheap ram was a corner I was able to cut at the time.

Hope all that clarifies! <3 more feedback!

and yh125d I do use the divider and I set it at 2 which at the moment puts my memory @ 860 with increased voltage and default timings only puts it 60mhz out of spec. Im running vista to answer your question.

and I do want to make sure 430 isnt a "4 dimm full board limit" as opposed to just a "4 stick of cheap ram" limit. Cause I can go plenty further with only 2 dimms populated.

what to do what to do

 

[mercanucaribe]

The best futureproofing measure would be to save your money and use it to upgrade... in the future. If you system is more than fast enough, it doesn't make sense to spend that much for some tiny gain in performance. Even ignoring the future, it makes no sense when you can spend that money on a much faster CPU to begin with rather than overclocking the low end C2D slightly higher.


If an E6700 costs $500 now, imagine what that money will buy in a year.