Current AMD user, soon to Build a Conroe Box

[kman79]

Hey guys, I'll be needing to build a new computer soon. I'm moving out and I'm being considerate of my brother and leaving my AMD Rig at home with him.

I want ot build another computer, built around the new Conroe. I was able to Overclock my AMD64 3700+ to 2.75GHz stable, and it was actually pretty easy. I have a few questions regarding DDR2 Speed and the process of OCing an Intel Chip and Board. Here are my questions.

1. If the board is said to have a DDR2 Standard of DDR 667, would the board be limited to that speed only or could I use faster Memory

2. What does it mean when it says FSB 1066/800MHz?

3. Could someone please break it down for me on how to OC an intel board and CPU?

Excuse me for my ignorance, but I haven't had any experience with building an Intel box, and I have even a much less understanding of DDR2 memory. Any help on this would greatly be appreciated

 

[Noubourne]

Sorry if this is a bad post because I don't have any real answers for you, but you'll probably be better off asking this type of question next month once some true Conroe boards have shown up. Conroe looks to be a serious overclocker, so I would wait till a board catered to its capabilities has hit the market to find out what settings will be needed.

As for the 1066/800 thing, I believe there are P4 chips with a 1066 FSB, but that run on boards that can only handle RAM at DDR800 speeds. I know there are P4 chips that have an 800FSB, but only take DDR667 on the board. So if you see 2 numbers for a mobo, it's Chip FSB/Memory speed. Haven't looked real closely at Intel terminology for awhile, so someone else will have to explain why.

But I'm in the same boat as you; I'll be building a Conroe rig in August or September, and I'm gonna need to learn all this stuff. Cripes, I need more skills and formulas to OC AMD and Intel than I need to know for work!!

Here's a question: Is it possible to OC any current intel Mobos to the point where you can slap in a higher-rated speed RAM? For instance, can an 800/667 board be overclocked so that you can run DDR800 to match your CPU FSB speed?

 

[Avalon]

1) The highest stock memory speed you could plug into the board would be DDR2-667, but that doesn't take into account overclocking the memory.

2)1066/800FSB are basically 266FSB and 200FSB respectively. Intel's FSB is quad pumped.

3)If you can overclock an A64, you can overclock an Intel. In fact, if you ever overclocked an Athlon XP (barton, for example), then it's the same exact thing. No HTT to worry about, you just increase the FSB and keep your memory dividers in check.

 

[Maxspeed996]

Avalon is right , but most Intel's that I've seen have the divider's locked. Some are not. And most high end boards have EASY overclocking utilities in the bios that make 5-10-15-20-25-30% overclocks as easy as clicking the option , and it optimizes your ram settings at the same time.
Unless you are trying to sqeeze every last bit of performance out of your rig , then you'll have to get in there and do some tweaking. Good luck!!

 

[kman79]

Thanks for the replies guys.

Sorta looking forward into this new build. I'll be using the upcoming Asus P5B Deluxe. I have had good luck with Asus Boards so I feel comfortable using them.

I appreciate the input and I'm sure I'll be asking for help again when I do get the stuff in.