Higher Multi or Higher BCLK

[Mrduder]

I finally made the jump to a core i7 about a week ago. I won a i7 950 and purchased a Asus P6T Deluxe V2 and some G Skill memory to use with it.

I am more familiar with overclocking core 2 duo's at this point and could use a little help with the i7's.

I am look for a nice stable OC around 3.6 ghz.

Now to reach this I could go 24 for multi and 150 for BCLK or I could lower the Multi to 20 and go 180 for the BCLK. Is there any advantage with one configuration over the other?

My Memory is capable of doing 1600 mhz. Obviously I could probably clock this processor much higher with the Corsair H50 I have but I want to start with 3.6 for now.

Any help is much appreciated.

 

[n7]

Unlike the previous FSB architecture where higher FSB meant more bandwidth, there's no real boost from a higher BCLK per say.

However, QPI speed is linked to BCLK, meaning a higher BCLK = higher QPI.
This generally gives a slight boost in memory-related benchmarks i've noticed.

Obviously running different BCLKs will also results in different RAM speeds available as well, & generally, higher is better for RAM also, even with looser timings.

19x190 DDR3-1520
20x180 DDR3-1800 will likely be fastest (your RAM can likely do this if you loosen a timing or few)
21x172 DDR3-1720
22x164 DDR3-1640

You can see you'll have lots of options, & i'm only guessing the RAM speeds, as you may be able to go even higher (12x RAM multi), or perhaps will want to go lower w/ tighter timings (6-8x multis)

 

[SHAQ]

Don't get crazy with RAM speeds as you gain minimal performance with normal use. I would use whatever speed your RAM can do with a Cas 6 and leave it at that. Cas 6 at 1600 has been shown to be the best overall unless you are going for superPi records.

 

[n7]

Cas 6 at 1600 has been shown to be the best overall unless you are going for superPi records.

Actually, for SuperPi & for normal use, higher speeds beat out timings, just like has been for so long now.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/memory/display/ddr3-1600-lga1156.html

 

[Link]

You get the optimun performance out of by setting QPI close or equal to CPU core clock.
If you want your cpu run at 3.6ghz, then you'll also want to set QPI at 3.6ghz.