Opty 170 and Ram issue

[smc1]

So I'm in the process of building a opty 170 sli system for gaming and CAD work and OC'ing the 170 to around 2600. The mobo is a DFI LP UT nF4 SLI-D. All the reading on this site has got me a little confused and was hoping for comments on this build. I'm trying to figure the best RAM (looking at Mushy and Gskill in the $200 range) and perfer to keep stock voltage on ram. It seems as though increased bandwidth will not buy me performance as much as tight timings but don't know if it's neccssary for OC,ing the cpu to 2600. Knowing that I'm trying to get the opty 170 to 2600, should I stay with DDR400 or will I need to bump to DDR500? Does using a mem divider slow performance, and still gaining more by tightening the timing. Any input is apprecaited.
Thanks

 

[caboob]

I have that mobo and an Opty170 at 2.7Ghz. For gaming, it's acceptable to keep the tight timings of low latency ram and use a mem divider, the drop off in performance is negligible. Get the 1GB sticks IF you need the RAM for smoother performance but running 4x512 (@2T)sticks will also work fine and you won't notice the difference.

 

[smc1]

Thanks for the reply and I hope you don't mind if I ask some questions. What mem setup are you running 400 or 500? What's the settings on your ram / cpu.
Thanks

 

[caboob]

Right now I've been playing with several types of RAM. I have 2 x 512 sticks of Mushkin-UTT that I've been putting the screws to: 1:1 C2-2-2-7 @260HTT. Going to use mem dividers to go for higher CPU speed. I was also trying out 2 x 1GB of OCZ Gold EL. Got them to 275 HTT 1:1 @c3-4-4-7. I get higher 3dmark2k1 score with the 1GB UTT but really results in 4% increase in score over the 2GB kit.

I am currently playing GTA:SA and have noticed that when overclocked, gameplay is much smoother at 2.5GHz and beyond. Seems the game is CPU bound. As a side note I'm running 2 x 7800GTXs in SLI at stock for the moment.

 

[racinjimy]

have you read the O/C guide at DFI-STREET.COM????

there is also a section for O/C database where people post there settings, always a good start

you need to decide whether you are going with 2X512Mb or 2X1Gb, I would stay away from 4X512Mb setups if you want to O/C

 

[Bad Actor]

Theres no performance penalty for using a divider with an athlon 64, so go with the low latency RAM. Since you have the 170 that has the 10x multi, and your mobo has lots of divider options, the G.Skill 2GBZX DC kit should work really well for you also. This RAM is capable of running at 260 mhz, and you may not even need to run a divider, or at the most 9:10. The 2,3,2,5 1T are the best available for a 2 GB kit and you can't beat the price at the Egg.

 

[smc1]

Thanks for the reply and the DFI Street info. And thanks for the response from Bad Actor, exactly what I was looking for. Is there any OC performance differance in the DFI LP UT nF4 SLI-D versus the versions SLI-DR or Expert?

 

[racinjimy]

sli-D and sli-DR are pretty much the same except the extra 4 SATA ports

the expert has better 4-phase power regulation but is a little harder to set-up and hasn't been around quite as long