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Overclocking advice for a n00b

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And it would be nice to see just how high the cpu will go.
I think most would think 9x400 would be "perfect!"

I know i would. 😉
 
Hiya guys,

This is my first time on a DDR2 system, and my bits are arriving on Monday. I want to get a few things cleared up.

I'm getting :

E6600
PC2-5400 (DDR667) Corsair RAM, 2gig kit
Gigabyte DQ6
750W silverstone PSU

that's the main bits.

I understand that the 6600 does 9 * 266 = ~2.4Ghz Now I'm confused about the RAM speed. Would it do 2* 266, for 533Mhz operation? That said, does this mean the maximum (rated) speed my ram can do is 667/2 = 333.5Mhz, i.e. 9*333.5 = 3Ghz? so any FSB above 330MHz and I'm now overclocking the RAM as well. Isn't my overclock already limited then? I'm not sure how you guys are attempting to reach a 400Mhz fsb here, cause this would mean your ram would be doing a minimum of 800Mhz?

Oh yea, could some one also explain what they meant about keeping the RAM and CPU @ 1:1?

Cheers,
Mike
 
bsodmike,
You're right on the money, i'm using DDR2 800 ram.(PC2 6400)

And 1:1 means exactly what you just wrote, if your fsb is 266, and your ram is at 1:1 , then your ram is running at 533.
At a fsb of 333 your ram at 1:1 would be at ddr2 667.

So just think of 1:1 as your ram running at your fsb x 2.


With all that said, dont forget your ram can be overclocked and you can loosen the timings also to get your ram to go higher.

Right now i'm running my e6300 at 3.5ghz / 1.45v dual prime stable.
Thats 7 x 500fsb and my ram is at 1:1 (1,000)


With these settings, it was a no brainer, i just sold my e6600 in the fs/trade forum.
ANd i'm never gonna miss it or the extra 2mb cache one bit. 😉

Love the DS3, with the right components, this board flies!



 
First, download and flash to the lastest BIOS.
Power down and on the first boot load bios optimized default.

Try bios settings (MIT screen) PRESS CTRL-F1 to show all options:
CPU Rate 8x
CPU Host ENABLED
CPU HOST FREQ 400
PCI-E 100 (or AUTO)
CIA2 DISABLED
DRAM TIMING MANUAL
CAS 5
RAS TO CAS 5
RAS PRE 5
TRAS 15
ACT ACT DEL AUTO
RANK WRITE AUTO
WRITE TO PREC AUTO
REFRESH TO ACT 0
READ to PRE AUTO
MEMORY PERF NORMAL (try also FAST or TURBO)
DIMM OVERV +0.15V
PCI-E OVERV NORMAL
GMCh OVERV +0.1V
FSB OVERV +0.1V
CPU OVERV 1.375V (try up to 1.40V also)

I learned that high VDim (2V or higher) does not help with certain types of DDR2 - it was crashing soon. After going with just 1.95V, the system is now stable (8 hours on Prime95). If you are having issues, trying something like this (+0.15V).

I tested also the board with an E6600 and could not go above 3GHz without jacking up the VCore. My suggestion, try 8x375 or 9x333 for 3GHz.

The problem at the end is the CPU. The E6600 clocks worse than the E6400 or E6300.
 
How well did the installation go for the Scythe Ninja on your motherboard? I'm looking at almost the same build right now as well, and I'm still trying to decide on the CPU cooler.

Also just wondering, what kind of power supply are you using? Right now I have a 400-Watt from Ultra which I got for about $4 after that outpost.com deal a week ago. Will that be enough to handle a system like yours that overclocks?
 
Originally posted by: ReMb
Right now I have a 400-Watt from Ultra which I got for about $4 after that outpost.com deal a week ago. Will that be enough to handle a system like yours that overclocks?
Definitely not. It might run that system at stock speeds, but I doubt it. It definitely is nowhere near enough, if overclocking.
 
Originally posted by: MTDEW
bsodmike,
You're right on the money, i'm using DDR2 800 ram.(PC2 6400)

And 1:1 means exactly what you just wrote, if your fsb is 266, and your ram is at 1:1 , then your ram is running at 533.
At a fsb of 333 your ram at 1:1 would be at ddr2 667.

So just think of 1:1 as your ram running at your fsb x 2.


With all that said, dont forget your ram can be overclocked and you can loosen the timings also to get your ram to go higher.

Right now i'm running my e6300 at 3.5ghz / 1.45v dual prime stable.
Thats 7 x 500fsb and my ram is at 1:1 (1,000)


With these settings, it was a no brainer, i just sold my e6600 in the fs/trade forum.
ANd i'm never gonna miss it or the extra 2mb cache one bit. 😉

Love the DS3, with the right components, this board flies!

What ram do u have? What bios setting to get to 500mhz?
 
Originally posted by: tran1981
Originally posted by: MTDEW
bsodmike,
You're right on the money, i'm using DDR2 800 ram.(PC2 6400)

And 1:1 means exactly what you just wrote, if your fsb is 266, and your ram is at 1:1 , then your ram is running at 533.
At a fsb of 333 your ram at 1:1 would be at ddr2 667.

So just think of 1:1 as your ram running at your fsb x 2.


With all that said, dont forget your ram can be overclocked and you can loosen the timings also to get your ram to go higher.

Right now i'm running my e6300 at 3.5ghz / 1.45v dual prime stable.
Thats 7 x 500fsb and my ram is at 1:1 (1,000)


With these settings, it was a no brainer, i just sold my e6600 in the fs/trade forum.
ANd i'm never gonna miss it or the extra 2mb cache one bit. 😉

Love the DS3, with the right components, this board flies!

What ram do u have? What bios setting to get to 500mhz?

Corsair XMS
Running 1:1 with 15-5-5-5 @ 1.95v
Ive actually moved to an asus p5w Crossfire setup and dont have my ds3 anymore, but im pretty sure it was 1.95v, it was VDIMM - +0.1 set in the bios, any higher voltage didnt really matter with the xms sticks.
And no need to worry about going from 12-4-4-4 to 15-5-5-5 , coming from AMD i figured those timings would kill performance, but in reality it made VERY little difference and the jump from DDR2 800 to DDR2 1000+ makes up for it EASILY! 😉

I had some teamgroup ram that did 1,000 also, but i let it go to a friend along with my DS3.
This stuff

 
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