Overclocking my old system

[Hawkest]

Hi all, i'm new to the anandtech forums. i've dabbled with small to mederate overclocks in the past on old amd fx cpus and my old and trusty q6600 but nothing to any extreme levels.

ive got the link for the striker 2 extreme ovclocking guide from anandtech which i've read and i'm going back through with a fine tooth comb now but...


My Current system - Q9550, Striker 2 Extreme, 8GB(4x2GB) DDR3 @ 1333 and a gtx 570

i had recently gotten my cpu to about 3.6GHz with little or no change to the vcore but after that i could find a good stable setting. is my ram holding me back from a good overclock

i've some money that i could invest in some better ram.

two questions, is it worth investing in ram (2x4GB) that is beyond the maximum fsb say 2400 MHz to give maximum head room so that i can adjust the timings to get the maximum out of it or find a 1600 kit with the tightest timings i can

secondly, i've got an old hydro 100 corsair loop are these user serviceable and what max vcore and temps should i be aiming to keep below at 3.6 my cpu doesn't go over 62 or 63 degrees C

Thanks in advance
Ben

 

[sm625]

is it worth investing in ram (2x4GB) that is beyond the maximum fsb say 2400 MHz

I think a 2x4GB 2400 MHZ DDR3 kit would be worth it for about $20 used. But its probably not worth it to pay $40 new for such a kit.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

I don't think you'll see an impact that would justify the purchase. Save it for a new platform

 

[Hawkest]

Cheers for your help...