Q6600 @ 3.4Ghz, 2 options....you make the decision!

[Deadtrees]

After spending so many hours with tons of headaches, I pretty much came down to below two options.

#1 #2
CPU Clock Ratio : 8, 9
CPU Host Freq. : 425, 378
SPD : 2, 2
Ram Timing : 5-5-5-15, 4-4-4-12

CPU Clock : 3.4Ghz, 3.4Ghz


With the setting #1,
I get to enjoy the benefit of 1700Mhz FSB, true 1:1 FSB/DRAM ratio in exchange of 5-5-5-15 ram timing.

With the setting #2,
I get to enjoy the benefit of 4-4-4-12 ram timing but the Ram speed is only 378Mhz and FSB is 1512Mhz.

I need to make a call but I have no clue which setting is better. Which one should I go for?

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

What do your benchmarks tell you?

 

[BoboKatt]

My Q6600 has always behaved better with the 9X multi and lower FSB. It's been stable for so long now at 3.25 (about 360 FSB) with very acceptable temps. Do higher FSB's still put higher loads on your mobo?

Do a few benchies... test the RAM out to see mem speeds etc at the two settings and obviously watch the temps, or temp diffs between the two settings. Either way you can't lose man -- good OC.

 

[imported_Woody]

My guess would be the faster FSB with your RAM running at 1:1 but I'll bet it's very close. RAM timings won't have as much of an effect as RAM speed but it depends on what you're sacrificing and your specific settings....It will be a close call.

Just make sure you're not putting too much voltage across your RAM or mobo to get those higher speeds. If you can do both settings at stock voltages or only slight RAM voltage increase I think the higher speeds will work better. Do you have large heatsinks on the chipset and is your RAM designed to run at higher voltages?

Run some benchmarks and stability tests. Take a look at my own specs below. I get 450MHz with no voltage increase on the chipset and my RAM runs nicely at 1:1.

And BTW, what's with your signature? It makes you look like a terrorist.

 

[Scottae]

I really enjoyed 500Mhz X 8 due to higher memory frequency than I did the 440 x 9. the benchmarks said that the higher frequency gave me better results compared to tighter timmings... but each system is different. you try screwing with a 7 multi? and an even higher FSB?

run a benchmark suite... like the ones that come with everest
here