RAM frequency vs FSB

MrDiSante

Junior Member
Jul 18, 2006
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I've got a Core 2 Duo e6600 on stock cooling (so I don't want to overclock much), but I've got it perfectly stable with 52 degree celsius load temperature, with the FSB at 300 mhz (not the original 267). My RAM is Kingston ValueRAM - it's DDR2-667 with 5-5-5-12 latencies. I've got a Gigabyte-965P-DS3 (yes I know it's a sin to overclock that little with this board, I'm sorry - it's my first build and my first time making any attempt at overclocking), an Antec Sonata II and an X300 SE (I'll be changing that as soon as the DX10 cards come out from ATI, I just don't have the budget to buy two cards and think it's sin to put in a single current gen card for my system), so heat from anything but the north bridge and/or CPU shouldn't be a problem. All is on stock cooling.

I was wondering whether it would be a better idea to underclock the ram to DDR2-600 (so it's in sync with the FSB) and try to get the timings down (I've read that it goes down to 4-4-4-12 with that underclock), keep it the way it is and try to get the latencies down to 4-4-4-12 (apparently it's perfectly stable like that one a good portion of the sticks), or try to get my conroe up to 333 FSB?

I'm a bit wary of the last option since I installed the stock heatsink without thinking and only later realized how much of a pain in the ass it would be to change - quite frankly, I don't feel like it.
 

gobucks

Golden Member
Oct 22, 2004
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i'd say faster memory speeds would be ideal. with my e6400 system, i've tried my memory at 1:1 @ 770MHz, 4-4-4-10, and then I ran a 4:5 divider so that the RAM ran at 963MHz, 5-5-5-10, and the latter performed about 8 seconds better on superpi 8M, as well as higher in PCMark05 etc. I get the feeling that conroe is extremely memory hungry.