Ok so I'm thinking of getting the $200 Gigabyte Board and putting in a 2.4c processor.
After a few months I am going to try and overclock it... but what about the ram? What speed Ram will I need and how much should I overclock the ram?

I really have no idea about overclocking ram, so feel free to educate me on the do's and do'nots.

nothing special in overclocking ram, since it works in sync with your fsb, all you need to do is make sure that you've got ram to match you cpu (keeping it running as closely as possible to your cpu's fsb will allow for better performance). Basically, you can grab high-quality pc3200 ddr ram and truly overclock it, though you may be limited to what speed you will be able to run it at. on the other hand, if you get a high-speed rated module (such as pc3700), you are guaranteed to be able to run your ram up to 433mhz, thus an fsb of 866mhz, but in my opinion it takes the flavor out of overclocking, but its up to you.

as for setting the ram timings, its easy enough. if you allow it to run at "SPD" then it will run at 400mhz regardless of fsb speed, and at "CLK" it will run at the FSB's speed (well, the initial fsb x 2, as RAM does), which is when overclocking the fsb will be reflected upon the ram.. you can always push it a little more, running it at "CLK+33" (or 466Mhz based on a base-line 200mhz fsb, or a multiplied 800mhz cpu fsb), in which case increasing the fsb of the cpu would incread the ram speed, with an additional boost of 33mhz (x2).

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PC4000 would only get you up to 3GHz with the RAM running synchronously. Have you considered a 2.6C instead?

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

Error911 could you explain how to overclock Ram again?
PC3200 runs at 400 mhz right, so how high can it be overclocked?
PC3500 runs at 433mhz, how high can these things bee pushed?

Crashman, I dont understand why you recommend the 2.6c, whats so great about it? How high can it be pushed?

I just want to have the highest FSB attainable.(at a reasonable price)

PC3200 only runs 400 mhz effective, the real DRAM clock is 200 Mhz, hence the term double data rate, DDR.

Your CPU bus is quad data rate but also runs on a base clock of 200 Mhz (P4 C's do, that is).

When the bus and the memory are running at the same clock speed they are said to be running synchronously.

Since the multipliers are factory locked on P4s you can only overclock by raising the bus speed.

Starting with only PC3200 memory, any time you raise the memory clock above 200 Mhz then you are in fact overclocking the memory. To avoid this choose faster memory.

For example, if you use PC4000 memory you can overclock the bus from 200 Mhz up to 250 Mhz without overclocking the memory. Again this is assuming you continue to keep the memory in sync.

Now assuming you don't want to overclock the memory, only the processor, then this means your maximum bus clock is determined by the rated speed of your memory. In the case of PC4000, this would be 250 Mhz.

Why choose the P4 2.6c over a 2.4c?

The 2.4c has multiplier of 12x. 12 times 200 gives the processor its speed of 2400 Mhz. Meanwhile, the 2.6c has a multiplier of 13x.

Since your maximum bus speed (in this example) was determined to be 250 Mhz then the 2.4c can only be overclocked to 12 x 250 = 3000 Mhz. While the 2.6c can be overclocked to 13 x 250 = 3250.

Of course, if you do overclock the memory you can overclock the processor even higher.

Alternatively, you can run the memory asychronously (slower than bus speed). You might be able to overclock the processor higher but in turn you lose memory bandwidth.

<b>56K, slow and steady does not win the race on internet!</b><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by phsstpok on 09/12/03 10:21 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

Do you need the Gigabyte Board for $200?

I bought IS7 $109 for my 2.4C OC to 3.0 stock Hsf HyperX PC3500 2 x 512

overclocking the RAM, like I said, is pretty simple...

basically, you have to understand that the two main settings you can use for your RAM is "SPD" (Serial Prescence Detection), which will basically set your RAM speed to 400Mhz (for PC3200), and then there's CLK, which will run your RAM at the CPU's FSB (which, in the case of a P4c, is 400Mhz non-overclocked). If you simply run your FSB higher, you will therefor overclock the RAM, its that simple. If you run an baseline FSB of 200Mhz (which translates to a CPU FSB of 800Mhz and a RAM speed of 400Mhz), then you're at stock. If you up it, you're overclocking the CPU and RAM (and chances are, unless you get RAM that has been guaranteed to overclock, such as PC3500 or PC4200 RAM, your RAM will the the OC bottleneck). You will also be able to set the ratio between CPU FSB and RAM speed, so for example if you have a CPU FSB of 250 (or 1000Mhz) and would only like to (or can only) run the RAM at 200Mhz (i.e. 400Mhz DDR), then you would allow for a ratio of 5:4 (CPU:RAM).

Cas Latency comes into play as well when overclocking, and thats why having RAM modules with low CL is good - more potential for overclocking. Lets say you've got some PC3200 at CL2.0, well chances are you can run that RAM at PC3500 at CL2.5, and maybe even high at CL3.0.

Also take into account voltages. Overclocker's RAM is typically set at 2.6V, while standard voltage is still considered to be 2.5V. If you manage to get a low voltage module, then you've got more room to up it (as most motherboard only allow a RAM voltage up to 2.7V, and most manufacturers void their warranty after 2.6V anyways). This too can help you get a few more Mhz of baseline FSB out of your RAM modules.

But no matter what kind of overclock you can get from them, I suggest you benchmark to see what is better for your system - asynchronous or synchronous CPU and memory speeds. Many believe that synchronous speeds (as in a baseline FSB of 200Mhz all around) allow for better performance, while others think that allowing the CPU to farly outclock the RAM will nonetheless give a performance boost. All I can say is try that out for yourself.

<b>don't hold strong opinions about things you don't understand</b>

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