I have an Asus A8N-e mobo, and AMD X2 3800+. The CPU clock speed is 2.0GHz. I'm using 1GB OCZ Perf. RAM (CL 2) DDR400 and it occurred to me that I cannot OC the FSB because it'll make the RAM unstable since it can only handle 400Mhz. Should I get DDR 533 or 600 even though my mobo can do DDR400? I understand the 533 will run at 400 but only if it's not OCed.

Which Cas Latency and Brand RAM should I get for gaming? I'm using CL 2 right now, is it the low the latency the faster? The timing is 2-3-2-6.


Thanks,


Sean

Just raise the fsb some notches and see if it works fine. I have kingston value ram and it goes till 215 Mhz but any further and it gives problems go to the cpuz website and download clockgen from there for the mentioned chipset and raise the fsb through it, it does this on the fly and so you can see till where you raise the fsb, In my opinion OCZ is superb and will go to atleast 230 Mhz which will give you good overclock using standard heatsinks and cpu fan..

Other people here know much more about RAM than I do, but I do know this: Your ram will let you overclock synchronously at least some. And you can use a memory divider to run your ram slower than your FSB to get even more OC.

At those low timings (CL2), you may run into the RAM limit rather low however. So, loosen the timings (say to 3-4-4-8 ) and keep raising the FSB. When you're happy with your CPU speed, then start lowering the timings until you find the best timings at that speed. If you run into problems and the CPU isn't OCd enough for you, set your RAM speed to 166 and continue climbing.

Mike.

All RAM is rated at a certain Mhz... but almost all can go above that Mhz.

You should be able to get the DDR400 stuff up to at least 215mhz (430Mhz DDR) if not more. Here's a hint: if you want to go higher, lax the CAS Latency timings to 2.5 or even 3- that makes a world of a difference in overclocking. The higher the latency, the higher you can push the clock speed (generally speaking of course).

It's pretty damn hard to kill RAM by overclocking. Systems will lock up before the memory burns out. So push it!

BTW, the RAM you have is good stuff. 2-3-2 timings are good.

-mpjesse

While relaxing the timing might help, bumping the memory voltage a bit do help too. most memory can run 2.8v easily.

Once the sweet spot of you "fsb" is found, and it is like ..let say 212, then here is what he should try...

Put the memory divider a 166. this will be 83% of 200 MHz. take 212 and divide it by .83. This give you 255. 255 is the maximun you can set the clock so that your memory wont run faster that 212. Increase the clock speed while increasing the cpu voltage a bit if needed. let say the mst you can have is 235, and your cpu has a 10x multiplier, then your CPU will be clocked at 2.35 GHz..