LOST!!! NEWBIE. e6600, Corsair 6400c4, P5W DH Deluxe ; HELP!

[MarcusAurelius]

Okay, Here is the deal. I am this close >.< to pulling the trigger and buying an e6600, a P5W DH Deluxe (If Found !) and 2 x 1GB Corsair XMS2 DDR2 800 PC 6400 (c4) ram, but I have hit a wall. MY BRAIN HURTS!!!

This is my first attempt at overclocking and am hoping to find someone to guide me...

Okay here is the mental math that is killing me!

e6600 processor has a FSB of 1066 or 233 if divided by 4 (233)
6400c4 Ram has a capable FSB of 800 or 400 if divided by 2 (400)

P5W DH Deluxe (Not sure of FSB limits with this mobo)

Okay, I am not huge into overclocking, but would like to squeeze a little of extra performance out of the unit and have not had a newbie explanation on this. I am pretty smart (well i hope) and can learn, but this has stumped me.

Okay is the max FSB speed that I can obtain is 400 MHZ due to the RAM? IS THIS easily obtainable with the e6600 proc and the motherboard???

I HAVE LEARNED THAT A 1:1 Ratio is needed for IDEAL performance.

I also want stock cooling as well. I mean, if a 400FSB speed is not possible then I should not waste the money on the ram and go a slower speed right? This is so confusing. I only want to air cool as well.

Please help me with this. I don't want to waste money if it is not going to work, don't get me wrong; I am willing to try if it will work. I just wish I could get it! It seems like rocket science.

THANKS!


I KNOW THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO MAY WANT TO PUSH THE LIMITS AND GO FARTHER THAN THE 400FSB, BUT I WOULD BE HAPPY WITH IT. I'm not sure what the walls are with the e6600 because I have heard different stories.

 

[bordy]

e6600 processor has a FSB of 1066 or 233 if divided by 4 (233)

I seriously think u might need to purchase a calculator first.

 

[lcandy]

You know he meant 166 :lol:

 

[mapex]

don't you mean 266?

 

[Doughbuy]

Psh, obviously its 10001010

Noobs =P

 

[jonnyli]

Ok ill try to help you. Yes, your ram is capable of running @ 400mghz perfectly fine, thats why its rated at 800mghz ddr2. Now, if you set the divider to 1:1, that means your CPU FSB would be 400. That would increase your clock speed to 400 x 9 = 3.6ghz. Im not too sure if you can get to those clock speeds in air cooling, i might be wrong but you can try it out. But as you said, you want to do mild OC, with 667 ram, you can increase your CPU fsb to 333, giving you a clock speed of 333 x 9 = 3ghz, nice round number haha. You should read Wusy's guild to overclocking Conroe Cpus. If you only want a mild OC, then you wont need superfast ram, just moderalty good ram. hope this helps!

 

[lcandy]

All seriousness aside, I mean, joking:

I think from what I have heard about that mobo that it will run at 400MHz FSB. Your best bet is to read the C2D overclocking guide writen by wusy. Don't forget to update your BIOS before starting and make sure you know how to restore the BIOS settings if things go wrong.

At 400MHz FSB, you can set your ram multiplier to x2, or whatever it is for that mobo to get to 800MHz. Then you shold be able ot set the the CPU multiplier to x6, x7, x8, x9 etc. This will give you 2400MHz, 2800MHz, 3200MHz and 3600MHz respectively.

Don't just jump to 3.6GHz straight away, if you read the guide you will see you have to increase voltages across the board normaly. With a stock heatsink and fan I can personaly confirm that 3.2GHz is fine with an E6600, and you can go further if you wish (probably).

To answer your question directly, "Okay is the max FSB speed that I can obtain is 400 MHZ due to the RAM? IS THIS easily obtainable with the e6600 proc and the motherboard???". You say you are smart but this isn't very good English (and I'm horribly dyslexic so thats saying something). But reading between the lines, I would say no the 400MHz speed is nothing to do with the RAM.

Listen, your ram runs at FSB speed multiplied by the "multiplier". So if your multiplier is x5 and your FSB is 200MHz, that would be 1GHz, ok? Generaly, you don't want to overclock the RAM and CPU at the same time if you can help it, especialy as a newbie to it. If something goes wrong, you dont know what gave out first.

The FSB and the cpu have very little in common in this case. You could set the FSB at 2.4GHz and the multiplier at x1 and if the motherboard allowed, it would be fine (probably, but its never going to happen). A likely situation for a Conroe E6600 chip is a FSB overclocked to 500MHz and a multiplier of x7 for example. This depends entirely on the motherboard!

Like I said, read the guide, experiment a little but not too much at once (if something goes wrong, you want to know it was that one last thing you changed, not one of ten). Do exactly what wusy says, increase voltages in the right places, test with the appropriate programs and dont be impatient.

Good luck.

 

[MarcusAurelius]

Okay, thanks for all the replies, uncluding the math and grammer corrections. Kind of ironic I mentioned I was smart, oh well?

Anways, I did mean 266 MHZ and I sucked at that part...

I have read the guide and it seems great, but the guide is more after the fact of me purchasing the components. The problem is that I have not purchased anything. I am just trying to match hardware and then purchase the stuff and at the same time not overspend. I like the Corsair DDR 800, but if I'm not going to be using it, I will not get it; probably the 667 instead. I want to run at a 1:1 ratio. I just don't want to buy ram to far up there in speed and not be able to obtain that ration (better said). Basically, this is the part I'm cutting cost in the ram. I have made up my mind on the mobo (DW DH Deluxe) and the e6600. I have heard stuff about the overclocking limitations of the e6600 and if I'm not going to be able to easily hit the 400FSB clock speed I'm not going to try and I will cut back on my RAM spending. I mean, everyone says there are not guarantees, but I'm suspecting this advice is strictly related to limits and walls. I don't intend to hit the limits and walls and plan on doing the "mild" overclock. The safe bet or guarantee. I'm sure there is a minimal guaranteed overclock even with all hardware no matter what. I do plan on performing the steps in guide (Actually, that is the best guide I have found to date! : ) )



I mean, are the questions I'm asking weird? I just want a great bargain PC and I'm willing to spend the cash.


DDR2 667 or DDR2 800; That is the question; I mean if the 400FSB speed is a maybe then why go and spend the cash. After all, if it is a maybe then I don't intend to overclock that high. Not wanting nor willing to push the limits.

Thanks again to the replys!