Small overclock question.

[biohazard420420]

Ok I am not actually sure if this is purely an over clocking question or not since I have never actually over clocked before. I am buying a new rig in a week or to with the ASUS P5B Deluxe mobo with an E6600 C2D and 3 gigs of ddr2 800mhz ram (2 1 GB sticks and 2 512GB sticks) I remember reading somewhere that the e6600 at stock will run the ram at 667mhz speed, if thats wrong and with my mobo and cpu stock will run the ram at 800 thats cool. That is actually all I want is to have my ram run at the rated 800mhz speed. I am sure I could get a good overclock with my cpu but I am looking for the longest life I can get (stock retail intel cooler), I don't upgrade very often. With the above mobo and cpu would I have to overclock to get the rated 800mhz speed, I know the performance difference is probally next to nothing but would like to get what I am paying for. By the way the ram I have picked out is G.Skill ram both are matched pairs. And one last question if the performance difference is actually almost nil would I just be better off getting some cheaper 667mhz ram instead. By the way I plan on using my computer for gaming (getting a 8800GTS 640MB card) and some audio mixing as well as the normal tasks.

 

[rammedstein]

the e6600 will run them at 533 by default actually, but all you will need to do is set the ram divider at the right level, generally your ram should be something like 2:3, in fact, it is...

 

[kwalker]

The ram will run ddr2 800 (2:3) at stock FSB speeds on the P5B deluxe.
You just have to set this manually in bios at the recommended timings and voltage set by the manufacturer.

 

[biohazard420420]

Cool thanks, I am a major noob when it comes to overclocking like I said above so when I set the timings to 2:3 on the memory will that also up the cpu speed as well. And in your opinion would spending the extra cash on the 800mhz ram be worth it since I'm not really into overclocking?

 

[kwalker]

The CPU clocks stay the same.
That’s the purpose of memory dividers.
You won’t see much difference between 667 and 800 MHz except maybe a few hundred mbps increase in memory bandwidth.
Heavy apps such as encoding or number crunching benefit from the increased bandwidth but your eyes can’t detect such.
On the other hand the jump from 533 to 800 is noticeable.
the purpose of overclocking ram is to handle the increase in the FSB .
keeping the ram at 1:1 the lowest freqency available at 266 is DDR2 533
increasing the FSB to 333 gives you ddr2 667 and 4:5 would be ddr2 800 .

 

[No1sFanboy]

Re. the memory speed, buy the 800 rather than limit future overclock options. With the 667 memory you will always be working around it, with 800 you can try more FSB :multiplier combos. I would also recommend upgrading the cooler. The stock cooler is OK but you will have gone 95% of the way to building a great system with it.

I'd be curious to see how you do with the 3 gig setup. If the board and cpu overclock well with that setup I would consider adding the extra gig.

 

[biohazard420420]

Well unfortunately I do not plan on doing any overclocking on my rig other than just getting the ram to run at is rated 800 mhz speed. But if the difference in performance between 667 and 800 is basically nil or unnoticeable I might opt for the cheaper ram. But as I am writing this I just saw that for a 2gb (2x1gb) set there is only a 20 dollar difference at least with the g.skill ram I am buying so I guess I answered my own question. As far as overclocking while I would love to fiddle around and see how far I could go, I am most concerned with getting a long life out of my rig.

That is the main reason I am buying the faster stock cpu and going with the 3 gigs of ram and the 8800gts 640mb card. From some of the threads I have read here some people say that battlefield 2 benefits from the extra ram. I also tend to have alot of programs running at the same time (who doesnt) and the added mem will give me more memory headroom I think. I would go with 4 gigs but since I am running win xp 32 bit most of what I have read says xp cant use more than 3 or something along that line. Also I think I had read on one of the tech sites I read often that changing your memory ratio to anything other than 1:1 would hinder performance, whats your thoughts on that if you dont mind.

I mostly just listen to music (I have some 20,000 songs adding more every day) play games and surf the web, I also do some audio editing with Sonic Foundry Acid I am trying to build a set up that will serve me well for several years (gaming excluded since games always tend to need more power over time) I am not one to usually upgrade piece meal here and there since funds are generally tight for me. I will use the new rig until I am forced to upgrade again because of poor performance to me.