I've spent the last few weeks looking into the various options for overclocking these great new chips (my last 3 PCs have all been athlon based) and I had more or less decided on getting an E6600 ( and the Arctic Freezer 7 on an Abit AB-9 ).
But, I've been reading a few overclocking guides (mostly for the lesser models in the C2D line) which all state it's 'best' to set mem:cpu to 1:1. In the case of the E6600 assuming I wanted to get full speed (without overclock) from the ram this would mean setting the CPU FSB to 400mhz, which would result in the E6600 running 3.6ghz. I've not seen many reports of people running the chip at this speed.
I understand I will probably be able to get 333mhz FSB and run the ram at DDR2-666, but I was thinking surely the faster you can get your ram running the faster the system would be? So I have a question:
Taking the following three systems into consideration, clocking the CPUs to the same clock speed (3.2ghz for this example), would one be faster than the others? I'm just interested how much of a difference the FSB/RAM speed would make to the overall system speed:
System 1
FSB at 356
Core 2 Duo E6600 (9x356 = 3204)
Crucial Ballistix DDR2-800 4-4-4-12 (2x356 = 712)
System 2
FSB at 400
Core 2 Duo E6420 (8x400 = 3200)
Crucial Ballistix DDR2-800 4-4-4-12 (2x400 = 800)
System 3
FSB at 457
Core 2 Duo E6320 (7x457 = 3199)
Crucial Ballistix DDR2-800 4-4-4-12 (2x457 = 914)
Now I have no practical experience with these chips and I've only ever overclocked my ram slightly but I would imagine the E6420 system would be faster than the E6600 system eventhough the CPUs are set to the same clock speed surely the increased frequency of the ram will help? But the opposite might be the case for the E6320 system as the ram would need to be overclocked and timings relaxed to reach 914mhz on 800mhz ram.
So... after that rather long (and my first) post,
1: Could I get 3.6ghz with an E6600, 400mhz FSB with Arctic Freezer 7?
2: If not, should I go with the E6420 over the E6600 to get the 400mhz fsb.
and 3: am I completely wrong about the affect on overall system speed from the memory frequency? I could be wrong, but it seems like it would be better to run the memory faster.
Thanks for any help and opinions, I'm hoping to order my bits this weekend and look forward to seeing how hard I can push a C2D (without spending a fortune).
But, I've been reading a few overclocking guides (mostly for the lesser models in the C2D line) which all state it's 'best' to set mem:cpu to 1:1. In the case of the E6600 assuming I wanted to get full speed (without overclock) from the ram this would mean setting the CPU FSB to 400mhz, which would result in the E6600 running 3.6ghz. I've not seen many reports of people running the chip at this speed.
I understand I will probably be able to get 333mhz FSB and run the ram at DDR2-666, but I was thinking surely the faster you can get your ram running the faster the system would be? So I have a question:
Taking the following three systems into consideration, clocking the CPUs to the same clock speed (3.2ghz for this example), would one be faster than the others? I'm just interested how much of a difference the FSB/RAM speed would make to the overall system speed:
System 1
FSB at 356
Core 2 Duo E6600 (9x356 = 3204)
Crucial Ballistix DDR2-800 4-4-4-12 (2x356 = 712)
System 2
FSB at 400
Core 2 Duo E6420 (8x400 = 3200)
Crucial Ballistix DDR2-800 4-4-4-12 (2x400 = 800)
System 3
FSB at 457
Core 2 Duo E6320 (7x457 = 3199)
Crucial Ballistix DDR2-800 4-4-4-12 (2x457 = 914)
Now I have no practical experience with these chips and I've only ever overclocked my ram slightly but I would imagine the E6420 system would be faster than the E6600 system eventhough the CPUs are set to the same clock speed surely the increased frequency of the ram will help? But the opposite might be the case for the E6320 system as the ram would need to be overclocked and timings relaxed to reach 914mhz on 800mhz ram.
So... after that rather long (and my first) post,
1: Could I get 3.6ghz with an E6600, 400mhz FSB with Arctic Freezer 7?
2: If not, should I go with the E6420 over the E6600 to get the 400mhz fsb.
and 3: am I completely wrong about the affect on overall system speed from the memory frequency? I could be wrong, but it seems like it would be better to run the memory faster.
Thanks for any help and opinions, I'm hoping to order my bits this weekend and look forward to seeing how hard I can push a C2D (without spending a fortune).