Ok for a new build next month im looking at overclocking a q6600, this will be my first overclock.

But thats not what im asking about. Does the amount of ram sticks make a difference to the ease of an overclock.. im going to want to get too around 3ghz. At the moment im looking at getting 4x 1gb sticks off crucial ballistix ram 800mhz.. cl4

however does it make more sense to get 2x 2gb sicks of some good branded ram, 800mhz but at cl5? now i know this is slower but do 2 sticks make overclocking easier?

Any help appreciated

Plow

2 sticks will be eaiser to OC then 4 sticks thats for sure. get 2x2gb will help you with future upgrade if you need more memory. but thats very unlikely if you are not doing extensive HD photo/video editing.

From my personal and limited experience, 4 sticks versus 2 sticks will make a difference if you're running a nVidia chipset.
From all it's heard and read everywhere, it seems intel chipsets are more stable so perhaps you won't notice a difference.

+1 @galta. A phenomenon called VDroop seems to affect nVidia chipsets more, sometimes requiring a slightly higher voltage on the RAM when there are more sticks.

yeah you put in only 1 or 2 sticks to get into the BIOS to select higher ram voltage then put the rest in and it will be fine.

To add to galta's comments, on my evga 680i lt mobo, with 4, 1 gig sticks, Corsair XMS2 800 C4, I had overheating concerns. I switched out to 2, 2gig XMS2 HMX better cooling, excellent stability now.

Was that a statement, or a question, Mrs. B? If a question, to some extent I believe the answer is yes. Tight timings that won't seem to stay stable without a higher voltage may need a little more than you thought due to the VDroop.
That's one reason I like RAM that will work at the JEDEC standard 1.8v; a lot of Mushkin is that way. Iluvgillgill's method often works if more voltage is needed.

cheers for the inputs guys, just wondering will i notice a difference between cl4 and cl5 or is it minor, considering the PC will be for games mainly, and it will be a intel chip set p45 most likely.

From my experience, the speed difference between cl4 and cl5 is not much. It used to be back in the days of simms and dimms, but as soon as DDR2 ram showed up, the difference shrank. You still want the fastest you can afford, but its not so much a difference between cl4 and cl5 as it is a difference between cl4 and cl7 or greater. Again, that's my real world experience. I'm sure that specific tests may show theoretical differences, but are you really going to notice a few microseconds in your everyday computing? I doubt it, or rather, I don't.

cl4 or cl5 will make no difference.
It all depends on your plans but I alway prefere to relax timings and try to oc the processor. Unless you have an Extreme Series Processor, raising de FSB is the only way to do it and memory has to keep up.

less stick better

thats a quick(short) reply of your th_username.

its more to do with voltage supplied to the ram when OC that matters the most. you need more food to feed more kids.makes sense right?lol

so is a higher voltage good or bad?

dont put more voltage then neccessary. i think above 2.2V is called bad. unless stated by the manufacturer 2.2 is the obsolute limit for ram voltage. in a PC the only thing that will get damage by high voltage is only the ram. so be gentle with the ram voltage!