thorkle

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I am currently Overclocking a Q9400 on a EVGA 750iFTW board, 4gb Corsair Dominator ddr2 ram, Rosewill Xtreme Series RX850-D-B 850W, Zalman 9700, with Arctic cooling MX-2 Thermal paste, all inside a XCLIO A380PLUS-BK case, and I am getting low results.
I am maxing out at 3.2 ghz stable 39/53. and a max Memory speed of 1080mhz.

Based upon research, I have concluded that I need to switch back to tried and true AS5, and I have purchased a motherboard which should be able to handle higher clock speed out of both the CPU and Memory (the ASUS P5Q Pro Turbo)

I was wondering what kind of increase in speeds/ ideal temperature do you think I should get when all is said and done? (btw I am pretty sure I applied the thermal grease rather poorly, I was in a big rush while doing it) I can't perform this switch for a few days, and I am just curious to hear whether you guys think this is going to improve overclockability as drastically as I'm hoping it should.
 
Solution
Because if the RAM clock is on Auto, when you increase the FSB, the RAM clock will be increased the same proportion.

For example, let's say you have DDR2-800 RAM and your Q9400 (333 MHz X 8). Your memory clock is set on AUTO. So FSB freq is 333 MHz and mem freq is 400 MHz and mem clock is 800 MHz. Performance gain - virtually zero because the memory spends the time it gains waiting on the CPU.

OK. Now you OC the CPU to 3.2 GHz (400 MHz X 8). The memory clock increases by the same proportion. So it is now (400/333) X 800.

Now, if you select Unlinked and you do not choose mem clock twice the FSB, you still have the same problem. The faster one or the other (FSB or RAM) is still going to spend the extra time gained by running faster...

thorkle

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What If I have them unlinked? On a review of the Dominator series, it says it can go up to 1200mhz. Why would having the ram at the recommended setting of 1066mhz prevent me from overclocking the CPU stably?
 
Because if the RAM clock is on Auto, when you increase the FSB, the RAM clock will be increased the same proportion.

For example, let's say you have DDR2-800 RAM and your Q9400 (333 MHz X 8). Your memory clock is set on AUTO. So FSB freq is 333 MHz and mem freq is 400 MHz and mem clock is 800 MHz. Performance gain - virtually zero because the memory spends the time it gains waiting on the CPU.

OK. Now you OC the CPU to 3.2 GHz (400 MHz X 8). The memory clock increases by the same proportion. So it is now (400/333) X 800.

Now, if you select Unlinked and you do not choose mem clock twice the FSB, you still have the same problem. The faster one or the other (FSB or RAM) is still going to spend the extra time gained by running faster just waiting for the other.

One thread where we discuss this:
Overclocking RAM:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/251715-29-ratio-myth
 
Solution