Help! Tighter Timings? or Overclocking?

[HiThereMyNameIsDave]

G.Skill Ripjawz 2x4 2GB @ 1600 mhz
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231277

What I have :

Gigabyte 890-FXA-UD5 AMD motherboard
AMD 1100T x6 Thuban (right NOW @ 3.4ghz x6 cores) **but just recieved my Noctua NH-D14 today, and want to try to get it to 4ghz or higher**
XFX -XXX edition 650 watt PSU
MSI 6970 Lightning @ 980mhz
8GB of G.Skill Ripjawz @ 1600mhz RAM
Cooler Master HAF-932

1. I was wondering if under-clocking and lowering the latency of my memory was more effective than overclocking? (I think my mobo info said it's max was RAM speed1866+ (why a plus sign?)

2. Would this put much of a strain on my PSU? I've just received my other 4gb of RAM + my Noctua NH-D14 CPU heatsink. Not only did I want to overclock my RAM, but also my CPU and GPU (1015mhz goal in mind) . I think it's getting pretty close to maxing it out. Not sure, I've never overclocked before.

3. What should i use for a RAM stability test, and how long to run the test(s) before it's considered stable?

 

[slcmike]

G.Skill Ripjawz 2x4 2GB @ 1600 mhz
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231277

What I have :

Gigabyte 890-FXA-UD5 AMD motherboard
AMD 1100T x6 Thuban (right NOW @ 3.4ghz x6 cores) **but just recieved my Noctua NH-D14 today, and want to try to get it to 4ghz or higher**
XFX -XXX edition 650 watt PSU
MSI 6970 Lightning @ 980mhz
8GB of G.Skill Ripjawz @ 1600mhz RAM
Cooler Master HAF-932

1. I was wondering if under-clocking and lowering the latency of my memory was more effective than overclocking? (I think my mobo info said it's max was RAM speed1866+ (why a plus sign?)

2. Would this put much of a strain on my PSU? I've just received my other 4gb of RAM + my Noctua NH-D14 CPU heatsink. Not only did I want to overclock my RAM, but also my CPU and GPU (1015mhz goal in mind) . I think it's getting pretty close to maxing it out. Not sure, I've never overclocked before.

3. What should i use for a RAM stability test, and how long to run the test(s) before it's considered stable?

1. If you take it down to 1333 you can reach cl7 I believe. 1333 is enough to run what we want now a days so as standards go you shouldn't see any loss from lowering the mhz.

2. I dont see any changes that would cause the PSU to suffer any greater load. Voltage can be effected but nothing that will come close to stressing your psu.

3. Memtest - http://www.memtest.org/, Prime95 - http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft/ and CPUID - http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html are your tools for overclocking and stress testing.

 

[beenthere]

Minor changes in latency or frequency of DDR3 RAM has almost no impact on system performance, typically ~1% or less. If you plan to OC your CPU, you may be better off keeping the RAM frequency close to the default 1333 MHz. OC'ing the CPU will bring more gains than messing with the RAM.