Overclocking Q6600

Thanks for your reply

I was considering buying new RAM, as like you said, mines sucks! Any suggestions as too what I should get for the motherboard I currently have? I quite like the idea of getting up to 8GB but wouldnt know where to begin with all these different types going about!

I had another go was able to get the computer start while OC'd too 3.0GHz, but after trying to run BF3 I got BSOD before the level loaded. SO guessing im either overheating or my memory is causing it.

Any suggestions?

True. CPU-Z uses memory frequency - same as CPU FSB frequency. 533 MHz is the memory clock. Each bus cycle generates 2 memory clock cycles.

Set your FSB:RAM ratio to 2:1. That will put your memory frequency at half the FSB freq. Then at and FSB freq of 367 MHz, your memory clock freq will also br 367 MHz (well within the capabilities of your RAM, and your CPU core will be running at 3.33 GHz - a substantial overclock.

And because of the large L2 cache in the CPU, the slower RAM speed will not affect performance that much.

Faster memory and an overclock could bring new life into your comp, and you might be able to hold off on buying the upgrade.
http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] 342-7.html

Btw, what cooler are you using to overclock with? If it's the stock cooler, the temps might be too high for your cpu.

There are no adjustments for directly changing the ratio. You will need to manually set everything.

Using the BIOS in my eVGA 680i motherboard for example:
Let's say you are at a core speed of 3.6 GHz (400 MHz X 9). With the eVGA BIOS, you change the FSB clock freq, not the bus freq. So, if you need to adjust memory independently, you select "Unlinked".

So, at 3.6 GHz, if you are running at 1:1 CPU:RAM ratio, for a 400 MHz FSB freq, your FSB clock is 1600 MHz. FSB is "quad pumped". It transfers 4 chunks of data each bus cycle. Therefore each bus cycle needs to generate 4 bus clocks.

At the same time, each bus cycle generates 2 memory clocks (DDR2 memory, remember?). So, although your memory is running at DDR2-800 speeds (memory clock frequency), CPU-Z indicates a memory frequency of 400 MHz.

Now, you have DDR2-533 memory which will not run that fast. So, what to do?

If you have an eVGA BIOS, you set the memory clock to 400 MHz (CPU-Z indicates a 200 MHz mem freq for a CPU:RAM ratio of 2:1). Each time you change the FSB clock, you need to readjust the memclock. They are unlinked, remember?

The Gigabyte Core2 BIOS will not let you do this. I am unfamiliar with the Asus BIOS, so I do not know if you can do this.