Ram timings

[Iowabucks]

Hey everyone, I'm thinking about attempting my first overclock. I have an AMD Phenom 9950 BE CPU and by all the reading i have done so far it looks like it's a fairly straightforward and easy process compared to most CPU's

First i want to get my ram timings set manually. I'm running (2X2Gbs) Corsair Dominator PC28500 1066 DDR2 ram.

My computers specs:
Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-DS4H mobo - bios version F4
AMD Phenom 9950 Black Edition 125W
Nvidea GTX 260
Sound Blaster X-FI Elite Pro
Corsair Dominator DDRII 4090 MB 1066
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB HD
Zalman CNPS9700 CPU cooler
Enermax Liberty 620W PSU

(1.) In bios with the RAM still in default mode the mobo has the timings at 5-7-7-24. Corsair recommends 5-5-5-15-2T. Can i change these and voltage to 2.1v without making the computer unstable? With this affect the stability at all?

(2.) Also, in post and other places i see the memory is set at 1066MHz, but CPU-Z reports it running at 535.8MHz. is this normal? Why isn't it reading 1066MHz?

After building this computer it read 1066 in post for almost a year, then one day it read a much lower number (can't even remember what it was now). After talking to many people i found i needed to up the voltage just a hair and it came back to 1066. Can anyone explain this to me? Will it affect my OC at all?

Thganks, Jerry.

 

[aberchonbie]

1. yes. turn on tuning to manual and put in the settings
2. cpu-z is reading the ram correctly. 2x 535.8 is actually 1071.6 so it's running faster than rated by corsair

your overclock will mostly likely not affect your RAM unless you change the RAM divider (which you probably wont since you have an unlocked multiplier with the black edition cpu)