Am I Getting the Most Out of My New Rig?

[phlog]

Hi Guys,

So, I've just finished building my first rig in 4 years. It's up and running smoothly but I'd like to make sure I have everything configured correctly.

The specs are as follows:

p55a-ud4p
i7 860
Ripjaws DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) 7-8-7-24
HiS 5850
Corsair 650tx psu
CM Hyper 212+


My questions:

1.
I'm in no rush to overclock but apparently it's necessary if I want to run my ram at 1600mhz. Would this be wise? If so, what is the best way to do this... (Bclk 160 x ? multiplier)?

2.
CPUZ is reporting my memory timings at 9-9-9-24. How do I set the timings to their rated setting? Or is this related to the above question?

3.
For my previous video card (Sapphire 2600pro hd), it was necessary for me to download the drivers specifically from Sapphire's site and not ATI/amd. Is this true of most video cards? Will the ATI/amd drivers work for my HiS 5850?


Any advice would be appreciated

 

[shortstuff_mt]

The motherboard owners manual will tell you how to properly manually set the RAM timings and voltage to the correct settings. All those settings are in the "M.I.T." section of the bios. You go into the "Advanced Memory Settings" sub menu and change the "DRAM Timing Selectable" from "Auto" to "Expert". You can then change the timings. The RAM voltage is under the "Advanced Voltage Settings" sub menu and is called "DRAM Voltage".

You can download the GPU drivers directly from www.ati.com.

 

[phlog]

Best answer selected by phlog.

 

[phlog]

Awesome. Thanks for the reply shortstuff

 

[shortstuff_mt]

No problem.