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<b>MEMORY OVERCLOCKING 101</b>
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Overclocking is the art of running a processor, memory, or video card at a speed faster than the officially marked speed by using a higher clock multiplier, faster bus speed, or higher voltage setting. Because overclocking can significantly lower the life of a device, it is generally not endorsed by the device manufacturers. All in all, there is no good overclocking safeguard- precautionary measures should be taken during an overclocking experiment. If the possibility of damaging your equipment is of significant concern, then overclocking is not recommended.
In any case, overclocking seems to be a permanent fad, with many novice and neophyte overclockers here to stay, pushing their computer systems to the limit. Since overclockers act as beta-testers for new electronic equipment, to a certain extent the hardware community needs expert overclockers.
Keep in mind that not all motherboards allow flexible change of the parameters below.
<b>DISCUSSION OF MEMORY OVERCLOCKING PARAMETERS</b>
<i>BUS SPEED</i>
Both the CPU and memory are synchronized based on the BUS SPEED. This means that any changes in BUS SPEED will affect both the CPU FREQUENCY and the MEMORY FREQUENCY. BUS SPEED is not the same thing as FSB (Front Side Bus); the FSB is derived from the BUS SPEED, typically in multiples of 1, 2 (double pumped FSB), or 4 (quad pumped FSB).
For SDRAM memory, the effective speed of the memory is the same as the BUS SPEED.
For DDR memory, the effective speed of the memory is double the BUS SPEED
For DDR2 memory, the effective speed of the memory is quadruple the BUS SPEED.
<i>CPU MULTIPLIER</i>
The effective frequency of the CPU is equal to the following:
CPU Frequency = [BUS SPEED] x [CPU MULTIPLIER]
<i>MEMORY VOLTAGE</i>
When you overclock the memory, sometimes you will need to increase the voltage. Voltage is responsible for providing the “juice” that is required to run memory components at their intended overclocked speed. Voltage should be increased in one-tenth steps at a time. Increasing from 2.5 volts to 2.6 volts is one incremental step in voltage overclocking. Too much voltage and you will fry the electronic device. Normally, your system will not load with unsafe settings, but people continue to find ways to work around these safeguards.
Keep in mind the lower the specified voltage of a device the more sensitive the device is to the change in voltage. DDR2 has a specified voltage of 1.8 volts and is therefore more sensitive to a change in voltage than its DDR counterpart, which is specified at 2.5 volts.
<i>MEMORY LATENCY</i>
Memory latency is the most difficult subject of memory overclocking. Please refer to section ‘General Questions’ on how memory access works.
There is no such thing as zero latency, because after all there are always physical and structural delays introduced into all electronic devices. Furthermore, one or more devices talking together, such as two or more memory modules working in tandem, add a certain amount of physical and structural delay. This is to say that the memory working in tandem is not guaranteed to work at the latency of the best module, even if all modules are rated to work at the same latency.
A heed of warning:
Many computer applications are latency driven; changing the latency can have undesirable affects on particular applications resulting in crashes, or in more extreme cases data corruption. Video games, for example, work well with low latency memory, whereas professional applications such as applications centered on accounting, audio and/or video do not like low latency modules as much.
The advice of this FAQ is: Never change a module’s latency below its rated value unless you are absolutely sure of what you are doing. Ultimately, the motherboard’s BIOS can automatically detect the optimal latency based on the information stored in the SBD chip on the memory module- in the BIOS program you will find an ‘Auto’ setting for the memory’s SBD chip. If you change this setting to ‘manual’ some motherboards will allow you to change the latency settings.
<b>MEMORY OVERCLOCKING STEPS</b>
<i>Determine the CPU frequency first</i>
Changing the core speed of the memory affects the CPU frequency, so you will need to first figure out what speed you want to run the CPU, and make changes to the BUS SPEED accordingly.
In the BIOS, you will find a section where you can change the BUS FREQEUNCY/SPEED and MULTIPLIER. Keep in mind the following equation:
CPU FREQUENCY = [BUS SPEED] x [MULTIPLIER]
You’ll want to set the bus speed and multiplier to the desired value. If you set it too high, your system may not boot and you will have to clear the CMOS chip.
For an example, if you have an AMD Athlon XP 2500+ processor that has a CPU frequency of 1.82GHz clock, the proper settings for the BIOS would be a BUS SPEED of 166MHz and a MULTIPLIER of 11.
1.82GHz = [166MHz] x [11]
With proper cooling you may be able to change these setting towards a higher CPU frequency. Start with a lower BUS SPEED, and increase the multiplier in small incremental steps. A successful overclock should load windows and desired applications without any problems. 10-15% above the specified frequency is a decent overclock.
Take note of the CPU FREQUENCY.
If you need to, you can reset changes to the BIOS by pulling the CMOS jumper pin located on the motherboard. Consult the motherboards documentation for the location of the CMOS pins and how to reset the changes.
<i>Increase the BUS SPEED</i>
Now that you have an idea of the CPU Frequency you can begin to overclock the memory. Keep in mind that your CPU Frequency is now fixed; the only values left to change are the BUS SPEED and MULTIPLIER.
As you increase the BUS SPEED, you will need to lower the MULTIPLIER as to keep the CPU FREQUENCY fixed.
An increase of 33 MHz is a typical incremental step for the BUS SPEED. If you go to high, you system will not boot- you will need to reset the BIOS settings by clear the CMOS chip.
A BUS SPEED of 200MHz equals DDR400 memory speed.
A BUS SPEED of 166Mhz equals DDR333 memory speed.
And so on.
Sometimes you may need to increase the voltage to the memory in order for the memory to handle the overclock. 20-30% is a decent memory overclock.
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