Overclocking and DRAM

[stavroshamster]

Okay,

I have a Q6600 G0 overclocked to 3.3Ghz which I am very happy with.
However, there are two ways to reach this speed and I am unsure which one is best?:

1. FSB of 367Mhz and multiplier of 9 (367*9 = 3303Mhz), with memory ratio of 5:6 = memory speed at 440Mhz (using 4Gb DDR2-6400 Corsair XMS2)

2. FSB of 413Mhz and multiplier of 8 (413*8 = 3304Mhz), with memory ratio of 1:1 = memory speed at 413Mhz

My question is which is better to use? I have read that using a 1:1 memory ratio is better (i.e. option 2), but given that the memory is supposed to be running faster with option 2 is the uneven ratio going to slow it down? Is 440Mhz too fast to be running the memory anyway? Option 1 in theory should be less power hungry shouldn't it?? as the processor switches to a 6x multiplier when idle which means it is running slower when idle.

Cheers.

[Zhaoman]

I'd go with Option B for 2 very important reasons:

1) Intel CPUs (particularly quad cores) are very FSB starved: a higher FSB at the same CPU clock will always outperform a low FSB at the same CPU clock.

2) The FSB is the speed at which the CPU communicates with the memory, therefore a 1:1 ratio is optimal. Set the memory lower and you lose performance, setting the memory higher won't gain any advantages.

Hope that helps

[pands@scan]

option 2 all the way laddo!

[Arminas]

Option two seems better for the reasons above.
and the clock is a whole 1 Mhz higher

[stavroshamster]

Thanks guys!

Option 2 it is.