So I bought a 7950 GX2

[ilikeoatmeal]

After much debate I bought the evga 7950 gx2 about 10 minutes ago, should be on my doorstep in a few days. And finally my new system will be finished.

Sad that its probably already outdated, but I think it will serve me well

170 Opteron
ASUS A8N32-SLI
2gb Corsair XMS 3500LL Pro (+1gb generic)
550W Sunbeam Nuuo PSU
74gb Raptor
100gb Maxtor
Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS
WiFi
Pioneer 16x dual layer dvd-rw
etc etc all the standard stuff

[-ChEM-]

(+1gb generic)

whats that?

[Steve B]

generic = no-name
just standard stuff like Corsair Value Select, but without the "Corsair Value Select" bit

[arthurleung]

You'll be better off taking off those generic stuff as the ram will be able to run tighter timings + 1T.

[ExceededGoku]

it will also screw up any potential overclocking headroom

[-ChEM-]

dual channel is the main thing, my overclocks dont change with 4 dimms

[ExceededGoku]

no what I'm trying to say is that the generic ram won't be capable of the speeds of the corsair and so his overclocks won't be anywhere near his maximum.

[Steve B]

who said anything about overclocking?!

[ExceededGoku]

I did

[-ChEM-]

170 Opteron

its a crime not to overclock it

[chuckskull]

I'll whip him if he doesn't OC that 170. Anyway theres not much point in having 3500LL RAM if you dont intend to clock.

In which case I'll swap my COrsair VS for it, cos I intend to hammer my new 4600+

[ilikeoatmeal]

Yeah I'll definitely be overclocking. I just put that extra 1 gig in the description for the heck of it. I wasn't sure whether or not I'd be using it. I imagine 2gb ddr will be enough, is it true that having on overly obscene amount of ram can actually slow your system?
i recall getting help from chem on how to overclock my processor, does anyone have advice for the ram or the gpu??

[chuckskull]

RAM goes up with your FSB, for you GPU, google coolbits or rivatuner.

Definetly dump the 1gig generic though, as RAM will only run as fast as the slowest stick and yeah 2GB is plenty.

[-ChEM-]

well first step is to max out the chip

with a 170 you usually have a choice of the x9 or x10 multi which means the htt will be around 300 or around 270

then on that asus board i think you are limited to 133 (2/3) 166 (5/6) or 200 (1/1) dividers to give roughly 180/200/225/250/270/300 mhz RAM speed

thats all nice and simple but you have to factor in 2 other things, timings and dimm voltage

voltage is just like any other voltage, too little means youre limiting yourself, too much is dodgy, 2.8v is guaranteed by corsair

timings get looser as frequency increases and its likely that youll get better game performance just leaving the frequency at DDR400 and tightening the timings (that loses performance on memory-intensive apps though)

but as you have UTT ram chips you can probably knock it up to at least DDR500 and keep the timings tight maybe even 2-2-2 so give that a go

for voltage, those chips need lots of it but corsair only guarantees up to 2.8v, so id start there and see what it can do

imo its all a pain in the arse for not much more performance, and as you increase frequency you lose timings and vice versa so youre usually just offsetting performance for performance in another area

but that ram can keep tight timings and decent speeds so it might be worth it