OC in what order? FSB, RAM, CPU?

Computer Hardware
#1

Is it best to loosen RAM timings and drop CPU multiplier first and get max FSB? It would seem that adjusting the clock speed after that would be extremely coarse using the multiplier alone. Does the higher FSB affect performance more than dropping FSB 10-20 Mhz to use a higher multiplier?

Personally, i’m just looking for a mild, very stable, OC.
E6600
ASUS P5B-E
Corsair PC-6400

I let Orthos run overnight for 12 hours without errors at 366x8, DDR-733, with the same 5-5-5-12 timings that my RAM is certified for at DDR-800. Would trying for 400x7 seriously shorten my mobo lifespan? I shouldn’t have to raise vcore since the final clock speed is actually lower- right?

Any suggestions are appreciated.

#2

I just bump up the FSB on mine with a multiplier X 9. I have similar mobo and cpu. Mines running FSB at 356=3.2 with my cooling (air) at 55C. Hope this helps.

Edit:
You might try lower setting than me like 334 FSB=3.0.

#3

Thanks for the info- that’s actually my fallback position. My memory is certified to run 4-4-4-12 at 667, so 333 is a good FSB for me, even though i’m shooting for DDR-800 with a 1:1 divider.

You mentioned having a similar mobo. Do you have separate BIOS adjustments for the northbridge, southbridge, etc? I’ve seen screenshots of my P5B-E with those settings, but I think my earlier revision (1.01g) board doesn’t have them.

#4

I’m also doing a very mild overclock on an AW9D-MAX: 9x multi, 334FSB, DDR2 667 divider resulting in a little more than DDR2 800 speeds @ 4-4-4-12 timings. It’s stable even with 4 x 1 GB sticks of Kingston (mediocre non-overclocking Elipida chips) and everything at stock voltages.

But I think you’re right–on my rig I get better performance when I loosen the RAM timings and start bumping the FSB. Too bad my memory’s so blah… I cannot run it faster than 860mhz @ CL4 no matter how much juice I give it.

#5

Yes i have those bios adjustments. I have an Asus P5B Deluxe WiFi board with E6600 and GSkill DDR2-800.

#6

I’m looking for a new mobo. Maybe one of you can tell me what “adjustments” can be done on southbridge as a whole?

Does anyone know if any (Asus) I975 mobo has nice tweaks/OC options?

#7

South Bridge you can accelerate your vid card IIRC which i did. My manual is put away at the moment :doh: and i cannot shut down at this time to look.

Edit:
Here’s the same BIOS screens i have here.

Edit2:
I would not set up overclocking like that guide unless you have water cooling or good air cooling :disagree:

#8

Good guide there. I hadn’t realized that the 380-390 range was such a large ‘strap hole’ on the ASUS boards. Gonna try 400+ armed with this info.:slight_smile:

I too am always wary of what the overclocking gurus consider safe voltage. I think most people like to get more than 2-3 years use out of a set of components. It’s just too useful to be able to convert an old box into a bit bucket storage machine or a dedicated downloader to fry the CPU and mobo.

#9

I was searching about oc’ing after i built my C2D and came up with this. I did seek advice elsewhere however… I just wanted you and pinto2 what my bios screens looked like and that’s the closest i could find.

#10

The [B]Asus P5W DH Deluxe[/B] certainly does.
Some people have stated that the I975x chipset isn’t as OC friendly as the I965x chipset. I haven’t found this to be the case and the I975x has a better feature set.

#11

@pinto. I agree with Dee-27 the Asus P5W DH Deluxe is a great board and is very OC freindly for the C2D, even better for true CDfreaks is that you can hook up 4 optical P ATA drives with this mobo with no add on cards.The ICH7 and the JMicron work well with ODD’s. The 965 can get higher OC’s and has more ram tweaking options (I believe) but that is when you get way up past a 450 FSB. Dee’s, zevia’s and mine will get 3600Mhz out of a E6600 C2D and that is plenty fast enough for me.:wink:

I am going to try out my new Asus P5K Deluxe board (P35 Chipset) this weekend. Unfortunatly the Southbridge is all S ATA so I can only hook up two P ATA drives.

#12

Thanks [B]Dee-27[/B] and [B]crossg[/B] for sharing your experience and knowledge. :bow:

I will certainly look for a Asus P5W HD Deluxe, because I need two native IDE ports.
Now I just have to convince my GF that I really need a new mobo…