Overclocking E6420... am i doing this right?

[DO NOT MICROWAVE]

Hey this is my first time overclocking ever, so i need a little help. I've read through the guide and everything and I think I've gotten everything down (don't want to screw anything up). I just got a Core2duo E6420 and I don't want to do any extreme overclocking, but I'm aiming to get it to somewhere around 3.0 or 3.2Ghz. My mobo is the MSI p6n SLi Platinum.

So here's where I have a question;
Just to do a quicky test thingy, I raised the FSB from 1066 (2.14Ghz-ish)to 1070 (2.15Ghz-ish) w00t!! rofl.
Anyways, I noticed though, that my RAM speed went down from 800 to 778. But i didn't change anything that had to do with the ram.

So, is that supposed to happen? isn't the ram speed supposed to go up as well?

I'd like to know what to do before I move on so that I can make sure I overclock right.


And i'm really sry i sound like a n00b haha!

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MSI p6n SLi Platinum
Core 2 Duo E6420
OCZ Reaper DDR2-800 2gb
GeForce 8800GTX
Audigy 2 ZS

 

[BillParrish]

No worries, it sounds like a memory divider kicked in to keep your ram as close to, or under, rated speed. No worries, you can over ride it in the bios I think, I am not up on that board.

No worries, just keep an eye on what its doing, its actually helpful. Now you can play with rasing the FSB and seeing what the CPU will do and the board will try to keep you memory under control. Once you get the CPU where you want it based on temps or your target, you can go back and play with the ram.

CPU MHz are much much more powerfull than memory MHz so even if you end up underclocking your ram a little, the increase in CPU speed will more than make up for it in 90% of applications.

I didnt notice if you had a stock HS or not, 8 x 400FSB =3.2GHz and since normally the memory runs at 2x the FSB that would give you a memory speed of 400FSB x 2 = 800MHz with your ram right on spec is a nice target. You probally will not get there with stock cooling tho.