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overclocking processor & memory question

M

maxiedaniels

Gawd
Joined
May 25, 2005
Messages
1,006
ok im really confused.. i am completely new to overclocking. after reading two guides to OC'ing, i cant figure out one thing: do i have to overclock memory if i overclock the processor? or can i just overclock the processor? memory seems complicated as hell... i dont understand any of it.. besides, maybe i dont understand memory, but i dont need it to be any faster? im probably confused..
 
First up, gonna need details of your rig. Intel or AMD mobo, processor, memory, psu???
 
The most common form of overclocking today consists of raising the Front Side Bus speed on the motherboard, increasing memory bandwidth, allowing the Memory to "talk" to the CPU much faster than originally intended. On todays processors the multiplier is locked, meaning you can't change it, so when the fsb is increased, the cpu is also.
Example:

Intel P4 2.4c processor on an Abit IC7 motherboard with DDR400 (PC3200) memory.
On the IC7 using a "c" designated P4 the front side bus is "800" mhz (200x4) (200fsb x 12.0multiplier=2400mhz=2.4ghz) and the DDR400 runs at "400" mhz (200x2) by default. In order to overclock the front side bus, it will be adjusted in the BIOS. We'll go with a 200mhz (total) front side bus increase, which will make the 2.4 run at 3.0ghz(250fsb x 12.0multiplier=3000mhz=3.0ghz) by setting the front side bus to 250 in the BIOS (250x4 is 1000mhz). Here the memory speed can also be adjusted, and in this instance 5/4 FSB/Memory ratio will be used, to keep the memory running at stock speeds. (5/4 =1.25, 250/200=1.25) So now we have our 2.4 running at 3.0ghz.

Memory can be overclocked, but it generally will limit the overall overclock faster than the CPU will. One way to remedy this is to add voltage to the memory (vdimm 2.5V default to 2.8V) but this generally ends up with low increases in overall overclock. Another way to remedy it is to use memory rated higher than the motherboard officially supports. DDR500 (250x2) or DDR550 (275x2) would allow you to increase the FSB while keeping the FSB/Memory ratio 1:1. (250fsb x 12multi=3.0ghz with memory at 250mhz)

As far as understanding memory goes... read this.
 
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