Overclocking e6850

[*Rage*]

Hi,

 

Was initially gonna go for an I5/PHII upgrade but have decided to overclock my current system for the time being and wait for the next Intel/AMD architecture:

 

Currently:-

 

Vista 32

C2D E6850 @3ghz (333*9 stock speed, stock cooler)

EDIT: P35 (not P45) motherboard Asus P5KC

2gb 800mhz ram

 

Am gonna go for:-

 

Vista 64 bit

Titan Fenrir cooler

4gb ram (corsair/Gskill/patriot)

 

Now the question...Is it better to go for 1066 DDR2 ram or 1333 DDR3 ram? My mobo can handle both. Ram clock speeds have little impact on FPS but in terms of overclocking is any better than the other?

 

Thx

Edited February 22, 2010 by ///Rage

[Prophet4no1]

The DDR3 is a lot faster than the DDR2. You have three channles of data instead of two pluss ata a faster bus speed.

 

And actually, I've seen bigger boosts in FPS bumping my ram speeds than CPU unless you are making a huge jump in CPU speed. Slow ram can actually bottlneck the CPU, especially on multicore systems.

 

Os for overclocking, the DDR3 can be overclocked a bit and since it's faster, overclocking the CPU will be more effective.

[Fahhh]

The DDR3 is a lot faster than the DDR2. You have three channles of data instead of two pluss ata a faster bus speed.

 

Not entirely true. DDR3 is faster, only if it runs at significantly faster frequences. Despite the clock advantage, DDR3 has much bigger latencies which bring the performance down a bit. And you only get three channels of data on a high-end Core i7 system. You cannot go 3-channel on a C2D system.

 

Look out for some benchmarks to see what I am talking about.

[*Rage*]

Thanks, Also realised I have a P35 motherboard.

 

Im really hoping I can hit 4ghz!

[Kuky]

Not entirely true. DDR3 is faster, only if it runs at significantly faster frequences. Despite the clock advantage, DDR3 has much bigger latencies which bring the performance down a bit. And you only get three channels of data on a high-end Core i7 system. You cannot go 3-channel on a C2D system.

 

what he said :smilewink:

 

To get 4GHz you'll need extreme cooling (water at least)... you might get lucky to run motherboard on 400FSB and the CPU will hit 3.6GHz like that and I think that's good overclock for that CPU (unless you want to go for extremes but then you'll need to invest lot more time to get it stable.. if you can get it stable any higher)

 

But just so you know, overclocking doesn't only strees the CPU, it stresses out the motherboard also... and other components.

Edited February 23, 2010 by Kuky

[Boulund]

When I had only 2 sticks of RAM in my computer (E6750, Corsair XMS2 pc6400 RAM) I could easily go to 3.6Ghz with only stock cooling. After I put in two more sticks it was harder to get enough cooling on my RAM sticks and now I hit the roof at 3.4Ghz, but still.

These processors can handle some mean overclocking and I am confident that if you cool your RAM and northbridge enough you can easily reach 4Ghz with a 3rd party cpu-cooler.

 

Also, when deciding on RAM. Look at what FSB you're planning to reach and select RAM based on that. My memory is 800Mhz but they easily go to the 900Mhz required for 3.6Ghz OC of CPU. Granted, I can't reach this high now that I have four sticks, which kind of indicates that I should have gotten some faster chips (but I didn't intend on this kind of overclock three years ago when I bought it;)). I'd say go for 2 sticks (leaves more room for airflow around them) that are 1066Mhz. No need to spend money on pricey 1333Mhz sticks when you're not going that high anyway.

 

 

edit: Noting that you have a higher multiplier than I do (I can only go to x8 but you can reach x9) I really think overclocking to 4Ghz shouldn't be a problem at all. Since even my cheap-o PC2-6400 RAM could stand 450Mhz FSB (1:1 ratio) I believe that getting 1066Mhz chips would be the absolute best. You probably wouldn't be able to run them 1:1 with that x9 multiplier but they should easily handle the FSB required for 4Ghz (444Mhz FSB?).

Edited February 23, 2010 by Boulund

[*Rage*]

Thx for the advice everyone. Putting my order in...wish me luck;)