Hi Everyone -

I currently have a 1GB stick of PC-3200 in my machine. Its working fine but i want to overclock my machine again but this time do it a little better.

My Spec is as follows

AMD Winchester 3000 - Freezer 64 Cooler
1GB PC-3200
Geforce 6600 GT
LanParty Dfi Ultra NF4

Anyway, i had it running at 2.7 Ghz a while ago but due to some error i had to re-set it (after months of it being stable)

My question is, what are the benifits of getting PC5200 ram. Will it enable me to overclock higher with more efficent cooling?>

Any comments would be of much help!

Aaron

PC5200? AMD systems use DDR-SDRAM, not DDR2. I know newegg sells DDR600 (PC4800) but I didn't think DDR-SDRAM went any higher than that.

You have to overclock "correctly"...high clock speed is 2ndary, high bus speeds are where the performance is. In other words, running the CPU at a slightly lower clock speed with a higher bus clock is better than the CPU at a higher speed with a slower bus speed.

The default speed of the HT bus on your system is 1000MHz & it doesn't tolerate a lot of overclocking. However, if you lower the HT multi from 5x to 4x, you should be able to increase the CPU bus to at least 250MHz...that will keep the HT bus at 1000MHz (5 x 250MHz).

Ideally, you should strive to run your RAM at 1:1 ratio, so you'd need DDR500 (PC4000).

There are a lot of good hardware sites that detail how best to overclock the Athlon64, especially with the DFI board

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Thanks for the reply -I overclocked my system from 1.8ghz to a very reasonable 2.6ghz (was 2.7ghz but a bit unstable) keeping in mind, this was using pc3200.

I was just wondering will the higher ram speed improved the performance of the pc, and more importantly the overclocking posibilities?

Regards
Aaron

I thought I just answered that?

You lose performance by not running 1:1 ratio...that is, CPU & RAM both at the same bus speed. You can adjust the ratio setting to compensate for slower RAM though.

Some people lower the HT multi to 3x, raise the CPU bus to 300MHz, & lower the CPU multi to 9x (for example) & set the CPU:DRAM ratio to 3:2. They end up with the CPU at 2.7GHz/300MHz bus with the RAM at 200MHz.

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1768&page=5

http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/dfinf4ultralp/4.html

http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=getarticle&number=4&artpage=1226&articID=305

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Hi again - Thats all good, however on the test it showed that they used DDR2 600? ??

Still confused!

They did NOT use DRR2...AMD doesn't even support DDR2! They used DDR600 RAM, which is the same as PC4800. The reason they used PC4800 is because it's capable of running at 300MHz, therefore when overclocking, they could theoretically increase the CPU bus as high as 300MHz & still keep a 1:1 CPU/DRAM ratio.

Regardless of what RAM you use, it's not gonna affect the overclocking potential of the CPU, provided you set the CPU/DRAM ratio correctly. Your system's performance will be hindered by runing the CPU at one bus speed & the RAM at a lower bus speed, but the overclockability of the CPU will not be affected.

Just as an example, let's say your CPU is capable of running at 3.0GHz @ 10 x 300MHz. If you use PC4800 RAM, you'd be able to set the ratio at 1:1...that way, the CPU will run at 300MHz & the RAM will also run at 300MHz.

The system would also run at 3.0GHz (10 x 300MHz) with PC3200 IF the ratio is set at 3:2 (66.66%). If setup this way, the CPU will run at 300MHz, but the RAM will run at 200MHz.

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Thats made it all clear! phewwww!

Thanks for you help, il more than likely stick with what I have and upgrade my 6600 GT to a 7800 GT. I found a seller who sellls them for around about £153 Inc P+P which is a bit of a bargain. ($229)

Again , many thanks!