New to ram timing/overclocking etc..Help

[cwwsea]

Hi i'm totally new and confused even after reading up on what some of the stuff means I can overclock my GPU and Processor just fine but i've never ever over-clocked my ram or changed the timing or whatever...so i'm a bit concerned/noobie and was hoping you guys on here could help. First off I have a Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe mobo with award bios of course...well I also have this ram http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16820145034

 

My question is when I go into the bios and at the ram section its currently I believe running under L1 or whatever that is and theres an option for L2 or wahtever I really don't understand what those mean...but anyways as you can see on the newegg specifications for the ram it says the timing is 4-4-4-12 but in the bios it reads as 5-5-5-18...I was just curious is 4-4-4-12 faster and be better for me to switch to or is 5-5-5-18 good...?? Im an avid gamer so it'd be nice to get the best outa what I got...and if so could someone please explain exactly how I get at changing the timing to 4-4-4-12 and anything else I need to change like voltage or what????

 

I really appreciate any help I get this is one area i'm pretty clueless on computer wise.

[Guest ecthlipsis]

Hi i'm totally new and confused even after reading up on what some of the stuff means I can overclock my GPU and Processor just fine but i've never ever over-clocked my ram or changed the timing or whatever...so i'm a bit concerned/noobie and was hoping you guys on here could help. First off I have a Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe mobo with award bios of course...well I also have this ram http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16820145034

 

My question is when I go into the bios and at the ram section its currently I believe running under L1 or whatever that is and theres an option for L2 or wahtever I really don't understand what those mean...but anyways as you can see on the newegg specifications for the ram it says the timing is 4-4-4-12 but in the bios it reads as 5-5-5-18...I was just curious is 4-4-4-12 faster and be better for me to switch to or is 5-5-5-18 good...?? Im an avid gamer so it'd be nice to get the best outa what I got...and if so could someone please explain exactly how I get at changing the timing to 4-4-4-12 and anything else I need to change like voltage or what????

 

I really appreciate any help I get this is one area i'm pretty clueless on computer wise.

 

Those numbers are the latencies of the ram, and thus the time it takes the ram to communicate in other ways. The first number is most important (CAS latency) the last is the least. The timings of the ram are one of the way to overclock. The other is increasing the speed (frequency in mhz). DDR2 800 is really running at 400mhz x 2, so you can increase it to like 450mhz to get a slight performance increase. Note that the more you OC the frequency, the looser (higher) you'll have to make the timings. There is also a good chance you'll need to provide more voltage to the memory. This is also done through the BIOS but be careful..

 

Most DDR2 PC6400 is rated for 2.1v. Micron D9 chips and some other quality bins can handle quite a bit more. I wouldn't ever go beyond 2.3 personally, but others on here would push it for sure. That Corsair XMS is pretty good, but I don't think it's D9... Thus be careful. Look into your specific ram bin to determine the safe maximum voltage. Again, this is only needed for larger overclocks, as increasing the speed from 400 to say, 425, you wouldn't need extra power.

 

The ram also overclocks when you increase the FSB, and thus the processor. How you manged to OC the processor and not the ram is beyond me, as I thought only the 650i and 680i boards allowed you to unlink them.

 

Also, in the BIOS it's actually 1T and 2T, not L. That is your timing configuration. 1T is much faster than 2T, but almost no DDR2 ram can run in 1T... thus set it to 2T.

 

There is also a divider that determines the ratio of the FSB speed to the memory speed. Read more about it before you do all this.

 

That will get you started... read some FAQ's etc on this site... that will get you going. And try using the search option next time. This info is all over the place on this site =\

 

P.S. 5-5-5-18 isn't good at all. Budget ram runs at those speeds. Good ram can easily get down to 4-3-4-8.