Oc'n Ram

[Clint317]

I've read everything twice, from the first page on the Internet to the last page on the Internet. And I can OC the cpu and the graphics, but I still don't understand OC'ing Ram. Can someone explain as if I was a toddler? It's something to do with the 66.6/33.3 number I know, and nothing says anything about what voltage to up it to.

 

I have a P4PE-BlackPearl mb and 1 stick of SS 256Mb DDR Kingston Hyper-X ram currently running at 168Mhz.

 

My cpu is in early stages of OC'ing @ 2450 from 2400 so far @ 136Mhz with vcore still at auto. And still burning in graphics at 255/255 from 250/250 using Powerstrip for my Radeon 9100 128Mb DDR 4xAGP Xtasy, which last scored a low 1120 stock on 3DMark03.

 

So how do you OC ram????????

[Propane]

well - what mobo do you have

[Clint317]

mobo is a P4PE-BP bios version 1003

[Propane]

I'm not that familler with that mobo but I do know that when you vhange the frenquency for the FSB it affects everything as long as its not locked in the bios so if you overclock your CPU chances are your ram is also OCed a little

[Clint317]

Yes, your right. When I change FSB the 66.6/33.3 will change also to something like 67.5/37.5 and it keeps changing with every FSB increase.

 

Is this it? So, I don't need to worry about OC'ing the ram seperate? So if I add another stick of ram to it next month, everything will be OC'd right then.

 

BY the way, just FYI to general audiance. My cpu (P4 2.4B) is with stock HSF and runs cool at 37C. Seems the temp increases by at least 1C for every 1Mhz increase in FSB. This might be exponential. I wander if there's a formula for this?

[Kameleon]

Yes, your right. When I change FSB the 66.6/33.3 will change also to something like 67.5/37.5 and it keeps changing with every FSB increase.

 

Is this it? So, I don't need to worry about OC'ing the ram seperate? So if I add another stick of ram to it next month, everything will be OC'd right then.

 

BY the way, just FYI to general audiance. My cpu (P4 2.4B) is with stock HSF and runs cool at 37C. Seems the temp increases by at least 1C for every 1Mhz increase in FSB. This might be exponential. I wander if there's a formula for this?

OK, on pretty much all motherboards, the FSB is linked directly to your RAM as well as to the CPU. When you increase the FSB from 166MHz to 168MHz, your DDR RAM will go from 333MHz to 337MHz. Only a select few specialist OC boards allow you to set asynchronous RAM speed, like the Epox 8RDA+.

 

As for any sort of formula, there are literally hundreds of variables that factor into your CPU temperature. Off the top of my head: CPU make, CPU model, CPU voltage, type of thermal interface, heatsink/fan, case cooling, ambient temperature, make of motherboard, reliability of the thermal sensor, and program used to take the temperature reading. I'm sure I could come up with more. You can see that it would be impossible to come up with a formula, just trying to model airflow is something that top scientists still haven't worked out

[Clint317]

Ok, thanks. I get all that. But two things now:

 

The program provided by the mobo to read stats, Asus Post, is showing that my ram is running at 168mhz, which incidentally is the same as the FSB. And it is supposed to be 333mhz (PC2700). 3DMark03 shows that te ram is 0mhz. So how do I find the actual mhz?

 

Also, what about cas? Mine is something like 2-2-2-5. What if I lowered that to 1.5-2-2-5 or something? And then increased the volts? I could then OC my ram separately, right?

[Kameleon]

Ok, thanks. I get all that. But two things now:

 

The program provided by the mobo to read stats, Asus Post, is showing that my ram is running at 168mhz, which incidentally is the same as the FSB. And it is supposed to be 333mhz (PC2700). 3DMark03 shows that te ram is 0mhz. So how do I find the actual mhz?

 

Also, what about cas? Mine is something like 2-2-2-5. What if I lowered that to 1.5-2-2-5 or something? And then increased the volts? I could then OC my ram separately, right?

Is that Asus Post thing in the BIOS? If so, it probably isn't applying the doubling effect of the DDR, just telling you the base speed. I'd use something like Sandra to tell you the proper speed that your RAM is running at. As for changing the RAM timings, be very careful with that if you don't know exactly what you're doing - 2-2-2-5 is very low latency, definitely don't lower that. Since the first number is CAS latency (the others are timings), you shouldn't be able to lower it to 1.5 anyway

 

And finally, upping the voltage to various parts of your system is just about the easiest way to kill the whole lot. If you get your FSB/multiplier/timing settings wrong, at the worst a CMOS reset should put it back to normal, but if you send too much power through your components, well that's why they call it frying.

[Clint317]

Actually it's called the Asus Probe and it's the software that comes with the board. And i quess it's just showing half the real mhz. Cause when you add the numbers together that it comes with stocked, which is 166 (probably really 166.5), it comes to 332, and the ram is rated at 333. So with the little OC'ing I've done so far to FSB, 133-->136, it is now at 168, which means my ram is now OC'd to 336mhz I guess. I'll use Sandra when I get home and see what info it shows.

 

I'm probably over reacting with it all anyways. It seems that this board is made for OC'ing, considering that when I up the FSB then everything else goes up too. You still have to OC the video separately though. Maybe I just have a d*mn good mobo. Does my FSB of 133mhz stock mean that the board is running at 533mhz like the ad says? And that matches my cpu (P4 2.4B) which is stated to be 533mhz also? So I'd have a 600mhz board if I can get the FSB up to 150mhz? And so I guess the system itself is some kind of 4 cycle system (133x4=533) and ram is 2 cycles (166x2=333)? But then you'd think that the whole system can only run as fast as it's slowest part, the ram, so then your system would be 333mhz instead of 533mhz? Why don't they make these things simpler to get stats about. It's kinda confusing.

 

Do you know where there's someplace on the web to read on the detailed science behind all the numbers and stuff?

Edited May 8, 2003 by Clint317

[Kameleon]

I'm probably over reacting with it all anyways. It seems that this board is made for OC'ing, considering that when I up the FSB then everything else goes up too.

Your board isn't special, all normal motherboards are like that. Proper overclockers' boards allow you to change everything individually, to get the perfect balance

 

And you always have to overclock your graphics card separately, it's just plugged into the mobo.

 

Another thing to remember is that in nearly all boards, the FSB also controls the speeds of the PCI and AGP buses. I don't know what the ratios are, but you don't want your PCI bus speed going higher than about 37MHz, or some PCI cards could be damaged. Newer AGP cards should be able to take some punishment.

 

I don't know an enormous amount about P4 overclocking, I know it's not possible to do a whole lot because the multiplier is completely locked. I'm an AMD man meself So that's about all I can help you with.

[battery]

the pic and agp should be 33/66 respectively=)

[Clint317]

Huh????? Yea, I meant 33.3/66.6 <_< , what's a pic?