Ok, so I'm done finding out about all of my max OC's. Here's my question.
Is running tighter timings, or higher MHz on the RAM more important? To tie along with that question, how bad is it to use a memory divider? One guide I read said that running a divider will take a small performance hit.
The point to those 2 questions is as follows. I have my CPU running at 255 x 11 = 2.8 GHz. So the FSB is 255. On my RAM, I volted to 2.85V, loosened timings to 2.5-3-3-7 and ran multiplier 1:1 I ran that through Memtest and it passed. But about 30 mins later after I was messing with it, it wouldn't go through again (guess the memory got really warmed up). I tried all the way up to 2.5-3-3-10 and 2.9V and it still wouldn't pass. But....
I ran the math and I saw that if I use the first divider available to me after 1:1 which is the 5:6 divider, I should be ok. 255 x (5/6) = 212.5 So back into BIOS I go, and set timings back down to 2-2-2-5 at 2.8V, and set FSB to 213 and divider at 1:1. This passes with flying colors and I ran test #5 four times and still passed.
So clearly, I can simply run my CPU at 255 x 11 and leave the timings as 2-2-2-5 at 2.8V and just simply use the 5:6 divider. But that goes back to the question. How bad is it to use dividers? Or should I try to keep it at 1:1 and just really loosen up the timings at 255?
Is running tighter timings, or higher MHz on the RAM more important? To tie along with that question, how bad is it to use a memory divider? One guide I read said that running a divider will take a small performance hit.
The point to those 2 questions is as follows. I have my CPU running at 255 x 11 = 2.8 GHz. So the FSB is 255. On my RAM, I volted to 2.85V, loosened timings to 2.5-3-3-7 and ran multiplier 1:1 I ran that through Memtest and it passed. But about 30 mins later after I was messing with it, it wouldn't go through again (guess the memory got really warmed up). I tried all the way up to 2.5-3-3-10 and 2.9V and it still wouldn't pass. But....
I ran the math and I saw that if I use the first divider available to me after 1:1 which is the 5:6 divider, I should be ok. 255 x (5/6) = 212.5 So back into BIOS I go, and set timings back down to 2-2-2-5 at 2.8V, and set FSB to 213 and divider at 1:1. This passes with flying colors and I ran test #5 four times and still passed.
So clearly, I can simply run my CPU at 255 x 11 and leave the timings as 2-2-2-5 at 2.8V and just simply use the 5:6 divider. But that goes back to the question. How bad is it to use dividers? Or should I try to keep it at 1:1 and just really loosen up the timings at 255?