Overclocking a Chip and RAM

[CrazigXn]

Question: If I try to overclock my i7 920, will my RAM limit the amount of Ghz I can try to squeeze out? I have 3 GB od DDR3 1333 mhz, but plan to upgrade to 6 or 9gb, but still use 1333 mhz.

 

[taltamir]

the SIZE of ram has no effect on your overclock, the SPEED of the ram has an effect on it, but only above a certain point. Light overclocking can be done without affecting, or being affected by, your ram.

For example, I can OC my Q6600 from 2.4ghz to 3ghz without having to OC the ram as well... but if I want to OC my CPU further it will OC the ram at the same time. Making Ocing past that point more complicated. And potentially dependent on the quality of my ram.

Start by reading the overclocking guides that are stickied in the THIS FORUM. they have valuable information about the terms and the way things work. Notice there is not an i7 OC guide yet, so after reading the core2quad and core2duo OC guide go and look up information about how overclocking an i7 DIFFERS from overclocking those, because it DOES, and there are certain risks of damaging your CPU

 

[Denithor]

Unfortunately we don't have a good i7 overclocking guide here (yet). I'm sure someone will remedy that shortly.

A brief overview: you overclock these systems by adjusting the base clock (BLCK) which starts at 133mhz stock. The CPU and RAM speeds are based on a multiple of this speed and are adjusted independently (CPU from 12x to 20x and RAM 6x and 8x). Take a look at the following examples.

Stock i7 920
BLCK = 133
CPU = 20x133 = 2.66GHz
RAM = 6x133 = 798mhz or 8x133 = 1064mhz

i7 920 @ 3GHz
BLCK = 150
CPU = 20x150 = 3GHz
RAM = 6x150 = 900mhz or 8x150 = 1200mhz

i7 920 @ 3GHz
BLCK = 200
CPU = 15x200 = 3GHz
RAM = 6x200 = 1200mhz or 8x200 = 1600mhz

DDR3-1333 RAM will get you up to a 222 BLCK at the top end without having to overclock.

i7 920
BLCK = 222
CPU = 20x222 = 4.44GHz or 18x222 = 4GHz or all the way down to 12x222 = 2.66GHz
RAM = 6x222 = 1332mhz or 8x222 = 1776 (better have some fast RAM)

So you can your RAM speed really isn't going to hold you back, as long as you set the multiplier to 6x (sometimes called DDR3-800 in the BIOS) you can push your CPU up to 4.44GHz without having to stress your RAM past it's rated speed.

Just remember you need good cooling for your CPU if you plan to push it seriously past its rated speed and you may need to adjust your voltage to maintain stability. I'm not going to try to address those topics here, maybe someone more familiar can chime in with more info.

 

[CrazigXn]

this is all very useful. was only thinking to try to go to around 3.2 ghz , but will still need an after stock HSF. Good to know I am not RAM limited at least, but obviously need to do more homework so I don't fry my chip and/or machine. Then it's on to OC'ing my GTX 260.