Ram and OCing

[Heligrin]

i have the EVGA 780i motherboard and am getting ready to OC it; however, its been awhile since i have oced (read the guide) but there are still some things im a little confused about,
I have an E8400 and 2x2GB Gskill 1066 ram
The FSB (QDR) is 1333 at 9x = 3.0 GHz
1333/4 = 333, which is my FSB. With auto my memory timing is 800mhz (5:6) divider

Can i set in my bios the ram:fsb as unlinked and manually set my ram timing to 1066? I kept it linked and it set my memory speed equall to my FSB which was 1333+ not 1066.

Im just a little confused about how i should go about tackling memory, which it shouldnt be a problem considering i have 1066 ram.

Also what is spread spectrum and should i set all the PCIe MHz to 100? Also what is the SPP <-> MCP ref clock MHz? what should i set that too>?

Ive never OCed intel chips before, only AMD, so im just a little confused on somethings.

Thank you

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Yes, there should be an option to set your memory to 1066. You don't have to have memory matching your quad pumped fsb say like DDRx 1333

Spread Spectrum allows a little bit of lee-way regarding the particular setting. e.g. cpu or pci-e personally, i like to keep them disabled. You can find a definition for it in Wikipedia.

I'm not sure what the others are.

 

[DSF]

Since you're overclocking, I would leave your memory linked to your FSB for now. Tell your motherboard to run the RAM and FSB 1:1. That will put the least stress on your RAM, and will make it easier to tell whether it's your RAM or your CPU that are causing stability problems if they crop up. Once you get your CPU overclock rock solid stable, then worry about inching up your RAM if you choose.

 

[Heligrin]

If i set it to linked, it puts my RAM frequency at 1333, which is doesnt support obviously.

 

[DSF]

Originally posted by: Heligrin
If i set it to linked, it puts my RAM frequency at 1333, which is doesnt support obviously.

Incorrect. It will set your RAM at DDR2-667. Intel reports an inflated FSB number. When the RAM and FSB are running 1:1, the RAM speed is actually half the FSB that Intel reports. (This is because Intel doesn't report the actual clock speed of the FSB in MHz, but the number of transfers the CPU makes. Since the CPU makes four transfers over the FSB per clock cycle, the number is four times higher than the actual FSB clock. RAM makes two transfers per second (that's why it's called double-pumped) so the advertised RAM speed is twice the FSB clock.

Edit: I see you're already aware of the quad data rate, I missed that in your original post. Forget linking/unlinking for a second. There should be an option to manually set the FSBRAM ratio. Set it to 1:1.

 

[Heligrin]

so if i manually set the ram to 1066, which is equal to a FSB of 533, i can slowly raise my FSB of 333 to whatever i want? or should i keep it in a 1:1 ratio and just let my Ram frequency creep up with my FSB? I feel as though i did this and my comp didnt post because it set my ram to 1333MHz. Maybe im missing something..

 

[DSF]

If your computer really set your RAM to 1:1, it wasn't at 1333. If it was really trying to run your RAM at 1333, it wasn't a 1:1 ratio. (Notice that a FSBRAM ratio of 5:6, which runs you RAM faster than 1:1, only has it at 800.)

I would set it at 1:1 and let it work its way up with the FSB. Also make sure you set the timings to something fairly loose like 5-5-5-15 or 5-5-5-18 until your CPU is overclocked to where you want it.

 

[Heligrin]

THank you guys, ganna start OCing