RAM OC question

I am a little new at this and have come up with a question that I can seem to answer going through threads or asking friends. This IS a RAM question.

My goal is to OC a CPU I will receive in the mail but RAM is affected in the OC process. I would like the extra processing power for rendering video. I am practicing OCing my athlon for now.

I currently have an Athlon II x3 460 @ 3.4 GHz which will be switched to a Phenom II x6 1045T 2.7GHz, both run at 95W TDP and have locked multpliers. I have been able to unlock the 4th core of my x3 but the temps run too hot for my stock cooling. I will buy a better heatsink/fan soon.

I have: ASUS M5A78L-mx Plus mobo (3+1)
Athlon 460 (soon to be a Phenom 1045t)
2Gb Crutial, 4Gb Kingston both DDR3 run at 1333MHz
WD 2TB 7200rpm HD
BCP-450W PSU

I think the PSU is crappy, but the power output seems to be fine for my purposes. Most PSU calculators put me at 400W max with all my peripherals and even with the 1045t. My HD may be my future bottle-neck, but it doesnt seem that way yet.

I know that I would benefit if my ram were the same(better) make/model for OCing. My question: My Mobo is advertised at having the ability to OC ram to 1600-1866MHz, but stock runs at 1333 MHz. If i were to buy some better RAM that would be OCed to 1600 MHz max, can I use 1333 MHz and overclock to 1600 MHz or would I be better off buying sticks that are rated for 1600 MHz ?

Thank you.

Most RAM is binned tight these days, ie: they don't overclock much. There are exceptions of course, those exceptions are generally very fast RAM, DDR3 2133 and up. That isn't to say your RAM won't overclock but they likely won't overclock much. I wouldn't expect DDR3 1333 rated ram running at DDR3 1600 speeds or it would have been binned as such.

That being said there is another way with a locked processor multiplier, set the RAM to DDR3 1066 in bios, that would allow the HTT up to 250 (1045T at 3.375Ghz) and still be within the rated speed of the RAM. Alternately DDR3 1600 could be ran at DDR3 1333 set in bios up to ~240HTT (1045T at 3.24Ghz) and still be within the rated DDR3 1600 spec.

The only way to know for sure is to try of course, overclock the Ram, test it, no errors, overclock some more. Errors, try increasing the voltage a small amount (to a max ~10% increase).

Psyko is right. for benching, you can probably get a super OC in. but many of those ram settings will fail a 24/7 setting or gaming sessions.

only way to know, is trail and error. good luck

Thank you both.

So if I were to OC my ram, it would benefit stability to buy sticks rated for 1600 MHz, let the mobo think they are 1333 MHz and increase the reference clock so the ram speed is between 1333-1600 MHz.

Since I am only transcoding, ram oc won't really matter. I am just trying to shoot for best stability if my ram speed goes over stock speeds at higher/stable cpu speeds.

Another thing I learned is: for greater stability, symmetry between ram timings is important when using different sticks of ram.

Getting 3.2-3.3 MHz out of my 1045t would be nice...

SirLRonWellngtn said:

Thank you both.

So if I were to OC my ram, it would benefit stability to buy sticks rated for 1600 MHz, let the mobo think they are 1333 MHz and increase the reference clock so the ram speed is between 1333-1600 MHz.

Click to expand...

Yes, it may be possible to run them at 1066 and increase your processor overclock further (300 HTT X 13.5 = 4.05Ghz).

SirLRonWellngtn said:

Another thing I learned is: for greater stability, symmetry between ram timings is important when using different sticks of ram.

Click to expand...

True, running different types of RAM modules can lead to instability without overclocking.

Also when overclocking via HTT, ensure you set your PCIe to 100Mhz, HT Link to as close to 2.0Ghz as can be, and CPUNB (also known as IMC or integrated memory controller) to something around 2.0Ghz. The CPUNB (IMC) on Thuban can yield some substantial gains in terms of overclocking, 2.4Ghz should be an easy overclock, might require a slight bump in voltage.

Easiest to isolate one component at a time, find the max overclock for it, rinse and repeat, second guessing which voltage to raise or overclock to lower is much more difficult when trying to find the limits of multiple components at the same time.

After limits are found for each the processor speed, CPUNB speed, and RAM speed then try to combine them all together whilst staying just below the individual maximums found.

Prime95, Intelburntest, Memtest, CPUz, Core Temp, and HWMonitor are the apps of choice for finding stability.