I've been overclocking since the days of 333 Celerons, but I haven't kept up recently and there are some things I just can't figure out. For some odd reason, none of the articles I read answer these questions.
Some background on my current project first though: I just picked up some E8500 ($173 total cost) and some corsair XMS3 DDR3 1600 (9-9-9-24) ($145 total cost). I also picked up some Antec P180 cases for $55 or so. The idea is to build 2 systems (1 for myself, 1 for a friend) and overclock them, with a 4GHz goal.
Now the things I don't understand. The E8500s have a list FSB of 1333 MHz. However, for some bizarre reason people tend to pair DDR2-800 with these chips. WTF? Is this a case of 1333 / 4 (dual channel, dual data rate) = 333, * 1.2 (overclock) = 400 * 2 (DDR) = 800? Obviously confusing. I assumed that the E8500 with a list FSB of 1333, overclocked to FSB 1600 would hit 4 GHz, hence why I bought 1600 MHz DDR3 RAM. Am I wasting money on the DDR3?
One other thing, the CPUs I got from Fry's are open box returns, which Fry's forgot to ever mention. When I asked the cashier, he said they open the box to ensure that the correct CPU is inside (...). I bought it anyways, but I feel like I should just return it and get a new chip. They're E0 steppings made last summer, but I figure people returned them for a reason. Thoughts?
Thanks for any help/advice!
Some background on my current project first though: I just picked up some E8500 ($173 total cost) and some corsair XMS3 DDR3 1600 (9-9-9-24) ($145 total cost). I also picked up some Antec P180 cases for $55 or so. The idea is to build 2 systems (1 for myself, 1 for a friend) and overclock them, with a 4GHz goal.
Now the things I don't understand. The E8500s have a list FSB of 1333 MHz. However, for some bizarre reason people tend to pair DDR2-800 with these chips. WTF? Is this a case of 1333 / 4 (dual channel, dual data rate) = 333, * 1.2 (overclock) = 400 * 2 (DDR) = 800? Obviously confusing. I assumed that the E8500 with a list FSB of 1333, overclocked to FSB 1600 would hit 4 GHz, hence why I bought 1600 MHz DDR3 RAM. Am I wasting money on the DDR3?
One other thing, the CPUs I got from Fry's are open box returns, which Fry's forgot to ever mention. When I asked the cashier, he said they open the box to ensure that the correct CPU is inside (...). I bought it anyways, but I feel like I should just return it and get a new chip. They're E0 steppings made last summer, but I figure people returned them for a reason. Thoughts?
Thanks for any help/advice!
