Helped needed understanding my RAM's OC potential!

Hi guys,

I recently decided to start overclocking my machine.

The specs are:
MB: GA-EP45-UD3LR
CPU: Intel Q9650
RAM: Mushkin Redline 996672 (XP2-6400 800Mhz 4-4-3-10 1.8V)

I have my system running at 3.6Ghz no problem
With CPU freq set to 400Mhz.

Memory multiplier set to 2.00D, and latched to 400Mhz.

This keeps my RAM at 800Mhz, giving me a nice 1:1 ratio.

Question is now...
Can I push out more?

If I increase the CPU clock it will force my RAM above 800Mhz.

A freq of 440Mhz will take me to 3.96Ghz, and RAM to 880Mhz.

I have no experience with this, and I do not know what 80Mhz difference in RAM means.

Is it a MASSIVE difference? Will my RAM instantly blow? I was told these RAM modules are pretty good, and Mushkin is a great brand.

Any help would be appreciated, last thing I want is to change something and my RAM dies.

Thanks a lot.

The amount that you are able to overclock ram can vary greatly stick to stick. I would say that you should easily be able to get that ram up to 880mhz. If you have any stability issues, you can always bump up the voltage and/or loosen the timings a little. For example my corsair xms2 ddr2 800 was able to take an overclock up to 1090mhz at stock timings 24/7 stable with a very minimal boost to the voltage. Mushkin is a pretty good brand, and should overclock quite easily. My motherboard has the option to run the cpu unlinked from the memory, and this works out perfectly for overclocking because you can overclock each individually allowing you to know which component is unstable if there are problems. If you have this feature, I suggest that you use it to find your max OC. Don't forget to do stability tests.
-Greg

thanks

Thanks there greg, I'll give it a try.

But from your experience, is RAM similar to CPU in which you can OC, check stability maybe a crash then adjustments etc..

And your RAM will still be 100% OK?

Or is the RAM so sensitive that if you attempt a frequency thats too high it will blow or stop functioning all together kind of more instantly.

Like I read somewhere that if you start to get blue screens from a RAM instability, it's already broken even if slightly usable, and that it will last very short period of time. The RAM you mentioned that you OC'd, do you think you could maintain that for 1 year and your RAM would of been fine?


Basically I'm just trying to gauge whether there is the possibility that I could test such a smallish increase say to 880 and when I boot up I could destroy my RAM? Is that not really possible.
Thanks.

Sorry for the very slow reply, but better late than never. The overclock that I did for my ram, is a 24/7 usage, and has been so for about 2 years now (and still running strong). In my experience in overclocking ram, most failures can be attributed to memory controller failure (board failure), or using way too much voltage to gain stability. As long as you keep the voltage within about .1 to .3 (maybe even a little more) of the manufactures specs, the chance of damage or failure is very minimal. There is always risk when pushing a product beyond its designed tolerances, but your memory (like most nowadays) has a lifetime warranty so you're covered if it fails on you. I see no reason not to try for that 880mhz. It should handle it fine. Just do like I said if you have instability. Just bump the voltage slightly and test, and repeat until it is stable. If that doesn't do the trick, then just loosen the timings slightly until you are stable. I have seen people running this exact memory at 1100mhz and higher with slight voltage and timing adjustments, so I am sure that you should be able to get at least 900+ out of it. FYI a BSOD is just a notification of an operational error. Most times it is associated with and instability in the system (overclock) or a program error in the operating system. It's just a way of letting you know that something is wrong. There are a few programs out there that can read the codes and dump data, and tell you what the problem was to help in diagnosing an instability. Memory is fairly hard to damage, and under stability testing will fairly quickly let you know when it is not happy. Hope this helps you out.
-Greg