GA-X58A-UD3R mobo with i7-960 overclock to meet RAM spec?

[seven95]

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to get my ram to operate at spec. Right now it's running at 1066 by default. I'd just like it to run to the spec 1333. If I understand everything I've been reading correctly, the only way to do this is to overclock my cpu slightly. I'm very new to this. Here is my setup:

GA-X58A-UD3R rev 2.0 mobo
i7-960 processor
Crucial Ballistix 12GB (3 x 4GB) DDR3 1333 (BLT3KIT4G3D1337DT1TX0)
Timing 7-7-7-24
Voltage 1.5V

I don't believe cooling is a problem as I accounted for possible overclocking when I built the system. I don't have any of the Gigabyte utilities loaded as I've heard they are all not-so-great.

Right now my BIOS is set to all auto (probably default) settings. My problem is I don't know which settings to change and what to change them to. I know most people overclock to 1600 RAM and I've seen plenty of posts on this. Has anyone done any mild tweaking to get to just 1333? Any help on this would be much appreciated.

 

[Knufire]

Just change the RAM multiplier to 1333 and set the timings manually. Overclocking to a certain RAM speed is a different matter.

Default BLCK speed is 166Mhz. By setting the memory multiplier to x8, you get roughly (166x8)=1333Mhz.

When you OC the CPU, since the CPU multiplier is locked, you have to increase the BLCK. This OCs the RAM too, so you're stuck. Overclocking up to 1600 meant that we would overclock up to 200BLCK (a common goal) and then drop the memory multipler to x8 (which would be 1333MHz at stock speeds, but is 1600MHz at our overclocked speeds). Actually overclocking the RAM past their rated specs isn't as common because it doesn't really provide much of a performance benefit.

 

[seven95]

Just change the RAM multiplier to 1333 and set the timings manually. Overclocking to a certain RAM speed is a different matter.

Default BLCK speed is 166Mhz. By setting the memory multiplier to x8, you get roughly (166x8)=1333Mhz.

When you OC the CPU, since the CPU multiplier is locked, you have to increase the BLCK. This OCs the RAM too, so you're stuck. Overclocking up to 1600 meant that we would overclock up to 200BLCK (a common goal) and then drop the memory multipler to x8 (which would be 1333MHz at stock speeds, but is 1600MHz at our overclocked speeds). Actually overclocking the RAM past their rated specs isn't as common because it doesn't really provide much of a performance benefit.

Thanks Knufire. So, is there any reason why I wouldn't OC the CPU by increasing the BLCK so that the memory OC'd to roughly 1333MHz without dropping the multiplier? Also, if I ONLY change the memory multiplier to x8 do I need to mess with any voltage settings?

 

[Knufire]

Changing the memory multplier would be the hassle-free way to do it, no other changed settings should be necessary.

If you want to OC, I would suggest following this guide to find your max overclock. No worries about chip life, as long as you stay within the limited given in the guide, you won't reduce your chip life expectancy any notable amount: http://www.overclockers.com/3-step-guide-overclock-core-i3-i5-i7/

 

[seven95]

Changing the memory multplier would be the hassle-free way to do it, no other changed settings should be necessary.

If you want to OC, I would suggest following this guide to find your max overclock. No worries about chip life, as long as you stay within the limited given in the guide, you won't reduce your chip life expectancy any notable amount: http://www.overclockers.com/3-step-guide-overclock-core-i3-i5-i7/

Alright, I will take a look and see what I want to do. Thanks for the info!