OC confusion

[murat the newb]

ok .... i'm throwing my hands up here... lol. I think i've been reading too many articles that have me going in a circle...

here's the deal.
I have an Asus P6X58D w/an i930 bloomfield.
When I built this machine 2 years ago I put a set of Geil dd3 1600 (6GB) in there. (8-8-8 ca8)
Now RAM has dropped, I decided to buy (dont ask me why I did this) g.skill 12gb CA7 1.5 (7-7-7-32) 1333 RAM ... had better reviews than the mushkin that was at 1600. (figured, lower latency and voltage, the better .... least what I've been reading)

So, I wanna OC this bad boy. I'm on stock cooler (heads up ... yeah, I know ... get with the program and upgrade my cooling unit)..

Did I get good RAM cause if not, I want to return and get a good set that I can OC with and something I can eventually OC this cpu @ 4ghz+ .... ?

Can someone point me to the right direction so I can slowly OC this CPU to a point where it is safe on the stock cooler........ PLEASEEE..

thank a lot guys/gals

 

[Woomack]

For this setup optimal is something ~1600 on tight timings so your old Geil 1600 8-8-8 was good. Probably that 1333 7-7-7 kit will make 1600 8-8-8 ... even if not then I wouldn't worry as you won't see performance difference unless you are benching.
On X58 there are also lower memory ratios so even if you want to set higher cpu clock then memory can stay on lower clock near 1333-1400.

 

[murat the newb]

I would like to keep it since its 12GB and I run VM's ...
So if I understand you right... I can use this RAM and be able to OC at a stable 3ghz or possibly 4ghz?

 

[Woomack]

Lowest memory ratio will give you 1200 memory clock at 200MHz bclk.
One step higher should effect in ~1330 memory clock when you set 166MHz bclk.
You should be able to set at least ~3.5GHz or higher. Most these cpus are running stable up to 4GHz on air/water using reasonable voltage up to 1.35V ( sometimes lower ).