X79 at 1200MHz ??

[MadHatter83]

Okay, please forgive the noob.

So, you can overclock just about anything on the computer. I've heard different stories, so please tell me which one is right... Some sources tell me to overclock the ram itself, but don't mess with the NB. Other sources say don't overclock the ram, but do OC the NB.

I'm looking at the ASRock X79 Extreme6 on The Egg. It says DDR3-2400(OC). The highest not overclocked is 1600. Does that mean the NB normally runs at 800 MHz and needs to be bumped up to 1200 MHz to use the 2400 RAM?! That's a 50% OC!

IDK about you guys, but doesn't that seem a bit..."optimistic"?

(Edit: That sounds a bit melty. Would I have to put a water cooler on the NB or am I just way off base?)

 

[Knufire]

Don't worry about either on Intel. Just OC your CPU and be done with it if you're looking for real world performance improvements. If you're into competitive benchmarking or just bored you can mess with everything else.

 

[MadHatter83]

Hmmmm...if not for overclocking the board, there's little point to spending all that money. The DDR31600 is only 6&2/3% faster than my DDR21066. I could put an 1100T in my current board and then my processor's not too far behind either. No one making a normal wage living in their right mind would spend the $2k required for only 10% more speed.

This is the overclocking forum, correct?

PS - God knows I lost my right mind long ago. Maybe the left one too. If I only had glue a few marbles would do. Good thing I'm broke and the build is for Yew.

 

[magellan]

There is no northbridge or MCH on the x79. The memory is now directly connected to and managed by the CPU.

You can adjust the memory multiplier independently of the CPU multiplier, you can also adjust the BCLK "gears" higher to make it easier to get to higher RAM frequencies w/o necessarily overclocking your CPU at all.