Best OC combo with Shuttle SB65G2... please advice

[CP]

Hi

What CPU+MEMORY combo should I go with to get the most OC'ability at reasonable stability? I am aware that extreme OC will freeze up the PC in the middle of game play, which is quite frustrated and therefore if I would be happy if I could reach 3.2-3.5GHz at reasonable stability in my Shuttle SB65G2 system. I am targeting for 1GB of memory, and the system will be used for general apps, RTS games and 3D CAD modeling + animation as hobbies.

I saw some posts recommend P4-2.6C pair with tight timing memory (PC3200) and some suggest P4-2.8C with high freq memory (PC3500-4000) and etc etc. I am quite confused...

Please advice...

 

[hepp]

I would recommend the 2.6C with real tight ram like 2x512 Mushkin 3200/3500 lvl 2 or Kingston 2xKHX3200/512.
My reasoning is this:
At 3.2 to 3.5 your FSB would be 245-270 which would allow you to run these 5:4 whilst keeping their tight timings
since your DDR speed would be 395-430.
There is a risk that you'd need to relax tRCD to 3 at the top end of this range, especially with 1G since that would require more voltage than 2x256, but with your CPU doing that speed I think you could live with 2-3-2-6 ,

Or if you wanted to go with 1:1 there are modules that might reach 270 with relaxed timings
(e.g. OCZ 4200EL, Corsair Twinx 1024-4400).

With VDIMM limited to 2.75V it is hard to find memory to match a 2.4c since at 3500 it's fsb would be 292, which
is hard to reach 1:1. At 5:4 your DDR speed would be 467 which is hard to reach with tight timings.
There is some debate as to wether 1:1 or tight timings give the best results but not many would arguee for 5:4 and
relaxed timings

The 2.8 has the reverse problem at DDR460-DDR500 1:1 (might be achived 2,5-3-3-8 by OCZ 3700 Gold but I'm not sure)
so unless you reach your 3500 target you'd be underclocking PC4000 with poor timings.
Or at 5:4 you'd be underclocking PC3200 albeit with good timings.
If you really get to 3.5Ghz with a 2.8 it might not be a bad choise, but if (like) most you end up with 3.2-3.4 it will be hard to find an optimal memory match.

I would not recommend

reasonable stability

.
You really ought to aim for complete stability (tested with e.g. prime for a few hours).
Even though it might be fun to find the absolute limit, your system however fast is not much use if you can't trust it.
And even at the stable limit these machines perform pretty well.

I'm running a 2.4 at FSB 270 with my memory at 5:4 and 2-3-2-6 timings and I kind of wish I had opted for a 2.6,
it would have saved me a lot of hassle(and money) trying to find the right memory.

Had it been available at the time I would probably have gone for the 75 as well to squeeze out a few % more performance.

Good luck!
hepp

 

[RamIt]

I have a SB61G2 and run my 2.4c @ 3.5 with old school corsair XMS3200 v1.
I can only tell you to stay away from anyones memory that uses CH-5 chips due to the fact you will be limited to 255 fsb no matter what dividers you use.