CPU Memory Dividers, OC Issues

[ethugholla]

It seems I'm having issues overclocking my new E4400 chip.

I can get it to 3.10 GHz at 1.4V. I have 4 gigs of DDR2-800 ram, but I have no idea how to set the memory divider ratio to 1:1 or whatever the number is. My mobo is Gigabyte P35-DS3R.

How do I do this?

I know that there's an equation that relates all of it, but the numbers seem weird when I play with them in BIOS.

 

[imported_Shaq]

Set it to 2 for 1:1, which is 2x the bus speed. ie. FSB@400=DDR2 800.

 

[ethugholla]

Does that mean that in order to get to 3.0 ghz, I would set the FSB to 400, therefore changing the multiplier?

Potentially putting the multiplier at 8x and the FSB at 400??

 

[Accord99]

You would actually get 3.2GHz, 8x400. It's a high but obtainable goal for an E4400.

 

[ethugholla]

Er, yes that's what I meant.

3.2 GHz does seem high.

But from what I understand, clinching this 1:1 ratio is important towards OCing. Is there anyway that I could get the chip to 3.0 at the least, or 3.2 at the most, still keeping the ratio intact?

Or is it even that important?..

 

[Accord99]

You can, you could do 9x333 and with a 1:1 ratio, your memory would be at DDR2-667 speeds. If you can reach 8x400MHz, with the 1:1 ratio your memory would be at DDR2-800.

However, in my own experience, using a ratio where the memory is clocked higher than the FSB is faster, assuming the CPU clock speed is the same. For example, my system with an E6600 is faster when running at 9x356 (3.2GHz) with a 4:5 memory ratio (DDR2-900) than it is at 8*400 (3.2GHz) with the 1:1 ratio (DDR2-800).

So I would expect that for your system, with the E4400 at 9x333, using the 5:6 ratio would keep your memory at DDR2-800 speeds and be slightly faster than using the 1:1 ratio. The difference won't be very large though. 8x400, 1:1 of course would be faster still.

 

[ethugholla]

Ah, very interesting.

What I'm running at right now is 3.10 GHz (10x 310 FSB), and I'm not even sure what ratio that is at.

But I'm going to try running at 8x400, and if that doesn't seem to work out, then 9x333 may be the solution.

 

[imported_Shaq]

I have the same motherboard. Look at SPD ratio. You have to hit ctrl F1 on main bios page to access memory timings. You can select 2.0, 2.4,2.5,3.0,3.33,4.0,4.0+ I believe. Multiply your FSB by those multipliers to get your memory speed. 8x400 with SPD of 2 is DDR2-800. 9x333 with 2 is 666, 2.5 it is 833, at 3 it is 1000 etc.