Overclocking - Need to knows

Before we get into the nitty gritty, there are things you know. Note only this applies to CPU/RAM Overclocking.

Overclocking is an art. It is also a simple to do yet complex art. The reason why?

Multipliers.

Biggest source of screw ups to beginners. A bunch of bus speeds and operating frequencies are derived from the Front Side Bus (known here after as "FSB"). Let's do an example (hey I did say this blog might utilize brainpower - this is a rare occurrence). Somethings to know is that a PCI bus speed is 33MHz, the old AGP is 66MHz, MOST modern motherboards have this thing called a PCI lock so this should not really matter (BUT CHECK!!!!). :o

For the purpose of simplicity, allow me to base it off of my set up.

CPU: Intel E8400 'SLAPL'. 3000MHZ, 9x CPU Multiplier, 333MHz physical CPU FSB. FSB x Multiplier = CPU speed (333x9= ~3000MHz).
Ram: OCZ PC8500 1066MHz (RAM capacity is a mute point for this). Now ram is DDR (Dual Data Rate). So 1066 divided by 2 = 533MHz (physical speed). How do we get the speed off of the FSB? By a ram divider. So 333MHz (CPU) using the 8:5 ram divider (1.6) we get the RAM speed of 533MHz. 333 x 8:5 (or 1.6) = 533MHz (DDR = 1066).

The RAM speed is the variable that you probably need to pay the most attention to. Why? Well most people are so fixated on cranking up the CPU speed, they don't really pay too much attention to the RAM speed. The thing about RAM is that they can OC decently well (depends on if they are binned highly or not). But the fact of the matter is that you will reach the ceiling on RAM a LOT faster than on the CPU.

So what do we do?

Well my approach is to keep bumping up the CPU speed and when the RAM speed hits its stock or just above, drop the divider down. My setup, at 3000MHz (300 FSB) via a 8:5 ram divider, my ram can run @ 533MHz (1066MHz effective DDR). At the same time, at 4000MHz (444 FSB) via a 6:5 divider, I can run @ 533MHz as well.

So keep this very important thing in mind when overclocking.

Next time, I will go over the steps on how to overclock (for real this time LMAO).

Stay tuned!