Memory Timings

StopNotWorking

Ok after reading the extensive stickied guide on the basics of overclocking I'm still finding myself lost on this. How do lower timings help? I've been trying to OC my Q9550 for a while and I'm constantly running into instability issues where I really shouldn't. (Anything from 3.5Ghz up is just no go). It's not a cooling issue and the MoBo I have is well capable of OCing(People have up to 4Ghz stable on the P5Q Pro)

I have 4GB of OCZ Reaper-X DDR2 1066 PC2 8500. And the stock timings are 5-5-5-18.

Help? I've tried looking up guides and such on it but for whatever reason I'm just not getting my head around it. Would tighter timings stabalise my OCs?

Deano12345

StopNotWorking wrote: »

Ok after reading the extensive stickied guide on the basics of overclocking I'm still finding myself lost on this. How do lower timings help? I've been trying to OC my Q9550 for a while and I'm constantly running into instability issues where I really shouldn't. (Anything from 3.5Ghz up is just no go). It's not a cooling issue and the MoBo I have is well capable of OCing(People have up to 4Ghz stable on the P5Q Pro)

I have 4GB of OCZ Reaper-X DDR2 1066 PC2 8500. And the stock timings are 5-5-5-18.

Help? I've tried looking up guides and such on it but for whatever reason I'm just not getting my head around it. Would tighter timings stabalise my OCs?

Looser timings usually help get a higher OC on the CPU

Also,what is your memory configuration.

4x1 GB or 2x2GB

PogMoThoin

It used be that You pushed more voltage to tighen timings (as in lower numbers) You felt an increase in speed, but not now. Timings on the Intel Core2's dont make as much of a difference as they did on previous generations. These get more of an advantage of faster speeds (higher mhz's), even with looser timings (as in higher numbers). If ther're rated at 1066mhz at 5-5-5-18 timings, they'll prob do higher mhz with looser 6-6-6-20 timings for which You'll see more of an increase than tightening the timings. From my experience OCZ's don't clock much higher than their rated for, but it totally depends on the sticks and the chips used.

When overclocking its best to take the ram completely out of the equasion by putting Your ram on the lowest possible divider (where they'll comfortably run) and find out what Your cpu will do. You know Your ram will do 1066mhz at 5-5-5-18 timings but You'll prob get a little higher than this, You can test this seperately. When You find Your max cpu You can try fiddling with the ram after and pushing them faster closer to a 1:1 overclock (1066mhz ram does 533mhz dual channel which will allow You push the fsb to 533mhz 1:1).

StopNotWorking

It's 2x2GB chips Deano.

Pog,

When I push the CPU high enough the only option left for the RAM is 948Mhz(The higher I push the fsb the higher my RAM options go up) Is there anything I can do about that?

PogMoThoin

StopNotWorking wrote: »

It's 2x2GB chips Deano.

Pog,

When I push the CPU high enough the only option left for the RAM is 948Mhz(The higher I push the fsb the higher my RAM options go up) Is there anything I can do about that?

That mobo's not got a memory divider lower than 1:1, You sure theres not an option for lower? Is it set to auto? I've not got that exact mobo so I've no idea of what the bios looks like, can You take a screenie?

If You're at 948Mhz 1:1 with Your ram (you'd be at 4ghz), its only running at 474mhz on each channel (only if 474 is Your fsb), much lower than its rated at (533mhz). There's loads of headroom on Your ram, You mustn't be on the lowest divider

StopNotWorking

If I was to go upwards of 3.7Ghz then the only options are 948, then it jumps to around 1100 and keeps going higher in the options, it goes

Auto
948Mhz
1103Mhz
1253Mhz etc etc

Not exact numbers but you get the idea, it just keeps going higher and higher so there is no good option to set the RAM to.

PogMoThoin

Must be Your lowest divider, at 948mhz dual channel on Your ram You're not coming anywhere near pushing it, add a little voltage to the northbridge to try push it through and make sure Your rams getting its rated voltage (2.1v iirc), maybe give it slightly more just to make sure, although OCZ sticks hate overvolting (ones I had did). Make sure the first 4 ram timing are set manually, not by spd and leave the rest on auto. Also make sure spread spectrum, C1e, speedstep and all that stuff is disabled as it only interferes with an overclock.

What cpu fsb are You getting stuck at? Have You tried a lower multi? My own mobo is more stable at 8x400 than it was at 9x355 (multi is 9), in fact i've it running at 8x400 for 1.5yrs constant without a single failed oc

zenno

the higher you overclock the cpu the more voltage you have to give it or you will just get BSOD. if your memory timings are messed up go back to default settings and start afresh.