Originally Posted by jahanzeb

Wow, what a great response to all my questions! Thank you!

I *really* believe that this thread should get stickied -- people coming to this site nowadays most probably don't want to find out how to overclock Intel processors in general, but instead want to know how to overclock C2Ds since those are the buzz. I think it would be overall a big benefit to the site if that were to happen.

One final question -- can you tell me how the cooling needs go up with FSB settings? For instance, is the following correct? If not, please rewrite the stuff after the colons --

E6600 @x9, P5B-Dlx @266MHz = 2.4GHz: Works with stock fan
E6600 @x9, P5B-Dlx @400MHz = 3.6GHz: Needs better fan
E6600 @x9, P5B-Dlx @>450MHz = >4.05GHz: Needs ventilated casing

And how does this all change as you change the multiplier, processor, and FSB? I think if this information could be added to your guide, it would really clarify a lot of questions for a lot of people. Maybe even having an excel file attached to the guide, with the different settings and cooling requirements listed, would give a complete idea to anyone wishing to learn.

Thanks again -- I am truly grateful for your help!

J

Originally Posted by jahanzeb

Rereading the guide, I had questions about:



Let's assume I get a P5B-Dlx and an E6600, consider the following two scenarios:

Scenario 1) I buy DDR2-800 RAM, keep the x9 stock multiplier, and up the actual FSB from 266MHz to 400MHz:

First, the CPU's clock rate goes from (266 * 9 =) 2.4GHz to (400 * 9 =) 3.6GHz. The effective L2 cache goes from (266 * 4 =) 1066MHz to (400 * 4 =) 1600MHz. And finally, the effective RAM rate at 1:1 goes from (266 * 2 =) 533MHz to (400 * 2 =) 800MHz.

This also means that L2 cache operates twice as fast as RAM. Also, the RAM is in a strange ratio to the CPU (2:9, though this is ALWAYS the case with a given multiplier!).

Scenario
2) I buy DDR2-1066 RAM, keep the x9 stock multiplier as well as the stock 266MHz FSB, as you described in the guide (calculations are given in the prev sccenario):

FSB (actual): 266MHz
Clock rate: 2.4GHz
L2 cache (effective) rate: 1066MHz
RAM (effective) rate at 1:1: 533MHz

However, if somehow a mobo is able to allow a 2:1 RAM:FSB ratio (is this even possible?), then the effective RAM rate at 2:1 would be 1066MHz which is acheivable in this case since we're talking about (expensive) DDR2-1066 RAM. Thus, we would have achieved a perfect balance between the L2 cache and the RAM!

Now my question is -- which of the two systems would be faster? I know that 'faster' is an ill-defined word -- it depends on what application you're talking about, whether it's CPU intensive or Memory intensive. But I heard that recently the bottleneck in PC speed changed from the CPU to the memory bus -- and if so, then 'flooding' the bus as you put it would be the best way to go.

Or is it that CPU core speed is really the most important thing, and RAM speed, RAM-synchronization-to-L2-bandwidth, and RAM-synchronization-to-CPU-clock-rate are not that important?

I think I should stop talking in the abstract, and just go out and buy an E6600 and an Asus P5B-Dlx with DDR2-800 (2GB) RAM and try all of this out now that I've learnt this stuff thanks to people like you!

BTW is there any way to actually vote for this to be put up as a sticky? I totally believe it should!