Hi All

Been trying to navigate through the RAM jungle, without much luck.

My question is simply:

I am thinking about upgrading my cpu to an Opteron 170, and would like to overclock as much as possible on a good air cooled system. But which RAM would be the best buy, for this purpose? I am going for 2x1 gb but have no idea what would be the best RAM for overclocking.

I have so far figured out that my morherboard doesn't support ddr2, but what would be best pc4000 or pc3200?

Best Regards

- Rune

I wouldnt worry about new ram until you get the new CPU. A8N motherboards are
not known for being the best ram overclockers. If you get the Opty much over 2.3
or 2.4GHz (which is easy on a lot of them) then you will be back on a divider anyway.
In that case your current ram will work just fine as long as it is working ok now.

The only real gain you will see over your current 2GB is maybe a little tighter timings.

And also remember the fact that any future upgrade path you choose will need DDR2 ram.
Kinda makes buying DDR1 ram a bit of a waste at this point unless you really need it.

Sorry I don't think I have formulated myself precise.

It is the CPU that I wanna overclock primarily, don't care so much about the RAM, as long as they allow me to overclock the Opteron..

And so far as I have understood, my motherboard does not support ddr2, correct?

- Rune

No it does not support DDR2. What Wanna is saying is that when you overclock the CPU it has a direct effect on the RAM. You raise the FSB to overclock the CPU. This also raises the speed of the RAM, since it uses the FSB for its speed as well, and you'll have to put it on a divider or buy RAM that will run at the speed which your FSB is set to.

Maybe an example will help. Your Opte 170 runs at 2.0GHz so it is on a 200 FSB with a 10x multiplier (10x200=2000 or 2.0GHz) You want your CPU at 2.4GHz so you change the FSB from 200 to 240. 240x10 gives you 2400MHz (2.4GHz) Your RAM is now runnimng at 240 MHZ as well on the 1:1 divider. Your Kingston won't run that high so you have two choices:
1. Put the Kingston on a divider, in your case the DDR333 divider which is the 5:4 FSB:RAM. Your RAM will now run at 200MHz give or take.
2. Buy some Corsair DDR500 PC4000 RAM which runs at 250MHZ stock and leave it on the 1:1 divider where it will run at the FSB speed of 240MHz. In this case the DDR500 RAM will be slightly underclocked.

Wanna is quite correct that the cost to benefit of buying new RAM at this point is poor. The performance increase you would see from buying the DDR500 over putting your present RAM on a divider, as in the above case, would be minimal and not apparent except in benchmarks. So get the Opte and keep your RAM.

You may want to read this guide before going any further. The above will make more sense then. http://asustech.15.forumer.com/index.php?showtopic=622