Dont Understand somethings

Can you guys explain to me some of these terms and ideas about overclocking. I understand stuff bout OC'in the CPU etc etc. However I am lost with the current requirements when OC'ing memory with it. I was readin the review over at nexus
nexus and I dont understand some of the stuff they are talkin bout. I know I want to OC my system. And I am tryin to decide which memory is best for that. Currently i plan to either get the 2.4/2.6C P4 and the ASUS P4C800. However i am not sure which memory to get.

What i am lost on is some of this talk of Latency: 2-3-3-7-1T, blah blah...i dont get what that means. And i dont get how i set it in my BIOS when i do get the system. Also what do they mean when they say Loose Timing Overclock at 2.5-3-3-7. I guess what im asking for someone to do is point me in the right direction on the low down about OCing and how you do so with your memory. I also plan to play around with voltages a lil when i OC. First time for me to play around with them. I currently have only worked with FSB and Mult(yes im a n00b). I guess im askin for some of the tips/ideas/approaches to take when OCing besides talkin bout the stuff i already know like....FSB and clock mult.


What i dont know enough about besides the basics:

Changing voltages- When to do it, when not to, how do u know you have a good voltage, etc.
OC'ing the memory - Difference between Low Latency OCing, and Loose Timing OCing. I guess basically eveyrthing there is to know about OCing with memory.

Thx for the help peeps.

Anyone care to enlighten me?

I would love to but its an area that I'm still researching myself. Don't feel badly-I got about the same amount of responses when I asked the same things. Its arcane knowledge. If you want a lot of responses to your posts you have to put something like "Nvidia sucks" or "Laura Croft has a nice rack!" in the title...hehe

Here's a link to start you off though and I have some others bookmarked on my other comp. I'll post if I can get it running today.

http://www.lostcircuits.com/memory/

thx...hopefully some ppl like Colossus will give some input. He seems like he knows his stuff

timings are just that, timings on the ram. the lower, the faster. for instance, you see ram being labeled Cas 2, 2.5, etc. 2 is faaster than 2.5, but harder to run too, meaning less overclock. lower numbers mean tighter timings, higher numbers mean looser timings.

ok, you are getting an asus canterwood, and after reading this excellent review http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...threadid=12734 and you will see that timings don't mean crap on the canterwood board. so don't worry about timings too much, and just get as high a FSB/memory as you can.

ok you already know about FSB and multipliers, which is good. one more variable you have to learn about is ratios. specifically, FSB/memory ratios. before this, the fsb and memory speed were 1:1, meaning for every FSB you increase, a corresponding increase in memory speed accompanied. so with say, an athlon 133 fsb, when you bumped up the FSB to 150, the memory was also now at 150.

with P4's, we are introduced to ratios. basically, you can choose 1:1 ratio, so with fsb at 200, memory is also at 200. but these chips overclock like crazy, so some are hitting 275-300 fsb. no memory i know of that can hit that, so you enter into a 5:4 ratio. thhe first number is the FSB, the second the memory. so, lets say we are at a 250 FSB. with a 5:4 ratio, the fsb will be 250, the memory will be only at 200. get it? there is also a 3:2 ratio, so at 300 fsb, your memory will only be at 200.

with the P4 and asus p4c800, i suggest doing this. leave the ratio at 1:1, and up the fsb/memory until it craps out. most likely, it is your ram crapping out, and you know the maximum of your ram now. then drop the ratio down to 3:2. up the fsb until it craps out. this is likely the max of your cpu. now you know the maximum of the cpu, and memory, so you can work from there.

well i'm sure you know about vcore voltages (for the cpu), so you must be asking about vdimm (voltage for memory). i don't **** around with that. i drop it in, and up the memory voltage as high as it can go (2.85 in your case) and leave it there.

hope that helps.

So for the AMD systems, is the idea of CPU/RAM ratio the same? I'm still confused on RAM timings and such. All I know is that mine is at cas 2.5:confused:

These are latency timings. In other words, how many delay cycles before a certain function occurs in memory.

The first number is always the CAS latency. The 1t on the end is almost always the command rate. The other numbers can vary for what they are, depending on who posts them, but usually the second number is the RAS to CAS dealy (Trcp) and the third is RAS latency. I can't remember right now what that fourth number is.

If you want some really good information on BIOS settings, including the memory timing information, check out this site.

http://www.rojakpot.com/default.aspx?location=1

Click the link on the left side of the page for the BIOS optimization guide, then start scrolling.

Thx for the great bit of information...im gonna read over that stuff and see what it has to say. I have a better understanding now, so when i ordedr my stuff in a couple of weeks(when prices come down a bit), ill be back here to ask u guys what else i should do im sure. Im goin to try what u suggested deeznuts. I hope i can get this p4 over 3Ghz if i get a 2.4ghz.

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ok you already know about FSB and multipliers, which is good. one more variable you have to learn about is ratios. specifically, FSB/memory ratios. before this, the fsb and memory speed were 1:1, meaning for every FSB you increase, a corresponding increase in memory speed accompanied. so with say, an athlon 133 fsb, when you bumped up the FSB to 150, the memory was also now at 150.

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I've been trying to learn and read as much as i can about this stuff and the above quote has to be most helpful for me for explaining what the ratios are all about. thanks.

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with P4's, we are introduced to ratios. basically, you can choose 1:1 ratio, so with fsb at 200, memory is also at 200. but these chips overclock like crazy, so some are hitting 275-300 fsb. no memory i know of that can hit that, so you enter into a 5:4 ratio. thhe first number is the FSB, the second the memory. so, lets say we are at a 250 FSB. with a 5:4 ratio, the fsb will be 250, the memory will be only at 200. get it? there is also a 3:2 ratio, so at 300 fsb, your memory will only be at 200.

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And more good stuff for us noobs