I am not very familiar with overclocking, but i can tell you
generally how it works:
FOr overclocking, you first need to know how the CPU speed
works
A ore 2 quad Q9450 is 2.66 ghz
CPU speed is determined by the amount of fsb (front side bus) x
multiplier
333mhz x 8 =2664mhz
NOrmal cpus like mine, dont have unlocked multiplier, you can onli
increase the fsb value.
Stock is 333x8=2664
In overclocking, u increase the fsb up to match the desired speed
you want
Let fsb be y,
y x 8 = desired speed
thus, to get y, you take your desired speed and divide by 8, to the
the fsb.
or u just use a calculator and do some simple multiplication, like
333x8, 380x8...etc
Eg, my own Q9450 is now at 3340mhz, or 3.34ghz. so that means
around 416 x 8.
NOTE: MULTIPLIER DIFFERS FROM CPU TO CPU
Normally people adjust the fsb in the bios, however, every
motherboard is different, that means the place for you to adjust
the fsb is different. Some people use programs like
ntune...etc
I heard that ready made computers like dell, acer, dun allow
overclocking, they block off the feature on the mainboard.
ok back to overclocking:
When i just started overclocking, i was told to leave the voltages
vcore, nb voltage aside first, cos increasing them means more
headroom for your speed to go up, but it also means more heat,
more chance to fry your processor
To prevent overheting, you need a 3rdparty CPU cooler, or if you
are more extreme, you can do watercooling
Also when you are bringing up the fsb speed, you will realise that
the fsb of your ram, will increase. Lets say you are using a 800mhz
ram, when u increase the fsb of ur cpu, the fsb of the ram will
increase. The good thing about this is that the faster the better,
but the timing (or some call it lantency) will increase.
Timing means the delay in the time in which data is
passed from each ram to each ram, and the timing for the data
to pass from the first row to the next column.
If you look at your rams, there will be numbers like 5-5-5-18. that
is the timing actually there will be another number called the
command rate. for ddr2s, they are mostly 2T.
so 5-5-5-18, what are those?( i dunno exactly as well, but i will
try to explain)
The first digit from the left, is called the COlumn Access Strobe,
or they might call it column access select. It means the time
taken, for the ram to take the information and work, when it moves
from columns to colums
The 2nd digit from the left, is called tRCD(i duno why and wad it
stands for). This is the delay from row access strobe(RAS) to the
1st digit, which is the CAS. thisis something about the ram finding
data from the row to column i guess...
The 3rd digit is tRP. This is quite the same as the time for the
ram to move from row to row or columns
The 4th digit is the time between the memory receiving the
information, and making use of it.
The 2t thingy, please read here:
http://www.pcstats.com/NewsViewArch.cfm?NewsID=51962
Thus, the full spec of the ram will be like 800mhz @
5-5-5-12-2T
When you overclock, you try to keep the timing as low as
possible. my rams are at 4-4-4-12-2T at 800+ mhz
And i was told that the more physical rams you have on the
mobo, the more stress you give the northbridge. that means if you
have 2 sticks of 2gb vs 4 sticks of 1gb, the one with 4sticks of
1gb will cause more stress to the northbridge. And whem
overclocking, you might need to increase the voltage of the north
bridge