950Mhz or 1081Mhz?? - My Q9550 finetune
 

Right. So I tried to hit 4Ghz on the thing, & I didnt quite make it but i think my ram was the issue. soo....... after I underclocked my ram to the nearest setting possible to 1066Mhz which my ram is rated to run at, it booted into windows just fine at 4.2Ghz... I didnt do a testing just yet but I wanted to know if there would be any major performance hit with underclocking my ram to 941mhz (ddr2) instead of the previous clock @ 1081Mhz which I ran with my cpu clocked to 3.84Ghz.

Im quite happy to plod along at 3.84Ghz, but I want MOAR!! & yes i know how to overclock but there are things I still dont know.

Run them at 950 with tighter timings and adjust the voltage if necessary. You could always run the ram overclocked and just up the voltage too.

the ram is already overclocked. its gone from 1066-1081. next step up is 11xx & it wont boot even at 2.3v

Then I would see what you can do at 950mhz. Hopefully you can run them cas 4. If not 5 4-4-12 should be obtainable.

Even if you can't get tighter timings, 4.2GHz w/ 951Mhz ram is still much faster than 3.84Ghz with 1081 ram.

thanks, I'l see what I can do!! would the underclocked ram require less voltage or more to do tighter timings?

Have to experiment, but it would likely need a good bit more to get CAS4 out of them at those speeds. If you can't get CAS 4, just go for the timings erocker suggested at stock voltage, and see if that works.

Right, in which case - throw me some timings i can try out, Im a complete novice when it comes to ram tweaking. thanks

Probablly more. All sticks are different, so it's find a setting and test for stability. But like Wile E said, using your 1066 timings for 950mhz won't be any kind of a bad performance hit or anything.

Go for 4-4-4-12 first.

If not, try 4-5-5-15

then 5-4-4-12.

And if all else fails, go back to 5-5-5-15, and just run on lower voltage.

thanks, I'l play around & see what i can come up with. see you in about an hour or so :P

well....After trying out the times with the ram underclocked. & the processor starting at 4.2Ghz it wouldnt pass OCCT stress test. It wouldnt even stablise at 3.96Ghz at 1.4v & any lower then that would be a total waste.

so heres the low down - Ram wouldnt run stable at tighter timings even though I had increased voltage to 2.3v, Cpu wouldnt run stable despite 1.4v being pumped through it.

It just doesnt want to do it. I need more voltage on the NB perhaps??? who knows. I'l be sticking with 3.84Ghz for the time being with ram clocked at 1081