Insight needed before first OC adventure

[NiXHeX]

Hello everyone!

I am new to these boards, and with that said I am serious about entering into my first overclocking adventure. I am still researching the proper tools I need to monitor performance and methods of performing the actual OC, but I wanted to see what people thought of the potential with my system, my heatsink/fan, and my current temps.

Here is a list of the hardware I will be working with:
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3PP
CPU: AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz 3 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Black
Memory: 8gig (4x2gig) Gskill DDR3 1333 Model F3-10666CL7D-4GBPI - R
GPU: EVGA 512-P3-N871-AR GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB 256-bit GDDR3
PSU: OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ600MXSP 600W ATX12V V2.2
Case: Coolermaster Cosmos 1000

Heatsink questions
First, does anyone have any thoughts on the 3D Rocket II from Gigabyte? I already have this HSF and here are my temps using a Cosmos 1000 case with no modifications, running WoW with full settings running around heavy traffic area, COD4 idle at main menu minimized , winamp, and firefox running on Windows 7 RC71000 64bit *edit: When i click the picture it keeps showing the file i removed showing cores @ 33 degrees, but it was 39 degrees with this stuff running*

After reading some stuff regarding heatsink airflow I am not sure if this HSF will be appropriate (i'll be honest here, I mostly bought it to temporarily beef up an old system and I thought cooling was an issue plus it looked cool ). It appears to have 1 fan under the heatsink that blows down to the CPU while the fan at the top blows upward. So what I understand is the bottom fan sucks air across the heatsink onto the CPU while the top fan blows away the air.

From what I have read, I have come to understanding that I want the fan to be between the source of air and the heatsink(blowing air through the heatsink). Is this correct? If so I'm a bit weary using this with any amount of overclocking.

RAM Questions

Ok now I'd like to move onto my ram. I am currently getting 9-9-9-24 timings, but it is advertised at 7-7-7-18. After reading some reviews people have mentioned having to manualy change voltage to 1.65 to achieve those timings. However, I have been hesitant doing that as I am still new to this.

Taken right from my motherboard support specs "4 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 16 GB of system memory". Would changing the voltage to 1.65 be a bad idea? Also, is the VIN1 voltage of 1.62 on Hardware monitor what my ram is currently running at? I believe thats what the bios showed the memory at.

I know this was a big post and alot of information, but I am mostly just looking for feedback as to whether or not its safe to do some of this with the ram and OC'ing the cpu with current cooling.

Thanks for your time and if any more information is needed I will do my best to provide it

- Kyle

[CH@NO]

ok, hope I understood you...

The Gigabyte cooler that you showed It's the first time I see it, very unusual shape, If it improves the cooling vs stock then keep it, according to AMD that CPU of yours can take up to 73C, so if you keep it under 65C (preferably 60C) you'll be fine.

About the RAM, mobo's tend to relax timmings with default settings in the BIOS, so if your DDR3 sticks are rated at X timmings using X voltage you should try it, most of the time they don't lie and the RAM sticks can work with the rated speeds without probs.

Cheers.

[NiXHeX]

thanks for the info, really appreciate it. I have already started with the cpu. I bumped the multiplier up a few to get it to 3.3ghz and under full load it was reading 45c. I actualy made the mistake of falling asleep while doing these tests and when I woke up a few hours later it was still flying along.

I cannot wait to play with this a little more and even unlock the 4th core which i have been reading about doing.

[Hayder_Master]

about your ram i see it is high latency there so set it up at 7-7-7-21 and leave the voltage on auto

[Mussels]

the reason your ram is running at the slow timings is because boards cant automatically raise the voltage.

Set the voltage and timings manually, and it will be fine. Thats what they're rated for after all.