Underclocking RAM?

All right I've read some articles, reviews, etc. and have a basic knowledge
of how to overclock my Pentium 4 Northwood 2.4GHz processor. If I were to
increase the system bus from, for example, 133MHz to 143MHz, I would get a
performance increase of 180MHz on my CPU, right? Unfortunately, my PC3200
(DDR400) RAM would then be overclocked to 428MHz (or something like that;
that's what my BIOS reports). Because this would cause stability problems,
people invented RAM dividers. Now my question. Some motherboards
automatically set the dividers, for example, if the divider is 1/2 at 100,
and 1/3 at 133, then everything from 100-132 would be 1/2. My motherboard,
however, enables me to set the clock to a bunch of different settings (I
figure that they're the dividers, but already calculated out for me).
Unfortunately, there's no setting allowing me to set it to 400MHz.
Therefore, would the only disadvantage to underclocking the RAM to, say,
380MHz, be decreased performace, or is there a real reason for me to keep it
at 400MHz until I reach the next divider setting?

Thanks for any help
-- MiniDisc_2k2
To reply via e-mail, replace nospam.com with cox dot net.

You are correct. The multiplier on your processor is 18, so increasing FSB
from 133 to 143 would give you and 18*10 increase or 180 Mhz. To find out
what's going on with your memory, download CPU-Z, then you can easily
determine the actual speed of your memory for any given BIOS setting and
thus determine what divider goes with what setting. Chances are, the top
memory speed setting on your motherboard is a 1:1 divider. At FSB 133, your
memory is running at spec for PC2100 at 1:1. At 143 Mhz, your memory will
be running at 286 Mhz, which is way below spec for PC3200. You could
theoretically increase FSB to 200 with a 1:1 divider before you get to
PC3200 spec. Chances are your processor won't go that high. The processor
limit is probably more in the range of 160 - 170.

The short answer to your question is: Set the FSB to 143, set the memory to
the fastest setting your BIOS allows, then test to see what happens. I'm
betting everything will work fine.

Hope this helps.





"MiniDisc_2k2" <> wrote in message
news:gXrLa.33814$...
> All right I've read some articles, reviews, etc. and have a basic
knowledge
> of how to overclock my Pentium 4 Northwood 2.4GHz processor. If I were to
> increase the system bus from, for example, 133MHz to 143MHz, I would get a
> performance increase of 180MHz on my CPU, right? Unfortunately, my PC3200
> (DDR400) RAM would then be overclocked to 428MHz (or something like that;
> that's what my BIOS reports). Because this would cause stability problems,
> people invented RAM dividers. Now my question. Some motherboards
> automatically set the dividers, for example, if the divider is 1/2 at 100,
> and 1/3 at 133, then everything from 100-132 would be 1/2. My motherboard,
> however, enables me to set the clock to a bunch of different settings (I
> figure that they're the dividers, but already calculated out for me).
> Unfortunately, there's no setting allowing me to set it to 400MHz.
> Therefore, would the only disadvantage to underclocking the RAM to, say,
> 380MHz, be decreased performace, or is there a real reason for me to keep
it
> at 400MHz until I reach the next divider setting?
>
> Thanks for any help
> -- MiniDisc_2k2
> To reply via e-mail, replace nospam.com with cox dot net.
>
>