looking for tweaks

i think you're getting the wrong idea on the ram and processor. Many people do believe that it is best to have the memory at a 1:1 ratio with the processor. so onto the explaining...

all intel core 2s are quad pumped so the q6600 actually has a bus of 266.5mhz (266.5 x 4 = 1066)

the q6600 has a locked multiplier of 9. With the bus and multiplier, you get the processor speed (266.5mhz x 9 = 2.4ghz)

DDR memory is duo pumped so PC6400 (800mhz) ram is 800mhz / 2 = 400mhz.

to overclock a q6600, you need to change the bus since the multiplier can't be changed.

To achieve a speed of 3.2ghz on a Q6600, you would have to raise the processor bus to 355mhz (355mhz x 9 = 3.2ghz). So it would make much more sense to have PC6400 underclocked for a 1:1 ratio instead of PC8500.

To achieve a 1:1 ratio with the q6600 and pc6400 ram, you need to underclock the ram to 355mhz or overclock the processor to 3.6ghz.

Getting faster ram does give you headroom for overclocking and to upgrade to a 1600mhz fsb processor in the future. But some people do argue that ram faster than intel's processor bus is completely pointless.


Edited by skyR - 05 Jan 2008 at 5:29pm