Overclocking advice - I'M GOING CRAZY

[cube_]

Hey guys. After hours of reading overclocking forums and information i still haven't found a solution to what i'm trying to achieve.
I have an Asus Striker II Extreme motherboard with FSB speeds of 1600/1333, an Intel Core 2 Quad processor with an FSB speed of 1066, and 2x2GB Corsair DDR3 1066 memory.

This might sound naive of me, but i'm trying to achieve a 1:1 CPU:RAM ratio because i hear its what an overclocker should go for and i just can't seem to understand how this works. Each time i try to understand, more and more questions seem to f****** arrise:
1. is my CPU bottlenecking my motherboard or vice versa because of the different FSB speeds? (my cpu runs at 1066 when my motherboard runs at 1600/1333)
2. should all 3 items (mb, cpu, ram) run on the same bus speed (eg. 266mhz) to avoid any type of bottlenecking?
3. why does there need to be a 1:1 ration and what do these ratios mean?

Thanks

 

[DaRuSsIaMaN]

Hey so this is WAAYY late. But here's what I'm thinking. You have probably already figured everything out a long time ago, so let me know how it went and if my thoughts below are at all correct.

The way I understand is that the motherboard basically doesn't matter as long as it supports UP to the FSB speed that you want your processor to be at. Now, yes, I have also heard that it is good to have a 1:1 ratio of cpu to ram. This should not be a big deal as long as your memory and MoBo can go that high. You simply set the appropriate multipliers associated with your memory in the BIOS. So, you first set your cpu's FSB to what you want (to OC it), and then you just make sure that your RAM is set to run at the same speed. Every BIOS probably calls these things different names but in my BIOS i had settings which would adjust my RAM frequency. Of course you can also just put it to Auto, and it will probably find the correct setting for you. After everything is done, you can just run CPU-Z after you boot to windows. It actually has a little info in the Memory tab which says FSB : DRAM and displays a ratio. I'm pretty sure that's exactly what you're after: that it means your CPU FSB to RAM frequency ratio. Mine says 1:1 so all is well apparently.

Now, IF your MoBo or your RAM, or both, have FSB speeds that are lower than what you are setting your CPU to, then I guess you will have to overclock those components as well. That could lead to instability. Therefore, if you're going to up the FSB on your CPU, then I guess you should get faster RAM? I think. Or just try overclocking the ram too. However, you can, of course, overclock without touching the FSB but just increase the frequency multiplier or whatever it's called.

All this doesn't actually directly answer any of your 3 questions... However, about your question 1, I'm thinking that basically your CPU and RAM are just under performing compared to what your MoBo is designed to handle. But I don't think it will have any adverse effects; that is, if you put your CPU into a MoBo that is specifically 1066 speed, I think it will probably work exactly the same as it does for you now.

Alright, there, that's all I know. Let me know how your OC'ing adventure turned out.