Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6
revision 2.0

Overclocking.......

     Overclocking is as much about patience and luck, as it is skill and knowledge. There are so many resources at the enthusiasts disposal with internet forums alone, that finding the right hardware and BIOS setup combinations can take only a few minutes browsing time. But finding the maximum overclock for any given system requires patience! There will be a LOT of restarts and crashes which can trash an operating system install and require the whole desktop to be reloaded. It is best to think of overclocking as a hobby - not a way of running your computer. Once a stable overclock is found, sure - you probably will have a setup that can run 24/7 for many years to come. With that said - into the BIOS I went.

     My first order of business was to see what that HIGH SPEED DRAM DLL option was all about. So, I kept the CPU FSB at its 266 default and moved the memory multiplier all the way to 4.0+ which gives the system a 1066 memory speed. bus. Sure enough, the first attempt to boot the system failed. At the moment of OS boot/load, the system locked-up after attempting the boot drive sequence. Since this was after the Power On Self Test, the motherboards built-in routine for crash recover was unable to help. Fortunately for us, that's what reset buttons were made for. Round two into the BIOS, and I switch the HIGH SPEED DRAM DLL setting to Option 2.

     PowerOn, POST, Boot, Desktop - SUCCESS. Here's a CPUZ screen shot that shows the DRAM with its 533 bus speed. That equals out to a DDR bus speed of 1066. But is it stable?

     Sandra was able to complete a memory bandwidth test and report back its findings. Even though they are a little bit on the disappointing side, at least the system was able to boot. So my guess, the OPTION 1 and OPTION 2 differences probably have something to do with additional latency. Since there is such a large difference in bus speed but not such a big difference in bandwidth potential, latency is the easiest thing to blame.

     Option 2 was also stable enough to whip off a 3D Mark 06 run, but the results are far from stellar. In fact, the difference is hardly negligible. So, if you're thought is to buy some 1000Mhz DDR2 to use with a default CPU clock speed - save your money.

     My choice to use the Corsair Dominator is based solely on its clock speed potential. In order to achive a maximum overclock, the system memory bus will be set at 2.0 for a 1:1 ratio. To make sure that the RAM is not the limiting factor, a set of Corsair Twin2X2048-9136C5D Dominator will be used, which should allow a Front Side Bus of 571Mhz before becoming a liability. From personal experience, I know the CPU will bottom out WELL before that.

     The first order of business was to try and hit a 500Mhz FSB so, 500Mhz was selected as the CPU FSB, a 1.6Volt Vcore, and maximum over voltage applied to the North Bridge and FSB Over volt options. This was done to ensure there would be no bottlenecks. To help that along, I lowered the CPU multiplier to 6 which should yield a very achievable overclock of 3000Mhz for this CPU. Round one of this test locked up before POST, so I re-entered the BIOS and selected OPTION 2 for the HIGH SPEED DRAM DLL. The next boot - reached the desktop. So it is appart that there are significant differences between OPTION 1 and OPTION 2. Let's see how things look now.........