I have some memory in my Asus P6X58D-E board, which has the part number KHX-1600C9D3K3/6GX. Looking at the part number, and knowing what I believed I was purchasing from NewEgg, this should be 1600 (PC12800?) DRAM, is that correct? (I see a part number reference decoder at http://www.kingston.com/HyperX/Products/decoder.aspI have yet to start over-clocking my i7-950. Just currently looking at CPU-Z and BIOS settings to figure out how I will do this (and I do need to get an after-market cooler first for the CPU). At default 133MHz BCLK, I see on the "Memory" tab of CPU-Z a DRAM frequency of 534 MHz, 1T 8-8-8-20. On the SPD tab (where as I understand it, CPU-Z gets data from the actual DRAM), I see JEDEC #2-3-4 as 533-609-685 MHz, and XMP-1600 as 800 MHz. Am I correct in assuming that I can increase BCLK to OC the CPU and be able to easily OC the DRAM also (as long as I make the relevant voltage adjustments)?What confuses me though, in BIOS on the Ai Tweaker tab, is the "target CPU frequency" of 3.059 GHz (no surprises there), and "Target DRAM Frequency" of 1066MHz. I'm not sure if BIOS believes that this is 1066 DRAM, or what? can anyone help me understand this?Thanks, Bruce.

It's just that, your board defaults RAM's multi at 1:4. With a 133MHz BCLK at stock (4 x 133Mhz = 533MHz) your RAM is set to 1066MHz (533MHz x 2 because it's Double Data Rate = DDR)In my former P55 board I had 3 multies available: 4, 5, 6:4 x 133Mhz = 533MHz -> 1066MHz5 x 133Mhz = 666MHz -> 1333MHz6 x 133Mhz = 800MHz -> 1600MHzWhen you overclock and set your BCLK to say 200MHz you can run your RAM faster than 1600MHz with the same multipliers

Thanks dazz, still getting familiar with this stuff.Much appreciated, Bruce

Ram may not overclock just like that. Usually you have to increase the latency figures ("losen the timings"). Your ram has a CL of 9, that's a tad on the slow side. So, if you want to go higher than the specified 1600 MHz, you'll have to tamper with timings. Going above the recommended voltage may damage the ram. I used to fit some high riser heatsinks to some 1333 ram, ran auto voltage and got them to 1600 with stock timings, but I think I was lucky ;)Also, set the ram timings and voltage manually in BIOS, don't auto them. Auto voltages tend to be a bit on the high side. Bjorn

Ram may not overclock just like that. Usually you have to increase the latency figures ("losen the timings"). Your ram has a CL of 9, that's a tad on the slow side. So, if you want to go higher than the specified 1600 MHz, you'll have to tamper with timings. Going above the recommended voltage may damage the ram. I used to fit some high riser heatsinks to some 1333 ram, ran auto voltage and got them to 1600 with stock timings, but I think I was lucky ;)Also, set the ram timings and voltage manually in BIOS, don't auto them. Auto voltages tend to be a bit on the high side. Bjorn

You're right, OCing the RAM at the expense of loosening timmings yields no benefits. RAM overclock has very little impact in overall performance anyway so I would stick to stock clocks and timings for a 1600MHz CL8.I was only pointing out that the available RAM clock bins will vary depending on what your BCLK speed is

What confuses me though, in BIOS on the Ai Tweaker tab, is the "target CPU frequency" of 3.059 GHz (no surprises there), and "Target DRAM Frequency" of 1066MHz. I'm not sure if BIOS believes that this is 1066 DRAM, or what? can anyone help me understand this?Thanks, Bruce.

Like Dazz said the targets that your BIOS is showing is what your defaults are currently set to. If you change your BCLK up/down you will see these change up/down.Here are links to a couple of i7 9XX OC guides that will explain a lot. Both are for Asus P6T boards, but the BIOS is close to your P6X58D-E.http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?board_id=1&model=P6T+Deluxe&id=20081220191040237&page=1&SLanguage=en-ushttp://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/overclocking/22106-core-i7-overclocking-guide-beginners.html

Like Dazz said the targets that your BIOS is showing is what your defaults are currently set to. If you change your BCLK up/down you will see these change up/down.Here are links to a couple of i7 9XX OC guides that will explain a lot. Both are for Asus P6T boards, but the BIOS is close to your P6X58D-E.http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?board_id=1&model=P6T+Deluxe&id=20081220191040237&page=1&SLanguage=en-ushttp://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/overclocking/22106-core-i7-overclocking-guide-beginners.html

Thanks everyone for the informative replies. I assume, reading your responses, that if I increase BCLK (to OC the CPU), that given that the RAM can operate at 1600 then I don;t have to scale back the RAM clock, there is room for a higher RAM clock, albeit at the expense of timing settings (the SPD table shows 1.5V as core voltage for this DRAM up until the XMP-1600 setting, so for clocks less than that I assume that voltage doesn't need to be tweaked). As previously mentioned, I have yet to get a decent cooler on top of this 17 so most of this is just my inquisitiveness for the moment :)Thanks again, Bruce.

You can feed 1.65V to your RAM no problem. That's what it's rated at 1600MHz right?

You can feed 1.65V to your RAM no problem. That's what it's rated at 1600MHz right?

Yes, correct. I had looked around for an answer to this question on the 'net first, and read a lot about failed memory when I googled this part number, so I'm a little hesitant about pushing it too far in case the RAM doesn;t work.Thanks, Bruce.