Avoiding a bottleneck w/ 2000 Mhz DDR3

[Frosty]

I've been out of the overclocking world for a while so I'm trying to get re-educated.

So I'm planning on building a system based on the E8600. I'm putting it in a EVGA 132-YW-E180-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 790i that can run a memory clock of 2000 Mhz. The CPU however has a stock FSB of only 1333 Mhz. I plan on trying to reach 1600 Mhz FSB at least with a water cooling setup.

My question is, is it worth it to buy 2000 Mhz rated ram if my FSB is only 1600 Mhz. Wouldn't that cause a bottleneck?

Is there a point in running a memory clock that is faster than the FSB?

1600 Mhz DDR3 RAM is half the price of 2000 Mhz and if the performance gain will be eaten by the CPU bottleneck their would be no point.

As a reference, here is the list of comps I'm planning on getting:

Case: Thermaltake Mozart TX w/ 240mm Radiator CPU loop

PSU: BFG Tech ES SERIES ES-800 800W (2x 36A 12v rails)

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 Wolfdale 3.33GHz LGA 775

Mobo: EVGA 132-YW-E180-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 790i

Video: MSI N280GTX-T2D1G OC GeForce GTX 280 1GB

Memory: G.SKILL GT1 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1800

HDD: Western Digital VelociRaptor WD1500HLFS 150GB 10000 RPM

Optical: LG Black 6X Blu-ray DVD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 40X CD-ROM

Tuner: Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 1800 MCE Kit

 

[FarFarAway]

Well as you'll see from some of the memory reviews, there is a slight bonus from running the memory higher and frankly running it out of synch on Intel 775 is the norm. Is it worth the extra ££'s?? That's your own personal decision, but to me, having 4GB+ RAM and Vista 64 is excellent

 

[Rastalovich]

If u r planning on running 1 gfxcard, and are concerned in anyway about the components at any level effecting each other, I would seriously think of switching to I35/38/45/48 tbh.

If ofc ur thinking of adding another card in the future, then u have other considerations.

 

[JN]

Personally I'd go for the 1600mhz stuff. Most of it will do 2000mhz if neccesary anyway, but from what I've seen and tested there is hardly/no real world difference once you start passing 1600mhz. Its only any good for the benchmarks.

 

[rrjwilson]

I have some Super Talent 2000MHz DDR3 and some OCZ 1333MHz DDR3 for my rig. I also have a Q6600 and SLI 8800GTXs.

At 2.4GHz I cannot use the 2GHz RAM as the FSB isnt fast enough for the BIOS to allow me to even boot.

With 3GHz I can use both sets of RAM and get only 5% difference (depending on GFX settings) in 3DM06.

With 4GHz I get 7% difference between memory and better stability with the 2GHz set. 4GHz, 2GHz, tweaked SLI nets me 19568 so far. Where as 2.4GHz, 1333MHz, norm SLi gets ~13.5k.

From my results you can take two things away.

1. Memory is not the bottleneck but can help slightly.

2. Motherboard manufacturers need to WISE UP and stop making one memory controller for multicore systems as this causes a bottleneck for the system as a whole.

 

[WC Annihilus]

Nvidia chipsets actually have this handy ability to unlink the memory speed from the FSB. Just make sure to set the mode to unlinked, and then you can enter in whatever speed you want. The motherboard will do some funky divider calculations for you and get as close to that speed as possible. So you would be able to run the higher speed RAM at pretty close or at the rated settings

 

[rrjwilson]

Oh and I forgot to say a damn fine motherboard is the real must. Get a crap one and you won't be very successful overclocking. Asus Striker II extreme is out of mosts budget but i can't find a single thing that would make me choose another board. If only i had enough to get a custom connector colour board

 

[GavX]

Hate to sound like a salesmen but why not try for a Core i7? Yeah the RAM doesn't allow that great a speed, but those things can be brutal overclockers, can get DDR3 up to about 1600Mhz? and 8 threads baby!

Seems a little odd to go for a wolfdale with nelaham out, and not costing "too" much