Hey guys, i seem to recall that having all 6 DIMMs populated on X58 doesn't lend itself to overclocking as much as 3. Is there some truth to that or am i imagining things? Basically i'm wondering if i'd be able to run my 6x2gb sticks at their rated 1600Mhz. Also, while i'm here, could i get a link to a good X58 overclocking guide by any chance? Thanks!
From what I can recall, the more memory/overclock/XMP etc the harder the Memory Controller has to work and it may not like Overclocking so many sticks of RAM. Though it should be able to do the speeds it is rated for. But overclocking past 1600mhz maybe not. I know that my P8P67 won't allow me to run my RAM faster than 1866mhz which is what the RAM is rated for in the first place.
MrDomRocks is right - it all depends on the IMC of your CPU and how much volts it'll need to get 12GB of RAM stable. My 970 has a pretty sucky IMC and it wants more than 1.4v VTT for "only" 1600MHz, so I'm currently using 6GB at 1344MHz 9-9-9 and I don't notice any difference in system responsiveness so I'll see if I can get the rest of my memory to co-operate at that speed. As for overclocking X58, it's p!ss easy as long as you have a good board and good RAM (which you do). you won't be able to run your memory at 1600MHz unless you aim for 200 BCLK though.
CPU needs to be 1.5x IMC frequency iirc (32nm was 2.0x, meaning IMC could run slower). 6 DIMM is a bitch to OC on 45nm Nehalem over 1333. You might not even get over 1066 without matched DIMMs. On a good board you can run each channel independently (although not on voltage) but it won't OC like that. To run at 1600 you'll also have to play with the mem-timings likely - I would guess make the 'round trip latency' longer, but it's been years since I did X58 mem tweaking. I'd try dropping the timings rather than running more bandwidth tbh. Leave it at 1333.
