Firstly this is the ram i am running: http://overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-072-OC First question is: Should the bios autodetect the settings of the ram? im using a gigabyte s3 mobo and its being shown as timings of 5 5 5 15. The site says 4 4 4 15 (as well as many others). Which is going to be right? as i can easily change them in bios when im overclocking. Secondly.. Can someone explain to me the timings, ive read a few pages about them and to be honest.. they dont do a good job of explaining it gets really far too technical to concentrate. Also how does loosening timings help? Would loosening mean changing numbers higher? or lower? which is better?
Motherboards default ram to 5-5-5-15, you usually have to manually set the timings of the ram to 4-4-4-15. I don't know what all the timings mean though.
Bios will autodetect the SPD settings of the ram. These are pretty much always looser than the rated timings (ie 4,4,4,x in your case) You'll need to manually set them in bios. Possibly need a voltage boost to get things stable. Should be ok though. Loosening timings means you can push the ram/FSB further (putting things REALLY simply) . Loosening means making the numbers higher. Best is the quickest combination of the 2. There's an optimum point between loose/tight timings and FSB. This'll vary from mobo to mobo and ram to ram.
What your going to want to do is run a benchmark with a default FSB to establish a baseline. Then overclock it until you hit a wall with best timings. Then start loosening timings. Benchmark at every step so that you know how one setting compares to another. Find the best combination of looser timings, and FSB speed, and leave them there.
