Dual or single channel memory for overclockers?

[Vince604]

Dual channel motherboards will provide the better memory bandwidth but what about overclocking?
Is the overclocking potential the same? I am looking for a new mobo for my P4 and want the best overclocking board possible. Any suggestions?

 

[Quetzacoatl]

At the moment, the top end Pentium 4 chipsets between single channel and dual channel (i845pe versus Granitebay and Sis 655, as well as i850e) are relatively close, almost within 5 percent performance. Don't forget, the Pentium 4 is very heavily reliant on bandwidth, so the higher you can up your FSB, the more performance you'll get in the end. Overclocking wise? If I bought a pentium 4, i'd look into an i845pe motherboard, not as expensive as granitebay, but reliable and proven, as well as fast.

Instead of Rdram, why not just merge 4 Sdram channels...

 

[Vince604]

Exactly what I thought. So would I be able to overclock better in a single channel chipset? I'm looking for something that can hold up for awhile until the Prescott comes out and hoping prices will drop and DDR II to become the new memory standard.

 

[Civilized]

I have read that it will be quite some time before ddrII will become the memory standard.....dual channel will overclock just as good as single channel....for instance check out the overclocks that anandtech reached on the sis655 chipset (165mhz fsb+)....this equals the overclocks of the 845PE chipset....the granite bay is also a good overclocker....I think the sis will also support 800 fsb cpu's in the future if im not mistaken. I will look more into this.....for the money you cant go wrong with the 845PE...it offers outstanding performance and overclocking at a great price.

<font color=green>Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza<font color=green>

 

[Quetzacoatl]

yeah, a couple sites posted that the Sis 655 can do asynch Ddr 400, but i'm not sure about how well it will overclock on standard. Unforunately, most Sis chipsets, while stable, have a generally poor overclocking range. That's not to say some will do better than others, but I wouldn't rely on Sis strictly for ultra high end overclocks. I'd still look into the i845pe, I know it will do the 667mhz FSB when Intel validates that, and most likely will be able to overclock to 800mhz FSB as well. Performance wise, when overclocked, they'll be almost unnoticeable in mem performance

Instead of Rdram, why not just merge 4 Sdram channels...

 

[Vince604]

Okay. Well how about I give you guys a general idea what I'm looking for. I have an P4 1.8A cpu and want to push it to the max. I remember seeing xbitlabs having a review of 3 processors for overclocking and they were able to get a 1.8A up to 2.88Ghz using stock cooling and increasing the vcore to 1.65V.
So basically looking for something that can overclock ny 1.8A as much as possible yet at a resonable price.

 

[Quetzacoatl]

Then i'd get the Abit Be7-Raid or the Asus P4pe, both overclock tremendous, although the Abit boards are known to overclock like champs. I doubt they did that on stock cooling though, Xbit labs posts some erroneus data, and some of it even stolen! Still, it would be wise to invest in a good Pentium 4 heatsink like the Thermalright Ax478 or the Swiftech MCX 462-U

Instead of Rdram, why not just merge 4 Sdram channels...

 

[Vince604]

Alright I'll be getting the Be-7 Raid.
Eh I thought so. I mean a 60% overclock on stock cooling plus increased voltage? Is the Thermalright SLK-900 worth looking at?

 

[Quetzacoatl]

Yet another great heatsink, just expensive, but does great temperatures on high and low fans, I highly reccomend most heatsinks from Thermalright, the SLK-900 included

Instead of Rdram, why not just merge 4 Sdram channels...

 

[Civilized]

the best overclocking pe motherboard would be the Abit IT7-Max2 rev2 and the Albatron 845pe proIIS....I get this information from anandtechs reviews...they state that the p4pe was in the middle range of overclocking for the pe chipset although its overclocking features are nice...I personally own the Albatron motherboard and I can run ddr426 speeds at cas2-6-2-2 with pc3200 xms (160fsb)...thats a hella overclock if you ask me...I can post wcpuid pics if ya want proof ....I am adding a water cooling system mod at the end of the week so I am very excited about my new boundaries

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.html?i=1771" target="_new">Abit IT7max Review</A>

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.html?i=1723" target="_new">Asus,Albatron(the trimmed down version),Gigabyte</A>

<font color=green>Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza<font color=green><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by civilized on 02/19/03 03:45 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Vince604]

Yeah I konw the Abit IT7-2 Max2 rev2 was the best in overclocking but how about the performance in terms in chipsets? I mean I saw the reviews but in the Gigabyte SINXP1394 review it seems to perform better then the Abit IT7-Max2 rev2. Plus it's cheaper also.

Well say I get a dual channel motherboard and I don't take advantage of the dual configuration, will performance suffer dramatically?