Overclocking with Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L

[antemon]

here's the page for the board
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ClassValue=Motherboard&ProductID=2615&ProductName=GA-P31-DS3L

I'm a total noob so please bear with me here.

1. 4 x 1.8V DDR2 DIMM sockets supporting up to 4 GB of system memory (Note 1)
2. Dual channel memory architecture
3. Support for DDR2 1066(O.C.)/800/667 MHz memory modules (Note 2)

* Because of chipset limitations, do not populate both DIMM sockets of the same channel (e.g. DDRII1 and DDRII2), or populate 4 DIMM sockets with double-sided memory modules to prevent system's failure to start or incorrect detection of memory modules. Please refer to the user manual for the memory configurations table.

* Because of chipset limitations, when using FSB 1333 MHz CPU with populating all DIMM sockets, memory frequency will be reduced from the original, and system instability or incorrect detection of memory module may be occur. Please refer "Memory Support List" for memory support information.

(Note 1)Based on standard PC architecture, a certain amount of memory is reserved for system usage and therefore the actual memory size is less than the stated amount. For example, 4 GB of memory size will instead be shown as 3.xx GB during system startup.
(Note 2)Some memory configurations will result in memory frequency being reduced from the original frequency.

(these are all dual channels)
■Is there a significant boost in performance between a 2GB DDR2 1066 and a 2GBDDR2 800?
■the place/s I'm going to be buying this rig, It's cheaper to get a 4GB DDR2 800 than a 2GB DDR2 1066. Which would be more optimal?
■would it be better, to slap in a 4GB stick or two 2GB sticks? (or four 1GB stick)

 

[RJR]

All it is saying is to populate only two of the same colored slots (1,3 or 2,4) for the least chance of any problems.

Yes you want to use two sticks.

800 vs 1066 will depend on the processor and if you are going to OC or not.
Example, if you are using a E8400,E8500 processor that you are going to OC to 4.5 Ghz you will be raising your FSB above 400 so you would be better off with the 1066. If you are going to run it stock or with a FSB of less than 400 the 800 would be fine. You wouldn't notice to much performance difference between the two.

 

[antemon]

I would be using an e5200, and according to the 625USD gaming PC article, it OCed stable at less than 4GHz., bus speed at 339 ( http://www.tomshardware.com/gallery/E5200-OC-CPUZ,0101-178268-0-2-3-1-jpg-.html )

so... DDR2 800, correct?

 

[RJR]

Yep, it's got a 12.5X multiplier so DDR2-800 would be fine.

 

[antemon]

Thank you so much RJR

 

[RJR]

Your welcome.

 

[andyKCIUK]

I've got the same board. It's not good for overclocking due to PCIE freq limitations. You may want to read this thread:

click me

You'll be fine as long as you set your FSB to 350Mhz or lower, anything more than that can cause damage to your graphics card and/or SATA drives.