Should I match RAM speed to FSB, or go for max speed?

[Soulburner]

I recommending overclocking by FSB rather than multiplier...you will get much better performance...

For example:

200x11=2200

Is faster than

183x12=2200

[Darthtanion]

I recommending overclocking by FSB rather than multiplier...you will get much better performance...

For example:

200x11=2200

Is faster than

183x12=2200

I'm afraid that this depends on the mainboard. Let us consider a modern motherboard (one that supports a 200MHz FSB as you give for an example). Now lets look at a couple of scenerios...

* 200x11 - When a modern board gets set to this speed, it also adjusts the clock ratio so that all peripherals are running at no faster than default speeds. This means that your PCI ported peripherals are running at exactly a 33.3 MHz and the AGP card is running at exactly 66.6 MHz. This means that the only components performing at the higher level of performance are the memory and the processor.

* 183x12 - At this setting you will find that the peripherals will be running at a higher level of performance along with the memory and processor. This can often aid in overall benchmark results and even give a noticeable boost while running different applications. Of course, the quality of the peripherals will play a large part in regards to whether you will be successful with this type of overclocking.

This is why I have always stated that there are no guarantees when it comes to playing with speed. There are simply too many factors to say what will work best on any given system... it just takes some patience and common sense.