Question Regarding RAM & Overclocking

[Octavious]

I wasn't sure if I should post this on the thread I made concerning i7 CPU Cooling, so I just made a seperate post. Feel free to merge topics if it's nessecary, I don't mean to be a topic whore.

To begin, I've mentioned I planned on overclocking my i7 from around 2.66 GHz to a modest 3.4 GHz (i've read with a good air cooler I could go as high as 4.0 GHz, but I just want to out-do the stock XE i7). Basically, I've been reading that since the i7 has the memory controller on the chip, it limits what I can push my RAM to when overclocking.

I'm wondering if I should stick with the RAM I plan on purchasing (1866 Mhz DDR3 Corsair) or go lower to 1600 MHz. I understand that I can still push the 1600 upwards of 1800 while overclocking, but i'm looking to best utilize the cost per efficiency of my memory. IE: I don't want to spend the extra money on higher rated RAM if I will be limited by the controller on the CPU.

I know someone on here mentioned they were dealing with an i7 lately, so if you could help that would be great. Even if you haven't dealt with the i7 directly, I still appreciate any good information regarding the topic. I'll be building everything in a week or so when the parts arrive, so I plan on ordering the memory & hdd later this week. Thanks in advance for any help guys, (*'-')b it's always interesting to see what information gets posted.

[Tythera]

Somewhat related while we're on the topic of memory. Would it be better to run RAM (1:1, 1443 MHz) at the rated timings or use a divider and up the voltage/slack on the timings to get it to 1600 MHz?

I guess I should probably just run memory tests when I get home from work but I figured someone here might know the answer.

[Cephius]

It's better stability-wise to run RAM at a locked 1:1 ratio. Then lower the timings and test. Once that's stable, unlock the ratio and try bumping up the speed if you want to.

[Amastacia]

Running RAM faster than FSB doesn't really buy you a whole lot.

If you can't run 1:1 and match FSB speed, use a divider. If you can run 1:1 and match FSB, run 1:1.

As for the 1866 vs 1600 from OP, I don't see why 1600 would be a problem, you're not going to be exceeding 1600 rated FSB at 3.4GHz. If you want to go much past 3.6 with normal Intel multipliers, you might want to at least think about RAM guaranteed to work at higher clock rates.