well in my manual for the mobo, it says i can access the cpu ratio if i have an unlocked cpu, what does this mean, i can see it so my cpu must be locked, can i unlock it, its a 2.8 northwood, on a asus p4p800se
bugger, does this mean i cant set up a memory divider, cos ive come to the conclusion the the memory is limiting my OCing, cos i can oc more as its still low temp
you can still set up a memory divider if your motherboard has one. it is not dependant on the CPU's multiplier.
the multiplier just takes the FSB/HTT and multiplies it to get the core speed of the CPU.
for example a 200HTT and 10 multiplier gives you a 2000MHZ core speed.
a locked multipier only affects the multiplier itself, not the HTT. it just means you cannot, for example, keep the HTT at 200 and up the multiplier to 13 to get a 2600MHZ core.
you can increase your HTT to 260MHZ to get the same core speed though.
apokalipse has summed it up. on some older cpu's in particular AMD's duron the multiplier could be unlocked with a physical modification to the processor. now days though the only cpu's with unlocked multipliers are the Athlon FX series which will cost $1k+