OCZ 2x1gb DDR400 Woes

[jsimanyi]

Newbie here, so go easy if ya can! Incidentally, this machine's going to be used for CAD work, and the raytracing I do likes CPU speed as well as 2 gB of memory.

 

This is my second box built around this old but great board. I have already run the CPU up to my intended speeds (2.99) with memory and LDt/FSB mult. in conservative settings, and it's simply great and runs cool (41degC in Prime95). Then, I went to set the RAM up.

 

It wouldn't go past about 160 mHz! If I put in one stick, it'll clock up to 260 with decent timings and pass memtest 100% no problem. I tested both sticks this way, so I don't *think* they're defective. I've tried going to 2T, running 2.5-5-5-10, disabling interleaving, 2.9V on the DRAM and 1.8V on the chipset.... I went to the most recent bios, pulled the cord, pulled the battery etc., but so far, no satisfaction.

 

I'm not after killer rates - I just want the stock DDR400 out of these things, but I'd even accept the next level down. DDR300, on the other hand, seems a bit lame.

 

Essentially, I can get it to boot without going into "detecting array" at just a hair over 160, but it still won't pass memtest.

 

The sticks are rated at 2-3-3-8 at 2.8V, but...

 

I feel like I must be missing something obvious. Any suggestions?

 

Thanks in advance,

[OverByter]

with 2x1 gig you're running 4 banks of memory. Very difficult on a single channel board, what type of mem you running? OCZ Gold scales better while Platinum has tighter timings at stock.

[sailindawg]

Unfortunately, those Newarks are pretty quirky with 2x1024 RAM. From reading your post it's hard to tell what RAM dividers you have used. Try the 166 divider. Good Luck !

[New-B]

Yep.... most of us using 2gig with the Newarks have this problem ( though for most of us they will boot up to about 180mhz ), but here is a trick that works great for me to get the mem running up to speed http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showpost.p...74&postcount=13

 

If ya need some help with it, feel free to PM me.

[jsimanyi]

Thanks, guys! I have tried nearly all the dividers, and it still seems to boil down to a limit of about 160 mHz in cpu-z with this combination so far.

 

Right now, I'm running memtest @ 230x13 on the cpu, mem @7/10 and ldt/fsb@ 3. It seems stable, so I'll progress to the A64Tweaker trick in an hour or so. I really appreciate you sharing that tip with me. Incidentally, it appears cpu-z doesn't recognize the 7/10 divider and reports the memory frequency as blank. Nevertheless, it should be essentially 161 mHz.

 

 

I'll keep you posted as per how it all progresses. I'll hopefully post some benchmarks with the "slow" two-stick vs. the "fast" one-stick configuration before finish, just for reference.

 

I might end up keeping the fast Newark with the 2x512 out of the machine I'm on at the moment, and run this Sempron 64 3100+ Palermo (currently @ 270x9 and rock solid) with the 2 gig later - it all depends on the results.

 

Thanks,

[jsimanyi]

I almost forgot...the sticks are these:

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16820227063

 

I didn't think to go for the DDR500 (now the same price) 'cause I wasn't going to overclock. I might end up buying different memory in the very near future. :nod:

 

Of course, I'll see how close I can get with this first.

[Capt Proton]

I had this rpoblem too with my Mushkin Redline XP4000. Infineon chips. Does your computer boot OK at stock speed? i.e. 200HTT.

[jsimanyi]

Super PI:

 

1M @ 33 sec

2M @ 81 sec

8M@ 312 sec

 

This is at 248/12x/3x/2:3 (ddr133), and is staying stable so far. This particular memory seems happy @ 2.6V, so I'll leave it there for now. It's going to be running Prime95 for a day, so I'll try tweaking it again afterward.

 

Just wanted to let anyone else know how it's going - I suspect different DRAM would do a bit better in this setup...

 

Thanks,

[learners permit]

On the NF3 with this core and 2 gigs were a real challenge. My max boot speed was 180 and the tweaker trick got me to 208 with the dividers setup for that. The real breakthrough I found was setting t-ref to 2064 as this seemed to ease the load on the cpu's mem controller and increased memory BW simultaneously. Beware of the fact that there are two values for 2064 in bios. One is good the other is baaad. The setting I used for T-ref can be found by tapping the + key from auto setting until the second value 2064 appears save and exit. Good luck and keep us posted.

[Capt Proton]

This was with Infineon chips wasn't it? Id everyone having the same problem with UCCC chips? There is one entry in the UCCC database for an NF3 with UCCC and they are running normally, but, it isn't a Newark.

[jsimanyi]

learners permit -

 

The Tref setting helped. I have it memtesting @ 218fsb w/5:6 mult. I kicked the chipset voltage up to 1.8v and the DRAM up to 2.7v as it wouldn't boot with lower settings at 218(yesterday it was more stable at 2.6, but I couldn't get past 261 on cpu-z).

 

So far, so good. If I can actually push to 180 on boot (171.3 right now), I'll probably call it good assuming I can keep the CPU close to 3.0 gHz.

 

Keep ya posted (and update signature as soon as it's stable),

[learners permit]

With the same hardware spare the board the 2X1gig infineon boot at 232 and are completely stable. I think the 250 Gb is a great board and man did I learn a lot with that ole girl but there is really something to be said of NF4. Nvidia put it all together.