jumpjet Posted July 12, 2006 Posted July 12, 2006 Hi guys I am after a little advice before I start my overclocking. Originally I bought 2 sticks of 512k Geil RAM (1GB) as stated in my signature. This RAM happily ran at stock speeds as DDR400 Dual Channel. No problems there, however I decided after a week or so that I could afford 2GB of RAM after all. I would have prefered to have 2x1Gb sticks, but I was stuck with the 2x512kb already installed. I therefore bought 2 more identical sticks (from the same batch), giving me 4x512kb sticks. This is working fine at stock speeds in my rig, but because I have 4 sticks I have to run the RAM at 166 mhz (DDR333), and have the timing set to 2T rather than the 1T. I cannot run the RAM at 1:1 ratio with the FSB, the PC won't boot if you try that. All this will come as no suprise to you guys ....... but now I want to start overclocking my A64 X2 4400. I am looking to increase my general system performance and my 3D game performance. I have no need to push the PC right up to it's limits of stability, just to have a reasonable performance increase. So after all this, here is my question :- In your opinion, would I get better system performance by overclocking the rig as it stands, with the 4 x 512kb sticks in ? OR Better to remove 2 sticks, leaving me with 1GB operating at FSB 1:1 DDR400 and overclock from there? I am guessing that performance would be better with the 2GB @ DDR333 rather than 1GB @ DDR400, but some expert opinion would be much appreciated. Cheers Graham Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
red930 Posted July 12, 2006 Posted July 12, 2006 I don't think the Frequency on your four memory modules are set correctly. I think you can run all four at stock speeds DDR400 PC3200 but not sure when it comes to overclocking them. Yes, you do have to run your CPC @2T (Command Rate) but also what timings and voltages are you feeding these bad boys? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jumpjet Posted July 12, 2006 Posted July 12, 2006 Hi Mack Thanks for the reply. I am sure that I read in one of the guides (sticky), that if all slots are in use you cannot run the board at FSB 1:1 i.e DDR400. In fact I tried it again today, with the BIOS set to run MEMTEST on boot, the rig didn't boot and I had to reset the CMOS, and load the optimised defaults. Current timings are : CPU Speed = 2203.408 CPU Multiplier = 11.000 FSB Frequency = 201 Memory Frequency = 333.000 PCIE Frequency = 2500 Commands per Clock - Disabled (2T) CAS Latency Control Tcl= 2 RAS to CAS delay Trcd = 2 Min RAS active time Tras = 5 Row precharche time Trp = 2 Row cycle time Trc = 12 Row refresh cyc time Trfc = 16 Row to row delay Trrd = 2 Write recovery time Twr = 2 Write to read delay Trwt = 3 Refresh period Tref = 3120 Write latency Twcl = 1 Odd Divider = enabled (no odd dividers allowed) DRAM bank interleave = enabled DQS Skew control = Auto DQS Skew value = 0 Dram drive strength = Level 7 Dram data drive strength = Level 3 Max Async latency = 8.0 ns Dram response time - Normal Read preamble time = 6.0 ns Idlecycle limit = 256 cycles Dynamic counter = Disable R/W Queue bypass = 16x Bypass max = 04x 32 byte granularity = Disable (4 bursts) ========== System Voltage Information ========== CPU Voltage = 1.450 v Core Voltage = 1.530 v Memory Voltage = 2.8 v Cheers Graham Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
smolt Posted July 12, 2006 Posted July 12, 2006 thems way to tight of timings In less your gonna run stock Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
red930 Posted July 12, 2006 Posted July 12, 2006 Than probably keep your MEMORY FREQUENCY under or at 166MHz i guess. thems way to tight of timings Can you for one day make any sense man, what are you saying now...? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jumpjet Posted July 12, 2006 Posted July 12, 2006 Thought I'd better post the voltage settings, as the above voltages were just reported by Nvidia - NTune. Voltage settings :- CPU VID = Startup CPU VID Control = 1.375v CPU VID Special Control = Above VID 102.4% LDT = 1.20v Chip Set = 1.52v DRAM = 2.8v Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldGuy Posted July 12, 2006 Posted July 12, 2006 Your problem is drive strength. Bump it up to 13 and see if will boot. I'm running 4X512 right now and it will not boot (beyond posting, at least I don't have to clear cmos to get back up) at anything below 9. 4X512 takes some tinkering but it WILL work at 200mhz and beyond (if your modules are willing). After you get it to boot you'll have to experiment a bit to find which drive strength is best, etc... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jumpjet Posted July 12, 2006 Posted July 12, 2006 Thanks for that Old Guy, I will give it a go. My problem is that I don't know what most of these settings do! So I glean bits of information from various threads, and hope for the best. Cheers Graham BTW nice choice of sigs - Early Bowie ...... good choice Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Praz Posted July 12, 2006 Posted July 12, 2006 With the proper settings I don't know why you wouldn't be able to run 4 sticks at DDR400. I've run 4x1GB on both my Expert and Venus boards at DDR500. Here's a OCDB entry by THunDA running 4x1GB at DDR460 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jumpjet Posted July 13, 2006 Posted July 13, 2006 My thanks to everyone for their help. For the first time I have managed to get the system to boot with 4 sticks @ DDR400. This happened after upping the Drive Strength to 13 as OldMan suggested. :0 Though it passed one run of Memtest86 and booted to Windows, it is not stable and Windows froze after 20 mins or so. My RAM is rated at 2-2-2-5-1T ( I set it to 2-2-2-5-2T), I have decided to change it to 2.5-3-3-8-2T and see how it goes. Obviously I will have to carry out many stabilty checks as I tweak. The important thing is that it booted. At least this gives me a starting point to work from. Cheers guys Graham Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldGuy Posted July 13, 2006 Posted July 13, 2006 Cool Testing and tweaking my friend. Testing and tweaking...at least you are on the right track now. Good luck... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jumpjet Posted July 13, 2006 Posted July 13, 2006 Thanks mate ........ you can't beat a good tweak! With the new 2.5-3-3-8-2T settings, I am currently in the 15 mins into running 2 instances of Prime95, with both cores @ 100% and 800 mb of RAM allocated to each core (90% of my total RAM in use). Here's hoping that that is stressful enough for my system and that I don't smell smoke overnight! Off to bed now Cheers Graham Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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