Ballistix PC4000

[Guest r3d c0m3t]

I brought these sticks not too long ago and they're pretty good if I say so myself. I've seen a major improvement in NFS Most Wanted, FEAR and GTR 2, but that's aside from the point of this thread. I'm actually looking for a little help. I'm still relatively new to the overclocking thing (although I've been doing it for a little over a year) and I've seem to come across a snag with the trial and error process.

 

Okay...check out my sig for the details about the CPU and RAM. The snag is I can't seem to go any further than 245MHz, I don't know whether or not I put my foot in my mouth on this particular purchase, but it seemed like a good deal considering how hard it is to find any DDR rated about 400MHz these days. Oh and the odd thing is the RAM is actually running on a 1:1 ratio with the CPU even though it's not set to a 1:1 ratio(maybe someone could explain that, too.)

 

I'm just looking to know three things: Can I actually go any further and if so is it my lack of bettered cooling? Was this a bad purchase? Or am I doing something wrong all together. I'm also not positive whether it's 5B-G or 5B-D.

[Voltes-5]

Man its been a while since the day that I played with my 4 sticks of them Ballistix. One thing to keep in mind is that they do run hot and they need active cooling. Every stick on different situations or systems OC very differently. Now with that being said, make sure you have enough cooling for them and never go over the 3.0 voltage. I have only used these sticks on the older boards so I would not be able to tell you how it does on the cfx-3200. There should still be some settings that you could use thats on the OCDB. I hope that you are also aware that these sticks have a very high rate of dying out.

[noneed4me2]

I got a 2x1gb kit of the DDR500 Crucial Ballistix and it got me to 318 FSB unstable and 316 stable overclock 2.8ghz+ on my 165 Opty. Before with my Gskill 2x512mb kit I could never get above 305 FSB, so for me they were worth it. I am getting 170 in the mail soon so hopping the higher multi will let me run my mem closer to 1:1.

[red930]

I'm guessing they have 5B-G chips.

 

2x512MB, right?

 

With my set of Ballistix (5B-F), I found that I had to tweak a lot of the secondary timings to get it stable. If I didn't, it would only be stable at minimum speeds. 5B-D chips were able to overclock a bit further but succumbed to the heat.

 

Perhaps you could look up what other users have been doing in the OCDB and give those a shot.

[HITandRUN]

How about you share your momentary timings with us so we can take a look and see what the deal is. Mine set boots up at 305 and I can run windows without problems but no gaming. Why do you have them at 2.5-5-5-10? :confused: Aren't these sticks rated 3-4-4-8?

[Kingfisher]

My pair can scale up to 280 (ddr560) and have been the best 2 Gb set I have used so far( OCZ EB's and G.SKILL HZs). Running strong for 6 months now. Look for the BL12864Z503.16TF1Y on the anti-static pouch they came in. 5B-fs most likely.

 

Set voltage to 2.6 and try these timings. If your sticks are any good they will love these timings @ 250 and up.

Notice MAL and RPT are a bit loose, you can try tighter ones with confidence( I use 5.0 and 7.0). Good luck.

[b]DRAM Configuration Settings:[/b]

[color=red]

DRAM Frequency Set............................  -  250=RAM/FSB:01/01

Command Per Clock (CPC).......................  -  Enable 

CAS Latency Control (Tcl).....................  -  3

RAS# to CAS# delay (Trcd).....................  - 3

Min RAS# active time (Tras)...................  -  8

Row precharge time (Trp)......................  -  3

Row Cycle time (Trc)..........................  -  07 Bus Clocks

Row refresh cyc time (Trfc)...................  -  13 Bus Clocks

Row to Row delay (Trrd).......................  -  02 Bus Clocks

Write recovery time (Twr).....................  -  02 Bus Clocks

Write to Read delay (Twtr)....................  -  02 Bus Clocks

Read to Write delay (Trwt)....................  -  03 Bus Clocks

Refresh Period (Tref).........................  -  3120 Cycles

DRAM Bank Interleave..........................  -  Enabled



DQS Skew Control..............................  -  Auto

DQS Skew Value................................  -  0

DRAM Drive Strength...........................  -  Auto

DRAM Data Drive Strength......................  -  Auto

Max Async Latency.............................  -  6.0ns

DRAM Response Time............................  -  fast

Read Preamble Time............................  -  8.0ns

IdleCycle Limit...............................  - 16 Cycles

Dynamic Counter...............................  -  Disable

R/W Queue Bypass..............................  -  16 x

Bypass Max....................................  -  07 x

32 Byte Granularity...........................  -  Disable(4 Bursts)

[/color]

[Guest r3d c0m3t]

How about you share your momentary timings with us so we can take a look and see what the deal is. Mine set boots up at 305 and I can run windows without problems but no gaming. Why do you have them at 2.5-5-5-10? :confused: Aren't these sticks rated 3-4-4-8?

 

 

 

DRAM Settings



DRAM Frequency Set.................................   - 216=RAM/FSB:13/12

Command Per Clock (CPC)............................ - Enable

CAS Latency Control (Tcl).............................  - 2.5

RAS# to CAS# Delay (Trcd)..............................  - 5

Min RAS# active time (Tras)............................  - 10

Row precharge time (Trp)...............................  - 5

Row Cycle time (Trc)..................................  - 15 Bus Clocks

Row refresh cycle time (Trfc)........................  - 17 Bus Clocks

Row to row delay (Trrd)..............................  - 03 Bus Clocks

Write recovery time (Twr)............................  - Auto

Write to read delay (Twtr)...........................  - Auto

Read to write delay (Trwt)...........................  - 04 Bus Clocks

Refresh period (Tref).................................  - 3120 Cycles

DRAM Bank Interleave..................................  - Enable



DQS Skew Control.......................................  - Auto

DQS Skew Value.........................................  - 0

DRAM Drive Strength...................................  - Lv. 2

DRAM Data Drive Strength............................  - Lv. 3 (Reduce 15%)

Max Async Latency.....................................  - Auto

Read Preamble Time.....................................  - Auto

IdleCycle Limit.............................................  - 16 Cycles

Dynamic Counter..........................................  - Disable

R/W Queue Bypass........................................  - 16x

Bypass Max..................................................  - 7x

Burst Length.................................................  - 4 Bursts

 

So, these are my current DRAM workings I've been progressively trying to tweak them for the better part of a month and a half...I've got some positive results but more are negative and these seem to be the only settings that are 100% Prime stable. You'll notice that a couple of options are left to auto because the settings I had them at previously weren't stable. The current voltage is 2.72v.

 

Okay, so here are the problems at hand....with my current settings these sticks refuse to run at 200MHz (1:01) and also with the current settings they're refusing to run any higher than 269MHz. As I've said before it's actually running alongside my FSB/HTT of 245MHz which equates to 2.69GHz which I'm failing to completely understand.

 

Hit and Run....they're rated 2-3-3-8 @ 200MHz and 2.5-4-4-10 @ 250MHz, I lengthened them to give them a bit more breathing room as I've read again and again somewhat longer timings can also give good results. Thanks for the suggested settings Kingfisher, but these sticks refuse to run at those settings and looking at the number they appear to be 5B-G (BL6464Z505.16TG2Y)

 

Apparently this may very well turn into a team effort.

[Guest hengehog]

I've just installed an A64 4000 chip & am now beginning to see how far the system will go.

I've got the CPU running @ 3020, but am having to run the RAM at 2T (@250MHz) to get the system to boot & be stable (try running Solidworks if your system isn't stable!)

Am only running at 2.6V at the moment until I get my other system back (going to swap cases for better airflow as I'm running in HTPC case at present), & running in orange slots.

However, with my old Opteron 144, I could get the FSb up to 305 with RAM @ 166, 1T @ 2.7V (in other case with better airflow), but had to have the RAM in the yellow slots.

Anyone able to give advice as to running in orange or yellow slots for NF3 Ultra D board?

[red930]

DRAM Settings

DRAM Frequency Set.................................   - 216=RAM/FSB:13/12
Command Per Clock (CPC)............................ - Enable
CAS Latency Control (Tcl).............................  - 2.5
RAS# to CAS# Delay (Trcd)..............................  - 5
Min RAS# active time (Tras)............................  - 10
Row precharge time (Trp)...............................  - 5
Row Cycle time (Trc)..................................  - 15 Bus Clocks
Row refresh cycle time (Trfc)........................  - 17 Bus Clocks
Row to row delay (Trrd)..............................  - 03 Bus Clocks
Write recovery time (Twr)............................  - Auto
Write to read delay (Twtr)...........................  - Auto
Read to write delay (Trwt)...........................  - 04 Bus Clocks
Refresh period (Tref).................................  - 3120 Cycles
DRAM Bank Interleave..................................  - Enable

DQS Skew Control.......................................  - Auto
DQS Skew Value.........................................  - 0
DRAM Drive Strength...................................  - Lv. 2
DRAM Data Drive Strength............................  - Lv. 3 (Reduce 15%)
Max Async Latency.....................................  - Auto
Read Preamble Time.....................................  - Auto
IdleCycle Limit.............................................  - 16 Cycles
Dynamic Counter..........................................  - Disable
R/W Queue Bypass........................................  - 16x
Bypass Max..................................................  - 7x
Burst Length.................................................  - 4 Bursts

 

So, these are my current DRAM workings I've been progressively trying to tweak them for the better part of a month and a half...I've got some positive results but more are negative and these seem to be the only settings that are 100% Prime stable. You'll notice that a couple of options are left to auto because the settings I had them at previously weren't stable. The current voltage is 2.72v.

 

Okay, so here are the problems at hand....with my current settings these sticks refuse to run at 200MHz (1:01) and also with the current settings they're refusing to run any higher than 269MHz. As I've said before it's actually running alongside my FSB/HTT of 245MHz which equates to 2.69GHz which I'm failing to completely understand.

 

Hit and Run....they're rated 2-3-3-8 @ 200MHz and 2.5-4-4-10 @ 250MHz, I lengthened them to give them a bit more breathing room as I've read again and again somewhat longer timings can also give good results. Thanks for the suggested settings Kingfisher, but these sticks refuse to run at those settings and looking at the number they appear to be 5B-G (BL6464Z505.16TG2Y)

 

Apparently this may very well turn into a team effort.

 

I got my sticks (5B-F) to run at DDR562 (281) by a stroke of luck... my Opteron hates every divider, so I have to keep it at 2.52GHz. My settings are a bit odd as I switched some of the values by accident, but everything is stable...

 

BTW, you've got 5B-F chips.

 

Edit: oops, he has 512 sticks.. lol, theyre 5B-G

[Guest r3d c0m3t]

I got my sticks (5B-F) to run at DDR562 (281) by a stroke of luck... my Opteron hates every divider, so I have to keep it at 2.52GHz. My settings are a bit odd as I switched some of the values by accident, but everything is stable...

 

BTW, you've got 5B-F chips.

 

That's interesting. Could someone explain to me how they're 5B-F's?

[red930]

That's interesting. Could someone explain to me how they're 5B-F's?

 

I always thought that the 5B-G chips were found on the 512MB sticks...

 

5B-D/5B-F are on the 1GB sticks, but I might have seen vice versa... sorry if I'm wrong.

[Guest r3d c0m3t]

I always thought that the 5B-G chips were found on the 512MB sticks...

 

5B-D/5B-F are on the 1GB sticks, but I might have seen vice versa... sorry if I'm wrong.

 

Well, I have two 512MB sticks.

 

Even so, whether they're 5B-G or 5B-F...it's been an adventure and I've enjoyed every last minute of it...regardless of whether or not that has been a total pain in my butt.