dragosmp

This is hearsay mind you, but I've seen on a thread once a guy that posted loading times with 8GB and 4GB of ram under Vista x64. The so-called conclusions were: - timings had to be somewhat loosen, but being a C2Q, it didn't mind - they loosened them by 1-2, nothing important - Vram had to be raised from 2.0 to 2.1 (G-skill ram? - don't remember) - Windows loaded a tad slower, 2-3 seconds at boot - nothing important imo - Massive loading time gains for games, I mean they were divided by 2 to 4, not a mere 10-50% improvement. Everything loaded in under 10 seconds (raptor single HDD). - Office 07 loaded faster The tests were under an OS that was installed for a while, and this is what matters the most. Vista tracks the programs U use and loads them into RAM if you have enough. However, it takes a couple of minutes (count a half hour or so) for a 7200rpm single HDD to load up all that ram, so after booting you won't benefit right away from this nice feature. Counting the times you actually used a program, Vista has a "priority list", it loads what U use the most - 8GB are likely to suffice for whatever you need. You'd find the most benefits if you have the rig mostly on, as Vista has time to fill everything in the ram, if you restart every hour, by the time it caches everything you already restart. Cheers!

Hey guys, Would you give me a hand with choosing a new ram pair for my rig? I'm running a decent OC now, a 4400 X2 @3.2GHz with a pair of ballistix running barely at stock speeds, but with tight timings. The 4GB kit I'd get would have to go easy on the very sensitive memory controller of this Brisbane, because I wouldn't like to loose (much) of the OC while switching the RAM. For the history, a year back I changed from G-skill 2GB PQ DDR800 to Ballistix 2GB DDR667 - my OC went up from around 50% to 90% on a AM2 Sempron, so the ram quality is of utmost importance. The 4GB of ram seems to be the best way to up my rig shaky Vista performance, and I can choose between: - Kingston Value, Corsair Value, Crucial Value - around 80€ - DDR667 or DDR800, but can they really cope with an OC? In the past cheap ram capped my OCs all too often - G-skill MQ or PQ in DDR667 or DDR800 - price 90-100€ - Corsair Dominator XMS C5D or C5DHX DDR800 (100€) - OCZ GOLD XTC DDR800 (100-105€) - Geil Black Dragon DDR800 (100€) .....and last but not least: - OCZ Reaper HPC DDR800 115€ - G-skill PK extreme series 115€ Maybe some of you have/had experience with 4GB modules and AM2 processors. Who knows, maybe there are only one or two parameter to loosen for the 4GB modules to allow a 275HTT. Cheers!

Good advice. You could alo try to see it it boots without the damaged pin, who knows, it may actually work.

Hey guys, I have just an easy ram question: do the Crucial Ballistix DDR2 800 work well with this mobo (Infinity UltraII M2)?

The memory is on the lowest divider and still it clocks 700MHz @2.8GHz CPU frequency. However it's not an issue, I don't think it's limiting me. I can run DDR800 with 3-4-3-9-15 2T at 2.1V (with trfc 193ns) and now I'm only at DDR700 with 4-4-4-12-16 2T. Apparently it is stable at 2.88GHz, but not more than that. At 2.92GHz it's good, but after 2-3 hours of priming it cracks, even though the core temp is max 43°C and the chipset temp is 33°C. I can run the fans at 12V (now on 5V) to lower the temps even more (2-5° on average). What I'm asking is, can a CPU fry if the Vcore is set high enough even though the temps don't seem to surpass 45°C?

Thanks for the cheers, now let's see what to do. Mt settings @ 3GHz are: - CPU 8x375MHz, HTT multi 4x - Vcore 1.675V, Vchip (NB) 1.5V, HT link 1.2, Vram 2.1V - the RAM is at a safe 750MHz with 4-4-4-12-16, trfc 193 I wonder if the 1.675 can be considered safe enough to boot it one more time and try to stabilise it. The OCing history: -1.6GHz - 2.4GHz : 1.45V -2.4GHz - 2.8GHz : 1.50V -2.8GHz - 2.88GHz : 1.525V - the last OCCT stable frequency -2.88GHz - 2.92GHz : 1.55V -2.92GHz - 3.071GHz : 1.675V The temps didn't seem to be an issue at 2.92GHz - 40-41° LOAD temp, but unstable. I suppose it needed more Vcore. The rise from 1.55 to 1.675V worries me, I'm not sure if the CPU can really handle that. Idle temps were identical to the ones at lower freq (30-31°C), I was cautious as to put the CPU through a burn test at that huge Vcore so I don't know how far it can go. What do you say? Am I close to the limit of my CPU or by forcing that Vcore I actually bypassed it? The delta is 0.125V for 90MHz.

Hello again, Now I've done it. I have managed to finally push my 40$ Sempron 2800+ AM2 at 3GHz. Click there if you don't believe me . First of all my thanks to Blooz1, Angry, Thenumber337, schoolslave, dr Bowtie (which I advice now more than ever to buy this mobo), Phoetus and all the others that helped, I'm really grateful. To recap a bit of what I've been doing in the past 6 months or so: - My setup at the begining - S2800+ AM2, 1x1GB Corsair DDR667 Value, stock cooling - I started OCing with all the stock cooling (NB and CPU) The max came quite further than I expected as my CPU was at 2.4GHz, 1.45V with the Corsair VS synchronous at DDR 600 2.1V. Here the problem seemed to be the mobo not quite liking my ram. From the begining it seemed the mobo needs to supply a huge amount of Vram to be able to achieve a good OC, even if the ram freq and timings were quite loose (5-5-5-15-20). I have backed off to 2.2GHz and bought new ram. - With the Gskill DDR 800 I have now I did the rest. Still 2.4GHz was a wall not easy to pass. The NB cooler had to be changed as the nForce4 Ultra chipset was HOT (over 60°C). The HR05-SLI lowered the temps around the 30° level during winter, 40° now while being completely passive. -With the HR05 NB cooler it went up to 2.6GHz (325HTT). The settings were 1.5Vcore, ram @DDR650 3-3-3-9-12 2T, 2.1Vram. However the 48° load temp during winter made us think that some better cooling is needed. My thanks again to Phoetus for showing me the right way: the Tuniq was hard to fit on my AM2 mobo, so he pointed towards the BigTyphoon. - During winter the temps lowered around the 35°C mark for the loaded CPU, now around 45° or so. With the BT and a tip from a user from overclock.net (who told me to try the HTT multi 4X instead of the 3x) I managed to stabilise @ 2.8GHz, but with a catch. I needed 2.2Vram to be able to do that even though the ram was underclocked and having tried the loosest timings. Besides, a true heat-bag was in the VRM area, it wasn't ventilated one bit. - Next step: case modding. I took a saw and a drill and made one 120mm hole on the top of my case. I'll add pics with that. I added a 120mm fan to exhaust the heat dissipated from the DRMs and partly by the CPU and surprise: the CPU temp dropped to 31° idle and 37° load with all the fans on the +5V setting. 8°C gain for the CPU temp + the silence. It was no longer need for the rear 120mm to go on full throttle I dropped it to +5V. BTW, I have 4x120mm (2 exhausts, one BT and one for the PSU), 1x80mm (intake), 1x60mm (NB fan) and 1xzalman VF700 fan. With all this and the Zalman 6 channel rheostat it is as silent as my girl's laptop. - Almost final step: after the case modding I found a ultra noisy 60mm fan laying around. Since I've just bought the Zalman rheostat I decided to place the fan on the NB heatsink (the HR-05) and made it quiet at 5V. With 7 fans I went for the big prize. - My big problem was the mobo needed huge Vram to move even a bit. Here my thanks to dr bowtie which told me on his Biostar nF550 AM2 he had to change the "trfc" subtiming to pass this problem. I've changed it from the default 75 to 95, after that to 112, 125 and finally to 193 (or something very close to that) and here it was: perfect boot at 3GHz! If you've read 'till here you deserve at least a beer :cool: Now to validate it was a bit weird. I had it stable at 2.88GHz and 1.5V (at leas as stable a 30mn OCCT test can be called). At 2.92GHz it needed 1.575 to stabilise. It became obvious that I'm not gonna reach 3GHz and be stable, but it was too close. After more than 10 unsuccessful boots at 375 HTT during which I've tried different settings it booted at the same settings as before, just the CPU was @1.65V:eek: Huge leap! Ok, I boot, win xp welcome screen blah blah, start CPUz, save the file, while it was sufficiently stable I said to upload the file but surprise again: my CPUz version was too old. I downloaded the new one, start it, click "Validate" and pow - black screen. Reset! That sucked... The temps at more or less idle and all the fans at full speed were OK: 32°C CPU and 30° NB, but it was like on a racing oval... the noise:mad:. Finally it booted but only @1.675V setting which gave 1.65 real Vcore (the Vdrop is around 0.02V on average). It booted, it's validated and now it's history A 3GHz Sempron 2800 air cooled All I can say that this DFI Infinity is a great mobo, nothing but the best. I hope to solve the Vcore thing, maybe a 100% OC air cooled would be at hand. 3.2GHz ain't that far, is it?

Well it's once again @2.8GHz with a max temp of 46°C, validation here. What seems weird is that I had to pump up the Vram a notch (2.1V to 2.2V) even though I'm only @DDR2 700 and I have DDR2 800 4-4-4-12. It's actually the ram that can't handle the FSB... I'll keep you posted anyway.

I'm back on this thread with some additional info. Well I eventually found a way to get rid of that heat zone with the help of the guide on Angry's web page. Since a month ago it's becoming warmer in my house (plumbing and heating are back on) and my CPU was suffering. I had to get it @2.6GHz to keep the temps reasonable: under 60°C! Now the news: I got the BigTyphoon , the AM2 kind. I've just completed a 30mn OCCT max45°C core temp and 38°CPU surface!!! That's a massive 15°C cooler. I'm going to buy some food for tomorrow and after that it's 3GHz time! Wish me luck.

Thank you all for the cheering and all, Blooz1, Angry, Thenumber337 and schoolslave, it means a lot to anyone to know it's supported in its actions. Well, there are news. Since 2 days ago it's been a freesing cold outside and since last night it's freesing cold in my apartment since the heating broke down, so OC time! Now I'm testing @340HTT and it seems to be quite stable. I've CPUz-ed it here. I have another heat related problem. The red square is an area that's quite hot. Is that the VRM area? The problem is that such a warm area is close to the CPU and unless I find a way to dispose of that heat it decreases the randament of the CPU cooler. What do you think? P.S. 40 min of prime completed... I think I'm going for 2.8GHz.

Thanks dr bowtie for the thoughts, I really hope this CPU can do it. 10x to you too phoetus, that's a compelling review and I think I'm going to get the BT. I tried some tricks on my CPU today and it kinda refused to boot at 2.8 GHz. I've read that a guy that had S2800 managed to get it validated @3.06GHz but as for stability it was stable only @2.7GHz which is where I'm at right now. The thing is he needed 1.65 Vcore, a lot more than my stock cooler can take. For the record: the Tuniq can be mounted on AM2 only with the Zalman ZM-OC1 clip. It's not sold separately, the clip is an accessory for the ZM 9700CU, so no tuniq for AM2, at least for now.

There is just one more problem with the Tuniq: it lacks support for the AM2. On the official site it's said that the cooler can be mounted on AM2 with the help of the Zalman ZM-OC1 clip which is nowhere to be found (at least in France). Is there any other way to mount it on a AM2? Maybe some of you have seen this issue and solved it in a way or another. Mean while I found quite an offer for the Scythe Ninja rev B: 40€ (aka 40$). What do you say about this one? I would prefer the tuniq if there was a possibility of mounting it on my mobo.

As far as I could find on the web this mobo should be stable up to 440HTT, not to mention I've upgraded the NB cooling. My CPU has its multi locked and doesn't support C n' Q as it has only 1.6GHz stock frequency. My future CPU would be a DC, probably a 4000 x2 65nm but with the next revision, the current 65nm have left me with a bitter taste in regards to OCing. A good air cooler is a MUST, you're right here and this time I'll go for the best. BTW, which is the best? There are some options, the BT, Tuniq, VF9700Cu... I'm not so sure what to choose.

I am deeply hurt It's true that is has only a quarter of the L2 cache of the A64, but does it really matter? If it can reach 3.0GHz I bet it is just as good as a 2.8GHz A64. My friend, the aim is having a 3.0GHz K8 for 40$, that's OCing. *EDIT I thought of removing the IHS. How much better do you guys think it would be?

Well, I'm not there yet, but I think I can do it. Following this review of the lost circuits I have decided to go Vista in the hope that my temps would decrease and what do you know, they did. Briefly my current OC: - HTT 337, CPUx 8X thus 2.7GHz on stock cooling + AS5 - Voltages: CPU 1.5V, ram 2.0V, the rest on stock - HTx 3x, DDR 1:1 ratio I'm at 34°idle and 48°Burn after 7 hours of prime. What do you think? I'm already @ a 68% OC but those 3GHz are so close... and I don't think I've reached the limits of the stock air cooling. Would additional CPU cooling help? I'm thinking of a Big Typhoon or a Tuniq tower, but these cost more than the CPU itself.