[SteveI]

To experts of the NF2 chipset, I apologize if this is obvious to you... I recently discovered a few odd tidbits in my random experiments, and wanted to share. I am by all means no expert on this matter, and would appreciate some insight and interpretation... I also welcome disagreement or conclusions.

First observation, NF2 and crucial pc2700 don't seem to mix. I noticed this a while back and thought is odd. I had 2 sticks of Crucial 256meg PC2700. Both sticks ran fine w/ tight timings in the 180 to 193mhz range on KT333 mobos. I tried to use one stick in an 8RGA+, and the stick couldn't do default timings, even w/ 2.7v and at 160mhz.. It seems to top out at 155mhz at slow timings. Due to system issues, I tried the other stick today on my NF7s, with only slightly better results. I get 161mhz at slow timings and 2.7v. Any higher yields Memtest errors. Both mobos handle high fsb fine with other branded sticks.

Second observation. CAS has minimal impact on performance... but Row Precharge Delay and RAStoCAS delay are much bigger. To support this, here are some numbers.. I ran 159mhz for all 3 runs and 2.6v


run--CAS-Row pre.-RAStoCAS-RowActive-Score
----- lat - delay --- delay ----- delay
1 -- 2.0 -- 2 -------- 2 ------- 11 ------- 758
2 -- 2.0 -- 3 -------- 3 ------- 11 ------- 652
3 -- 2.5 -- 2 -------- 2 ------- 11 ------- 746

[edit: sorry if the table is hard to read, I tried to make it more readable.]
Score refers to the raw score given by memtest. I don't have time to run sisoft, and the results w/ sisoft seem too inconsistent anyway. For these runs CPU interface was turned off. Run 3 is an eye opener for me. I do not know if this holds true in dual channel mode, but once my replacement sticks come in, I will do more testing. ATM, I find this quite interesting.

CAS latency used to be the "end all be all" when using via chipsets, but now seem almost insignificant. At least for nf2 systems, CAS will be the first thing I sacrifice to gain stability.

I realize this is not an in depth analysis, but seems to beg for further "look sees".
Anyone else see similar results?

I've heard all systems are unique and results will vary. If anyone has a different mobo, and get opposite results, please let me know. When I have time, I can try to duplicate this little experiment with my son's 8rga+.