Questions about setting up 8KDA3J

[ivanmoe]

Hello everyone,

1) Is there a preferred PCI slot for an Audigy 2 soundcard on this board?

2) Should I use a dedicated (3Com) NIC instead of the onboard GB model? I use a Linksys BEFSR41 rev3 router and don't want to be wrasslin' with my network constantly.

3) I have some 18 month old Corsair TwinX 3200LL memory (2x256) with the old BH-5 chips. Should I set the memory to run at SPD or back way off of the timings?

Thanks for your help!

Moe

[Oldjim]

I put my Audigy in the slot next but one from the edge of the board in order to give best access and air flow. No problems at all
I am using the onboard NIC without problems but I didn't install the Nforce Firewall as I use Norton 2003 and I didn't want any conflicts

[EPoX Tech]

Righty Ho!

1.The audify should be fine anywhere however you may for best audio quality need to define its own address in the BIOS (NF3 is good for this).

2. The onboard GBe is very very fast and should be used unless you have a compatibility problem with your switch or similar.

3. The memory is best set at 8-4-4-3-2T and should be fine but generally with A64 and 865,875,915 etc you will find that the best overclockers are cheaper memories - I know people see me say that a lot but it is a fact for getting high HTT unless you are lucky.

BTW - Oldjim - If you 3DMark - what are you getting as you have a nice component set ?

[Oldjim]

Epox Tech - can you comment
With my rig I can only get 210 x 10 at 2-3-3-8 1T but with 2.5-3-3-8 I get 235 x 10 with one stick of ram (the other has been RMA'd as it was missing the heat shield clamps) which I think is my processor limit as reducing memory speed and HTT multiplier had no effect. I have not changed the default voltages.
What I did find was that I had a performance hit using 2T which was the auto setting.

[EPoX Tech]

A64 is great with CAS3 so please have a go with that - I use stock Micro and geta good 245MHz 1:1 out of that with 8-4-4-3-2T but cannot go above 218Mhz at 2.5......................

[Oldjim]

Already tried 3-3-3-8 but no improvement. Also reducing the memory multiplier didn't help.
Will now wait for my other stick to return as I want to overclock with both sticks.
Have given up downloading 3D Mark 2003 having read the report on it in Tom's Hardware and will stick with 2001 version.

[EPoX Tech]

Try 8-4-4-3-2T - A64 seems much happier with that.

You are right about 3DMark 2003 - only majorly a bench of VGA card and not system - carry on getting 3DMark 2K1.

[ivanmoe]

Hi ET,

Thanks for responding.

I've got another question for you as I'm so unfamiliar with the whole technology surrounding the A64 and its memory requirements.

Its kind of an oldie too, and varies between CPU families.

Does the A64 run better when sync'd to the memory (like an AthlonXP), or async'd so long as the CPU gets fed data (like a P4 Northwood)?

Thanks again,

Moe

[CandymanCan]

Just buy some Cheap pc4200 ADATA HyperRam from www.komusa.com (make sure u select ADATA brand for the memory option tho.

My pc4200 ADATA runs 1:1 ratio or 200mhz in the bios @ 290 3-4-4--8-1t timmings.

Epox tech keeps recomending pc3200 Samsung sticks and those dont overclock nearly as high as the ADATA chips do and the pc4200 is only $20-30 more.

The Athlon 64's run better in sync then async but they arenmt like AXP's where they loose tons of performance. I get 4400/4400 in sandra 97% effiency with my ADATA ram @ 290mhz

[EPoX Tech]

And just out of interest your ORB link is ???

[CandymanCan]

Well if youre ganna try and compare you X800 to my 9700pro then whats the oint of running 3dmark for you. I havent done 3dmark in 3 or so years since i got my first 9700pro and fried it trying for the last 1 point on 2k1. I find its stupide to get every last 1mhz outa ur video card and cpu even if it means the video card getting artifatcs during the tests for some 3dmarkscore. I overclock for fun and to make my games run better. If you dont belive its stable i can run prime95 for a few hours and run some sandra and super p1 tests and show u it all in one pic.

But im not the only one getting get results with the ADATA ram. Everyone who has it is reaching 270+ 1:1 ratio

[ivanmoe]

Does anyone know where I might find more information about the relative influence of memory latency on A64 boards?

If the latency of the stick is less important than it raw speed, then DDR2 ought to be a knockout with A64 (with its faster speed, but apparently lousy timings).

Moe

[jnansley]

This makes much sense to me as well, though I can't quite explain why... every "thought experiment" I come up with contradicts that theory... The P4 core traditionally does a better job of masking memory latency by sheer pipeline length, while the Athlon core tends to read memory in short bursts, which make their way through the pipeline more quickly - lower latency should be of greater benefit. Yet, the evidence stands...

[Oldjim]

Best I can manage is 2.5-3-3-8 at 1T 237 MHz x10
3D Mark 19920
Tried 2T crashed at 240 MHz so went back to 1T
Cannot change multiplier - see new thread

[EPoX Tech]

That's good going! Seemed to be a good pre-cursor for finding a maximum FSB too!

[Oldjim]

Tried to improve results by shutting down extraneous programs.
Crashed at 237 x 10
Reduced overclock to 234.8 x 10 in Clockgen at 2.5-3-3-8 1T
3DMark 2001 20,435
Aquamark3 44,845
Seems to be stable so it looks like I have hit a limit

[ivanmoe]

Hi Jim,

It seems as though, from what I'm reading here, that you might benefit from loosening your memory timings to 3-4-4-8-2T. Have you tried settings in that ballpark?

Moe

[sniiki]

Yeah!
mem settings didn't help me to get higher HTT but damn it gave me 100mhz more. Before 10x240 was last stable when running pifast & super pi,
now 10x250 (and it wasn't coz of mems)
So 3-4-4-8 2T really helps with CPU

asked this on other thread too,
-does chipset voltage make any difference? (now 1.65)
-does cpu setting 'normal' or 'fastest' make any diff to oc or performance?

http://www.sunpoint.net/~sniiki/2508.jpg

[Oldjim]

Just tried 3-4-4-8 2T and could only get to 240 x 10. At 245 it crashed immediately.
With this small increase I think my best performance will be at 2.5-3-3-8 with 235 x 10 stable. At present I am only running 1 stick of ram. When my other gets back from Crucial I will try again.

[Finetobe]

I have done some test with 1T and 2T and fsb.
in 3dmark2001 i lose about 1K at 285x9 2T.
in sisoftsandra mem test it only 100 mb but if i run the memory at the same speed it about 500 mb.