Overclocking questions...memory really..

[millertime]

Right now I have an A7N8X-E deluxe with a XP3200+ clocked at 217fsb x 10.5. Now I also have 2x512mb DDR400 Corsair Value Ram installed at 2.5-3-3-8 and 2.7v...was told that I couldn't do this effectively, but I am...

Can I expect to get better performance from PC3500 or even PC3700?? I've even went as high as 220fsb x 10...I know this board is funny about which RAM is installed in it...does anyone have experience with doing this before I spend some more money....?

[Gizmo]

It really depends on the board. Most NF2 boards seem to top out about 225-230 MHz FSB. Given what you've already got, though, you might have one of those rare ones that can go a fair bit higher. Or the A7N8X might just be a good OCer in general; I'm not familiar with it so I can't say. However, even 250 MHz FSB clock is still only PC4000. If I were you and I had the money, I'd probably go ahead and spring for the PC3700 and give it a try.

The fastest I ever got my value ram up to stable was 214, but I was running rather tighter timings than you, at 2-2-3-11.

[millertime]

wow, and that was on Value Select RAM also...must have go one that was made on a Wednesday

Do you suggest any certain brand in your experiance??????

[Gizmo]

I'm rather partial to OCZ, but my experience is rather limited. I've heard the Adata stuff is pretty good, and a lot cheaper.

[millertime]

I notice in your sig, that you use 512mb...is that 2x256 or 1x512..not familiar with the Abit boards..do you run dual channel?

[Gizmo]

Single 512 right now. I've got a dual channel kit to go to 1 GB, but I haven't installed it yet.

[RussianMissile1]

that corsair value ram is a really good ocer. i had a 256mb stick of ddr333 running at 195 fsb at 2-2-2-5 timings at 2.8v.

too bad that mobo fried....

[millertime]

I tried running at 2.5-2-2-8 and it wouldn't POST...I play mostly flight sim games and some NASCAR so my req's might be alittle different...am I correct to assume that at a 217fsb I could run PC3500 and if I could get it to 233fsb then PC3700 would be the choice? I know most modules are backwards compatible, would there be a performance gain in PC4000..some say NF2 boards like to be run 1:1...I could just run with looser timings.....right....

[Gizmo]

It's not just NF2 boards; you generally don't want to run ANY AMD socket A based board at anything other than 1:1. The increase in FSB you get never makes up for the loss of performance. For the same reason, you want to run the lowest latencies you can in your memory. PC-3500 and PC-3700 have higher latencies than PC-3200, so they only help you out if your increase in FSB is sufficient to offset the latency. In the case of most NF2 boards, since you don't usually get FSBs over about 230 MHz clock or so, it doesn't make sense to go over about PC-3500 (usually). With the kind of numbers you are getting already, though, it might make sense in your case.

Can you run 2.9v on that ram? That is what I had mine running at.

[millertime]

My BIOS doesn't show a 2.9v setting it only goes to 2.6, 2.7, and 2.8 and that is all my choices..I have had this setup to 220x10 at 2.5-3-3-11 and it had a couple of hiccups so that is why I backed it down a bit...I thought that was because I was using the "cheap stuff". Tried to up the multi to 11.5 and keep 200fsb but it did want to..seems the bandwith also jumps a good notch with the higher fsb so that is why I run it there...The BIOS is 1012 and that is the latest so far..

[Gizmo]

I'll bet if you could get 2.9 or better, that RAM would go even faster in that system.

11x200 would give you the same CPU speed as 10x220, 2.2 GHz.
11.5x200 puts you at 2.3 GHz, which might be too much for your CPU unless you up the Vcore.

Say, when are you gonna start folding with that rig?

[millertime]

Okay,,,,,the dumbest question ever,,,,,,What is folding..

have heard the term before but haven't a clue what it is

Enlighten me please

[Gizmo]

Click on the 'AOA Folding' graphic in my siggy. It will tell you all about it.

You can also go to folding.stanford.edu.

[Chernobyl]

H guys
I'm not sure if this applies to current NForce 2 motherboards
This was tested on many boards over 6 months ago and I found it to work!

NForce2 motherboards appear to have a strange quirk with Ram timings.
If you change the last value (tRAS) to 11, the ram seems to run faster and clock higher!
ie
instead of 2.5-2-2-8, use 2.5-2-2-11 and see if you can clock further or reduce other latency values.

This article describes how little tRAS is used. Making this run too fast may limit your overclock with no real benefit
http://www.cooltechzone.com/index.ph...1&limitstart=2

I'm interested to know if this still holds true as I havent seen mention of it for some time.

ps try disabling Dual Channel DDR by moving a ram module to the spare slot. You should be able to clock higher, enough to gain benefit over the slight performance loss from not having Dual DDR.

[Gizmo]

Yes, it still holds true. Look at the timings in my siggy. You think I got those out of a cheerio box?

There have been several threads here about it.

The dual channel thing is interesting. You're right that it really doesn't gain anything on AMD unless you are running onboard video, but it never occured to me that it might affect your memory timings as well. I've got some dual channel memory that I need to get plugged in anyway. I might give that a try.