DFI Lanparty 975Pro - Memory Options?

[adster]

Hi all, first post to this forum and as a newbie I am humbly asking for some help!

I have a DFI Lanparty 975 Pro mainboard with a P4 3Gz CPU (533fsb) and 2 x 512 PC3200 Ram (generic).

My issue is that I have a feeling that my PC is not running as fast as it should. My reasons are that a friend has just built a similar PC but with a 2.8Gz P4 and his benchmarks faster in PC Mark 2004. (although he has the 800fsb chip)

I'm a little (understatement) confused about memory speeds e.t.c. and was wondering if somebody can explain what memory settings I should be running, and what dual channel DDR means (i.e. my mainboard supports it but is that a different kind of DDR memory or just something I enable in bios to make things quicker)

My PC3200 Ram is currently running at 333mhz and seems to be single channel.

Any thoughts on this would be very greatfully received.

p.s. Not really trying to overclock just yet, just trying to get everything running at the speed it's supposed to be!

[adster]

Ooops sorry chaps, it's a pro 875 not a 975!!

[danrok]

I am running an AMD system, but I do have A DFI board, PC3200 and a CPU with a 333mhz bus.

Currently, testing this at 11.5 x 200mhz.

Your memory should be able run at 400mhz no problem. If you can't identify the memory chips, you should be able to use auto settings for memory timings at 400mhz.

You may want to run your memory at a higher FSB than the CPU (AMD systems don't like this). There is a BIOS setting that allows you to adjust the ratio from say 1:1 to 1:2 or whatever.

Memory tech stuff does get confusing. Dual Channel refers to the memory slot configuration on your board, i.e. there are two channels or banks and each has two physical slots.

There's a good explanantion of DDR here:
http://www.theddrzone.com/faq.php

[danrok]

Also, you might want to download cpu-z from here:
http://files.aoaforums.com/index.php?dir=176

This will display all your current settings. You could always use cpu-z's screen shot facility and then post the screen shots here so that it will be easier for someone to advise you.

[adster]

Brilliant thanks guys, will take a look and see what I can post to help you see where I'm going wrong!

[adster]

Originally Posted by danrok

Also, you might want to download cpu-z from here:
http://files.aoaforums.com/index.php?dir=176

This will display all your current settings. You could always use cpu-z's screen shot facility and then post the screen shots here so that it will be easier for someone to advise you.

Unfortunately I dont have any means of hosting a screenshot so here is the results copied the hard way!

Intel Pentium 4
Code Name: Northwood Brand ID 9
Package mPGA-478
Technology 0.13u Voltage 1.504 v
Specification Intel Pentium 4 CPU 3.06Ghz
Family F Model 2 Stepping 7
Ext Family 0 Ext Model 0 Revision C1
Instructions MMX,SSE,SSE2
Clocks
Core Speed 3073.7Mhz
Multiplier x23.0
FSB 133.6 Mhz
Bus Speed 534.6 Mhz

Memory tab gave nothing other than the fact I have 1024MB Ram, all the interesting bits were greyed out.

Does this help?

Thanks

Adam

[RussianMissile1]

fyi: you can attach pictures if you click the purple post reply button on the bottom of the thread.

also, my main system in my signature below gets better results in 3dmark 01 and 03 than this other guy i know who has a P4 3GHz 800fsb and a 9800pro.
i just think that different hardware configurations work together differently.

[keithwalton]

RussianMissile, there is a reason for why you out bench them :-) your 9700 is running at 9800xt speed so you'll even give my system a run for its money !
I was going to say fsb matters until i realised you were using a B spec chip and so your fsb would be lower.

My 2.4 I've got running at 3Ghz has a 1Ghz (effective) fsb this helps it greatly as in sisoft it matchs there 3.2Ghz chip almost identically :-)

Adster : try getting a memory benching program and see if your running dual channel speeds or not. (sisoft is good for that)
You could also take a look at the way the ram is inserted. dual channel will be in banks of memory and you'll need one stick in each bank They are usually colour coded so that you put both sticks in the same colour but if not make it so that there is a space between your sticks, eg use slot 1 & 3. If in doubt check your manual

hth

K

[adster]

Originally Posted by keithwalton

Adster : try getting a memory benching program and see if your running dual channel speeds or not. (sisoft is good for that)
You could also take a look at the way the ram is inserted. dual channel will be in banks of memory and you'll need one stick in each bank They are usually colour coded so that you put both sticks in the same colour but if not make it so that there is a space between your sticks, eg use slot 1 & 3. If in doubt check your manual

hth

K

Ahhh! You may have hit on something there. i didn't realise that you had to put the DDR simms into specific slots for dual channel. Thank you!! Will try that tonight and see what difference that makes.

Thanks for your help!

[adster]

O.K. Progress in one way, and problems in another.

You were right, When I stuck the second Dimm into the third slot on my mainboard I suddenly got Dual Channel DDR, however my machine now locks up halfway through a 3Dmark 2003 or PC2004 benchmark which it never did before. I've returned my FSB to the default level so nothing is overclocked.

Any ideas?

Cheers

Adam

[adster]

In fact, my machine now locks up if I attempt a virus scan as well. Seems the whole system is shot now....any ideas why moving a stick of ram from slot 2 to slot 3 on a 4 slot dual channel DDR motherboard?

[dabaerman]

hello adster and welcome to the forums.

have you tried mem slots 2&4? have you tried with
different mem modules? ie 256mb?
are the mem ecc or regestered? the same or sold
as a pair?
some mobo do not like 512mb+ unless ecc or reg.
also , most dual channel mem sold in pairs and not
ecc or reg. for compatibility issues. haven't had a
chance to look at DFI man. for answer to that. btw,
if you have put the mem back into 1&2 and still
have problems, it's the memory. may well be the
mem controller/m'board.
again, welcome and good luck.

Ron

[adster]

Hi Ron,

Thanks for that. Will try the memory in Slots 2 and 4 and then back to 1 and 2 tonight to see what happened. The memory is fairly cheap non-ECC, generic off-the-shelf stuff from PC World, but you'd expect it to work without crashing!

Maybe I may have to bite the bullet and pay for some quality ram in the near future but seems a shame to pay out without expecting a difference in performance.

Thanks again

Adam

[keithwalton]

Intel boards arent usually that picky with ram in dual channel compared to amd versions. As long as there the same size and make in my experience they work.
You may find slackening off ram times benificial or perhaps trying to turn pat off. afaik pat only kicks in when dual channel is used in an attempt to reduce the latency of using two sticks. This could be causing your ram problems by trying to run it to fast.

hth

K

[adster]

Hi Ken,

Please excuse my ignorance, but what is PAT? And how would I reduce ram times? My bios isn't tremendously user friendly, the only thing obvious I can see to adjust is the FSB which is currently set to 533. Ram options are either automatic or 100/133/166 (or similar) so only 2 options to choose from there.

Sorry for being dense here!

Cheers

Adam

[keithwalton]

PAT is performance acceleration technology, or somthin like that, its what differentiates the i875 from i865 mainly.
There is usually quite alot of tweaks for memory settings but then i've been spoiled with epox and abit boards in the past.
Somewhere at least there should be cas latency, and possibly other settings nearby it. Like Ras, and cas to ras etc. in terms of numbers, lower is faster but less stable.
As for Pat it might be called intel cs, or somthing like that.

All of these should be under a cpu / chipset / memory option in the bios.

hth

K