what motherboards can rum pc2 8500 ram?

[bonesaw]

i guess this sort of works like an factory overclock but can any motherboard take advantage of this speed?

[keithwalton]

yes most of the 965 and 975 boards can make use of the extra frequency when overclocking to insane fsb's and still keep the ram at a 1:1 ratio.

An advantage of running pc2-8500 would be if you run it at say 800mhz (6400) you can usually with good chips tighten the timings to cas 4 and even sometimes cas 3 and get some really stunning performance out of ddr2.

one thing i would say however price of ram pc6400 and above (at decent latencies) has gone through the roof. I did read somewhere that the spot price on pc6400 is up 40% this month alone.

Just looking up my ram sticks cost me £130 odd back in july, the same sticks on ocuk are £208 today!

[bonesaw]

what would be the idea setup for pc2 8500 ram like in the bios and everything?

[bonesaw]

i was just reading a review about some guy not being able to get the ram to run at 1066 in a asus p5b

[bonesaw]

how about the nvidia chipset thats coming out can that handle?

[cadaveca]

Any reports of ram not running it's rated frequencies are user error. Divider's are key, and sometimes the bios will not support them. there's lots of info to set it all straight, but basically if it's gonna do pc8500, it will.

My sticks are EPP profiled for 1000mhz. they do it, and then some. so will most other sticks out there...even alot of the "valueram". there are no poor performing IC's out there right now, so we consumers get it up the wazoo because relabellers such as mushkin and OCZ feel ripped off selling you a product that does so much more...after all, that's how these places came into being in the first place...factory overclocking cheap parts...and so, becasue they lose lots of the valueram, they recoup the costs by charging the enthusiasts. RAM PRICES soar.

Now, i said way back when that this would happen...and lo' and behold...it did. I wonder what Andy has to say about it!

[bonesaw]

does it have to do with ratios and such get the ram to run at the overclocked speed?

[cadaveca]

The ratios are the dividers. part of that is also a set of sub-timings for the memory. More often than not, it's these settings being wrong for the stick that causes issues. The board I've got...sets TRD @ 6/7 at my current FSB. 6 is too tight for my ram @ 1000mhz, unless i give it some extreme voltage. Change the FSB to stock, tho, and set 1067mhz for the mem, and no issues(TRD 8). One simple setting, that's in the SPD rom for the memory stick even, and ASUS has timings set contrary to what the stick is rated for. Ooops.

I mentioned about OEM board makers not giving users access to the proper options for memory timings when I was running DDR1...and it seems as though nothing has changed.

I'm eagerly awaiting DFI's RD600 simply because DFI leaves these options open to the end user...making overclocking a whole differnt ballgame.


We will see how long that lasts tho, now that GM owns DFI.

[bonesaw]

you know anyware i can read up on this sort of thing because i'm starting to get it just i dont want keep asking question after question.

[cadaveca]

not documented, really. I'm working on it...by buying parts, as usual.

[bonesaw]

yea i guess i'm gonna have to trial and error this sort of thing in a few months when i finish my build. but hopefully i can learn a little more before then. 1:1 it what you want right for the higher speeds? then take it from there when overclocking further?

[cadaveca]

hard to say, TBH. Bioses seems to favor 1:1, so in that regard, yes, 1:1 is best, however some boards are not even reaching 400mhz FSB consistently...although i can almost say most of it is user error.

[bonesaw]

just look at what i plan on getting because that what i'm basing this off of

[cadaveca]

looks good...get the e6600.

[bonesaw]

i dont know if i'll have the money for the 6600 but should i keep the case i got its a x-blade that came with a barebone kit that is my current setup. cant the 965 chipset in the p5b run quad core also?

[cadaveca]

dunno.

[keithwalton]

yes the 965 and 975x are quad core compatible, engineering samples have been running in the p5w at least.

as for not having the money etc, i'd go for the faster cpu and possibly cut back on the ram the conroe's arent that sensitive to memory speed (more latency) and anything over 1:1 speed wise is a waste.

[bonesaw]

what do you suggest because i got a month to look into it

[bonesaw]

i just found this link all about ram if any one wants to look at it http://www.techwarelabs.com/reviews/.../index_3.shtml

[keithwalton]

After reading stuff about the upcoming Quad Core chips of which the NDA lifted today, it seems your wish is going to come true. The long awaited nvidia chipset for conroe is coming next week (8th nov) is known as the 680i and it may just be the best platform for the new chips apparently! Rumour has it they can hit memory speeds of 1200mhz+ no word on what fsb that is with

The ati chipset still seems to be few and far between with only dfi really saying they'll make a board, but where is it!