VS1GB400C3 vs. CMX1024-3200C2PT

I have come across what I would consider to be an unusual problem.

 

I have a stick of VS1GB400C3 which I've managed to run all the way up to 235 MHz FSB/DDR470 @2.6V with timings of 2.5CL-3-3-8 and which I had stable. I've successfully completed several benchmarks with it at that setting (3DMark06, Everest Ultimate, PassMark, BurnIn Test (did 2 runs, stable with no errors in either), etc).

 

To be honest, when I bought the value select I'd never actually intended to overclock it as I was just in need of more RAM at the time, but as it turns out it seems to perform quite well especially considering it is value memory/RAM.

 

So, wanting to see if I could increase my system's performance last week I purchased a stick of CMX1024-3200C2PT XMS3202 v3.1.

 

Anyway, I put the new stick in and set the FSB to 234 to see if it would run any better than the Value Select memory. I figured that since it is Corsair's performance/overclocking line of memory that it would most likely perform better and be able to clock higher. No such luck though, I tried raising the voltage, loosening the timings, backing down the FSB. At 234 MHz FSB it wouldn't even POST, I just got a blank screen.

 

I slowly backed it down from 234 to I believe around 226 one attempt at a time before I gave up. A few times it actually did POST, but it would lock up before it began to load my OS from the hdd.

 

Then I backed the FSB all the way down to stock and then raised it up to 210 MHz and it finally booted up. I would have tried raising it higher, but I had company coming over at the time.

 

So, a question to those out there who are more experienced than I, is it unusual to find a stick of "value memory" which overclocks better than the higher-end stuff?

 

Also, does anyone know of any possible reasons for this?

At any point did you run the CMX by itself and see what it could OC to?

At any point did you run the CMX by itself and see what it could OC to?

 

Yes, that was one of many things I tried.

 

The highest I can get that stick up to is 210 MHz FSB.

 

I even tried raising the voltage up to the specified 2.75V with stock timings, but I just got blue screens every time I tried anything over 210.

 

It almost worked at 211 and 212, it started to load windows, but at 211 it almost immediately gave me a BSOD with a memory error as the cause and at 212 it just got stuck in an infinite loop trying to load windows.

 

I'm thinking I've got a defective stick here because since I started trying to use the stick I just bought (the XMS) I've had programs crashing left and right (three or four program crashes just this morning). I had one or two crash last night too.

 

I hadn't had any problems with programs crashing or BSOD's or anything of that sort prior to installing the XMS stick.

Okay, tried something else earlier today.

 

I lowered the CPU multiplier from x9 to x8.5 and managed to set the FSB up to 217MHz max, but I found that to be kind of pointless because with my FSB:DRAM ratio being CPU/9 the effective DRAM frequency ended up being 204.9 (which was even lower than the 210 it was operating at before I lowered the multiplier) and also the CPU core speed ends up at 1844.5 instead of the 1890 it would be at with the stock multiplier at 210MHz.

 

Has anyone else ever used this particular revision of XMS memory and had similar problems?