MSI K8N Neo2 / TwinX 3200XLPT problem

[tomkodey]

I recently assembled a system with the following components:

 

MSI K8N Neo2 Motherboard

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ (90nm Winchester)

Corsair 1GB (2x512) TwinX1024-3200XLPT XMS3200 memory

2xWD2000JD 200GB SATA Hard Drives

Antec True550 PSU

ATI All-In-Wonder 9800 Pro

WindowsXP Pro SP2

 

I got memory errors (using MEMTEST-86 v3.2) with the default memory timing of 2-2-2-5-2T. The errors seem to have been completely eliminated by adjusting the timing to 2-2-3-5-2T (Tcl-Trcd-Trp-Tras).

 

How does this timing change affect the performance of the system?

 

I'm not much into memory timing stuff and hate to spend the time experimenting. Is there a different timing that might also deal with the problem and have less of a performance impact?

 

Is this something that might degrade further over time, that is, am I likely to have to relax the timing further in the future?

 

Is the memory OK or does it need replacing?

 

Tom

 

fwiw, here are the memtest errors I received prior to adjusting the timing (these are the results from several tests using various combinations of DIMM slots 1/2 and 3/4):

 

TST PASS Failing Addr Good Bad Err-Bits Cnt

5 0 00005B25000 - 91.3MB 7481C040 00200000 74A1C040 1

5 0 00001904000 - 25.1MB 7481C04E 00400000 74C1C04E 1

3 1 0005B0B000 - 91.6MB DFDFDFDF 3481C04E EB5E1F91 1

3 1 0005B0B010 - 91.6MB 20202020 7481C04E 54A1E06E 1

3 1 0005B0B000 - 91.6MB FBFBFBFB 7481C040 8F7A3BBB 1

6 0 00005B1000 - 91.6MB FFF7FFFF 7481C040 8B763FBF 1

6 0 00005B22000 - 91.1MB FFDFFFFF 7481C04E 8B5E3FB1 1

[RAM GUY]

The memory is fine, and some AMD64 systems will just not run with the Rass to Cass set to "2". Also I would set the Dim Voltage to 2.8 Volts and test the modules one at a time with http://www.memtest.org to be sure. But if they both pass one up I would just set the Rass to Cass (TRCD) to "3" the difference is not enough to notice.