Belgarius Posted July 14, 2004 Share Posted July 14, 2004 I have a set of TwinX1024PC3700 sticks in my system, and am in a bit of a quandry about what settings and voltages I should select for the best performance/reliability. The system is comprised of a 2.8C on an Abit IC7, running a FSB of 233 for a speed of 3.26G, and a DDR clock of 466, which should be right in line with the specs. The timings selected by the BIOS are 3,4,4,7, and I've bumped the DDR voltage from the default 2.6 to 2.7, which got rid of the extremely rare BSoD I'd see under heavy loads. What, if any, benefits would/could I gain from increasing the voltage, or tightening the timings? I selected the set for the DDR466 rating, which aligns perfectly with my intended overclock using a 233FSB, but... I've been able to POST and boot, but suffered BSoD under loads with buss speeds much above 240, which in my limited experience usually indicates memory needs some attention... TIA Belgarius Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yellowbeard Posted July 15, 2004 Share Posted July 15, 2004 I would not suggest tightening the timings on that RAM. The Samsung ICs used will not run timings less than 3,4,4,8. There are rare exceptions however. That RAM also has not typically responded well to voltage increases. But, you can't go wrong trying up to, but not over, 2.8v. Also, I'd try setting the timings manually to 3,4,4,8. Also, make sure any performance settings are disabled. This should make your OCing attempts more stable. Mike. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Belgarius Posted July 15, 2004 Author Share Posted July 15, 2004 Thanks, I'll give that a shot here, and see where it takes me. For some reason, the SPD and the Abit BIOS determined Tras to be 7, even though the specs plainly state 8... that might explain some of those rare seemingly memory related errors that crop up as well. Usually under load, sometimes not. The default DDR voltage is 2.6, and at least at the present speed, doesn't seem to have accomplished much other that to raise the DIMM temps about a degree C, but then again, I've been pounding it a bit more than usual :laughing: Belgarius Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yellowbeard Posted July 16, 2004 Share Posted July 16, 2004 Good luck. Now that you mention it, I think my IC-7 MAX3 set my PC4000 to 3,4,4,7 also. It may be a minor bios glitch on the ABIT end. Nothing major but that is why I always set my timings manually, even if the system runs fine at SPD timings. Mike. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AusTerro Posted July 18, 2004 Share Posted July 18, 2004 I say crank the DDR voltage to. Make sure you cool the ram though. 2.8v is good. You could try ram ratios that might get you a higher CPU OC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Belgarius Posted July 19, 2004 Author Share Posted July 19, 2004 Thanks to all for the input... I've recently changed out my old Antec PSU, and done a couple of other mods to the system, resulting in better airflow over the DDR, one or both of which has served to lower the heatspreader temps by a full 6°C. I've also manually set the Tras to 8, and noticed very little change in bandwidth benchmarks, a few numbers lower, and to be expected, I would think. I've had nary a BSoD since making the changes, but since both were done at the same time, can't say what made the difference. My suspicion lies with the old PSU, serious ripple on the main rails, and sagging voltages. The old supply, with VDDR set to 2.7 delivered more along the lines of high .6's to mid .7's, with the new supply, the voltage averages 2.72, with low of 2.69, and high of 2.74 I'll be nudging things up a bit at a time to see what happens, however, since making the changes, I've been able to POST and boot into XP at a FSB of 242, and run Prime95 and Seti for over 6 hours with no ill effects, with default Vcore, and the present setting of 2.7 for the DDR. From what I've heard, the 2.8 Northwood overall doesn't OC much past 3.4 and retain overall stability. It would be nice to hit 3.5 with a 250 FSB, but I'd back the ratio to 5:4 to be on the safe side. So far, the memory has clocked pretty reliably to 484, but pushing it to 500 might be a bit too far... time will tell. Perhaps I could design waterjackets for the DDR, and add it to the cooling loop. :sunglasse Belgarius Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yellowbeard Posted July 20, 2004 Share Posted July 20, 2004 Excellent news and I suspect that the improvement was a combo of the PSU and the the timings change with more emphasis on the PSU. Let us know how your system turns out once you get it tuned. Mike. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AusTerro Posted July 20, 2004 Share Posted July 20, 2004 Yeah PSU would make a large difference. What sort of load does the PSU have? I had a Antec in my server until I noticed that when the HDDs turned on, from being off from power saving, the 12v rail dropped from 11.98 to 10.05v and stayed there. I'm surprised I did not have any issues. So I replaced with a much larger enermax and now I can OC alot more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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