BIOS Auto feature for timing RAM?

Hi, I'm new to the forums! So... hello!

 

Anyway, just upgraded my rig to a pretty phat one, still needs some serious tweaking, like probably another video card and a faster fsb, but til then I took the best PC3200 memory I could find on the net. I went by the lowest "Cass Latency"? And got the XMS Pro Series TWINX pair of 1GB sticks at 2-3-3-6.

 

I know in BIOS, just by looking at the settings for DRAM configuration, that you can manually set the timings and Cass Latency and such, but not sure what each one actually does. I already know what the Cass is for the sticks, but there's other timings I'm not sure about.

 

My main question is will the BIOS auto settings set the ram timing configuration to the memory specifications? So therefore I wouldn't have to necessarily manually configure the timings unless I want to do some overclocking?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Marcus

Do you have two sticks or 4?

 

You will need to set the memory settings manually, like so (for 2 sticks):

 

CAS Latency (tCL): 2

RAS to CAS Delay (tRCD): 3

Row Precharge (tRP): 3

Active to Precharge Delay (tRAS): 6

 

Memory Voltage: 2.7-2.8 Volts (Warrantied up to, but not over, 2.90 volts)

All other settings to defaults.

 

Source: Corsair XMS Qualification and Testing Information

I have 2 two pairs of 1GB sticks, so I have 4 sticks that brings to a total of 4GB of RAM, well 3 of it can only be read by windows until Vista comes out I hope, or if I just go XP 64-bit, but I only have XP Pro.

 

Anyway, So I got 4 sticks total, 1GB each dual-channel. I'll reference the link you gave me to see if I can get more information.

 

Thanks Wired!

 

Marcus

Try 3-4-4-8 with 4 sticks.

What would those settings do with 4GB? I hear that the less Cass value the better? I'm just curious on why you would raise each value if you have more of the same memory? The voltages perhaps? I don't know what I'm talking about.. lol.

 

I guess trying to do all 4 at 2-3-3-6 is not good?

Some memory controllers cannot run 4 PC3200 sticks at such tight timings regardless of their size. Trying to run 4 sticks at tight timings creates various memory related issues, mainly instability.

 

Some people have been able to run 4 sticks at 2-3-3-6, but its few and far between from what I've read.

 

Also something else that I've heard is that XP can only address and use up to 3GB of physical RAM, but I'm not that familiar with XP to confirm.

XP 32 bit won't, xp 64 bit will.

 

Also, why 4 GB?

I figured more memory the better, hehe. I had no idea that XP had a 3GB limit.

Stick with 2 GB. Better for XP, better timings and speed. No need for more than that unless you're doing some intensive stuff, e.g. LARGE photo editing, etc.

Ah man.. shucks o much. Are you sure? I mean c'mon now we talking 4GB here! Hehe.

 

I can easily return the other TWINX's but I would feel like there's a part of me missing somewhere, hehe.

 

Ok, I'll go ahead and take out the other two, and see what I can come up with on performance and quality. I'll let you know what happens.

 

I mainly got the other set for gaming (Which might come in handy in the near future!)

2 GB is MORE than enough for gaming. Only a handful of games even use 2 GB of memory.

Yeah I know, but would I notice a difference in performance on the desktop if I removed the other 2GB? Like in loading times and such? I don't edit many photos, or even large ones as a matter of fact, but I do some scripting and graphics editing and the like, and also run many programs at the same time.

 

Although I did try to set my pagefile to a maximum of 9GB but it only goes up to 6GB.

with 2GB of ram a pagefile of 2gb is far more than you need. You're just wasting space right now.

 

And another thing, with only 2GB in, your computer will probably be a little bit faster than with 4.

I kind of see what you mean, since well for now most games only use 2GB of RAM, and XP can only read 3. Having 4 and only reading 3 could slow down the RAM because of it's dual-channel feature... Perhaps.

 

But with the pagefile, I read in a A+ book that it's good to double or triple the pagefile size of the size of the RAM installed on the system. This book was also dated in 2001... and the book was also referring to Windows 98, but I thought the same logic goes with XP...? I can try 2GB, no harm in doing that.

you should read the Tweak Guides Tweaking Companion, here.

 

The ultimate for beginners and pros alike. It's 175 pages long and covers everything from overclocking to tweaking windows xp for the ultimate best performance.

Thanks for your help, guys.

 

Well I removed the other 2gigs and it seems to be working just fine. Although I had the 4GB clocked @ 333MHz after I manually adjusted the settings, Now I see a 12fps increase in Quake4 with 400MHZ 2-3-3-6. So I guess 2GB isn't so bad after all :)

 

And thanks for the link, Frog. This looks really juicy for enthusiasts. And perhaps will save me on a couple of answers on the A+ test!

 

Marcus