Help! DDR problem.

raleighsfinest

Hi everybody! I am new to the forum. Happy holiday weekend.

I just purchased two 1Gb sticks of OCZ DDR400 platinum dual channel. I am already running two sticks of the exact same RAM in my box. I am trying to upgrade to 4GB. I am also using and Asus A8n-SLi NForce 4 mobo, and AMD64 4200x2 cpu. When I install the new sticks and try to boot, the system gets to memory test and stops. It says memory ok and lists all 4 gigs, but it just stops there. I removed the original 2 sticks and tried just the new stuff. The box booted fine. The problem is just when I try to use all 4 sticks. I have not made any changes to the bios. The manual for the mobo states that it will support 4GB of DDR400. Can anyone help? Please, this is driving me CRAZY! Thanks in advance to all.


J:usflag:

raleighsfinest

help.......pleeeeeaaaase!!!:bawling:

Thrax

Have you updated your BIOS and reduced the command rate to 2T prior to booting with 4GB?

raleighsfinest

No I have not updated the bios yet. I believe there is one version that is more current. It was not updated when my rig was built three months ago b/c the builder said he believed there was some sort of incompatibility issue with the mobo or cpu or something....

And, no I did not reduce the command rate to 2T. I was not aware that I needed to do this. If I reduce the command rate to 2T, will I take a performance hit? if so will it be signifcant? Should I be able to run 3 1GB sticks without reducing the command rate?

Thanks for your help,Thrax. I haven't been able find any support on this anywhere. Even Asus was no help.

Thrax

The performance hit won't be that big, however it is generally necessary to run more than 2GB of memory. Also, your builder was incorrect.

raleighsfinest

So performance wise, which set-up would be better? The original set-up with just the 2GB DDR400 dual channel, or the 4GB with the command rate reduced to 2T? by the way the CAS latency is set to 2 . When the system was built, it defaulted the CAS latency to 2.5. Should I return the timing to the default then install the new sticks and then reset the CAS latency to 2?

Thrax

Honestly speaking, unless you're doing serious 3D or video rendering where memory is used as a frame buffer (Virtual workspace), 4GB is overkill. 2GB@1T is a pretty good sweet spot at the moment. The performance hit is marginal, but if you feel you're seriously going to benefit from 4GB, GO with 2T and don't worry about it.

muddocktor

What are the rated timings on the ram you are using? And what HTT speed (FSB speed) are you running? Running 4 X 1 GB sticks of ram definitely places a load on the onboard memory controller of A64 procs, so you will have to run a 2T command rate. And as far as the performance issue and 2 GB vs 4 GB of ram are concerned, it all depends on what you are running for apps. If you are running some memory intensive apps, then the extra ram will help you. But for ordinary useage, I don't think you will see much benefit with 4 GB ram. As for 1T vs 2T performance, I don't think it will make much difference in normal usage, just in memory benchmarks. Since you already have the ram, try dropping to the 2T command rate and see if it will boot with the cas set to 2. If not, try the 2.5 setting. Once you have it running, see if you notice any performance difference in your normal usage and not depend on synthetic benchmarks for numbers. After all, it's the performance of your machine and the apps that you use that should make up your mind as to the benefits of 4 GB of ram, not Sisoft Sandra or Everest.

raleighsfinest

Alright, these metrics are from memory as I'm at work. So if they sound screwy, please bear with me.

Ram timings: 2-3-2-5
FSB: 220
CPU: 2.42

And I don't really need the extra memory, just trying to speed up my rig a little more. I had gotten many different answers as to whether or not the added 2GB would make a difference or not(speedwise). So I just decided to try it. So far I can't even POST with it.

Thanks again for your help, fellas. I'm a real n00b.

j

muddocktor

At 220 fsb, you might have to relax the timings a bit, as well as run 2T command rate. But I would try 2-3-2-7 first and see if it will boot and if so, then run memtest86 and make sure you aren't getting memory errors.

raleighsfinest

So if I change the timings on the original 2 sticks, they will be applied to the additional 2 sticks when they are installed?
And you are saying to first just change the timings without changing the command rate and then try to boot, and if that does not work then try changing the timing and command rate both?

I'm just trying to make my rig as fast as possible. I have the RAM and would love to use it, but if I have to take a performance hit to do it, that would defeat the whole purpose of my buying it.

Thanks.

J

muddocktor

If you manually set the timings and command rate with just 2 sticks of ram in your board, the same timings and command rate should be applied after you drop the other 2 sticks in it.

And for 4 sticks to boot, you will first have to set the command rate to 2T before adding the other 2 sticks in your system.

I would first try setting the 2T command rate and try booting up like that with your present ram timing and all 4 sticks of ddr installed. If that will get you a post screen, then I would advise running memtest86 on the system for at least 2-3 passes and make sure that your system isn't having any memory related problems at 220 fsb and your stock timings before booting into windows. That would help you from inadventently messing your windows install up if the ram isn't stable at 220 fsb with 2-3-2-7 timings. If it makes a couple of complete passes with memtest86, then go ahead and boot into windows and see how your system performs with 4 GB ram.

RWB

Your going to take a performance hit if you go to 4GB, it's hard for most motherboards to handle 4DIMM's of memory... so things have to slow down in terms of actual speed. However, as already mentioned, if you run memory intencive programs like 3Ds Max or something, then that 4GB could be a god send becuase even slow memory is faster than paging from the HDD by a HUGE amount. So in effect it would be faster.

Being that I doubt you do anything like that, 2GB will be fastest for you. I use 3D stuff and various editing and I use 2GB as well, it's just fine. If you can get 4GB to run at specs, then that would be cool, but it's not gonna happen.

csimon

4 sticks 2T. All 4 ram sticks will be set to whatever you set your bios to run whether it be 2-3-2-5 or 2-3-2-7 or whateve. It's just a matter of finding timings that both sets will like. Are all 4 sticks identical with the same timings and speed? I would memtest86 the 4 sticks to find the sweet spot ...and you may be able to get all that ram to a higher frequency by setting 2.5-3-2-7 ...and even higher with 3-3-2-7.
Relax the timings and pump some megahurtz thru those biatches to get your performance back IMO.

raleighsfinest

Yes, all four sticks are identical. And no, I don't run any apps that are real memory hogs. I do have a good bit running in the background though, and also tend to run several apps at once. The most memory I seen my system use is ~900mb, so I don't need the RAM. I'm just being greedy. Just trying to squeeze a little more speed out of my box.:tongue2:

j

csimon

Well stick with 2 sticks and oc the poo out of it.