This is directed more to Shorty and Mack due to their relative closeness, but to others in regards to the quality. What RAM would I want to look into to hit these speeds with decent timings, but not cost a completely obscene amount of money? Scan has a decent selection, but it tends to be all Corsair.... infact, that seems to be the only thing ANYONE sells. It's a tad on the "WTF, That RAM costs HOW MUCH!?" side.
Had to dive out and buy an MSI K8T NEO. Thankfully I didnt get hosed on price.. and im just getting it sorted.
Can't use my HPT raid card... its what was causing me so much grief.. so now Ive gotta take my disk array into work.. so I can get all the data off it..
You need to realize that the Athlon 64 platform is not recognized for stellar FSBs.
You'll have to play with system dividers, potentially bringing your RAM down and FSB up. Don't worry, the A64 loves asynch.
I don't have specifics as I don't own one (yet.)
This board HAS no dividers of any kind. Though I believe it is the RAM doing this as the fact I can't set the timings any higher at all, which leads me to believe the RAM is completely maxed out regardless.
So, back the the Question, which RAM? (I only need 512MB) as I now have ~£90 to spend.
The CPU has built in dividers for the ondie mem controller. I believe it's based on RAM SPD info, but most BIOS's have a setting that tricks the CPU to detect the RAM to be slower than it actually is. On my GA-K8N (NF3 based) mobo the setting is named "Max Memclock". If I set it to 166MHz (instead of "Auto" which gives me 200), I get Mem Clock=CPU Clock/12. So 2.0GHz/12=167MHz Mem clock, or for instance 2.4GHz/12=200MHz. The default divider is CPU Clock/10 on the 3200+ with RAM SPD programmed for PC3200 (...I believe ).
PS! Your BIOS might say 400/333/300/266/200 instead of 200/166/150/133/100 (same thing). Try 166/333
Right, at 230MHz the VIA SATA controler dies, and or freezes when it loads its ROM, but, I never noticed a problem with Mr Sil 3114, so, I turned off the VIA one in the BIOS and plugged my drive into one of the SIl sockets and...
Well, this board seems to have hit its limit. The processor unbelievely can go further, but the motherboard doesn't like taking the FSB any higher or things start to go a little wierd... Not bad though, 285.8MHz overclock with an extra 28MHz FSB.
Can someone PLEASE answer the question regarding the RAM? I HAVE to buy new RAM for the other machine, and it needs to be done ASAP. Best on the above pages for ~£90
That's the list. Im reading Kingston HyperX is becoming the current king of memory for performance and stability. It's a tough question to ask, as right now.. there are only a few of us here with a 64 system
Yeah, but in general you know if RAM is good or not from experience on other motherboards. Abits latest BIOS also fixes compatability with many types of RAM.
Problem is, I doubt they are going to find me anything within the £90 budget, if they even know what the £ symbol stands for...
What timings (sheer guessing of course) do you think it could do at 230? (I'm having a few wierd issues at 230, may have to go back a tad, no sure whats causing it though, doesn't seem processor related).
Cas 2 (2-3-2-6-1) is it's rating. Dropping the timings, you may get a higher clock that you have now.. but thats only from reading various forums regarding memory performance... I can't figuratively guess as reports are so varied.
The VIA kit isn't locked like nForce boards, so the chipset could be sensitive to being pushed to that speed.. but I couldn't say for sure. It's hard to be 100% accurate when Ive only had mine up and running for 12 hours..
All I can say is that the Kingston is very highly rated for compatibility, stability and price. So read a few forums that are very AMD specific. AMDmb have a dedicated 64 forum.. with lots of different 64 system users. Also, the MSI site has a big 64bit forum.. both those sites are saying hyperX or Mushkin is the ram to have to achieve good clocks and performance hikes
Corsair seem to be very out of favour.. as do Crucial/Micron. Lots of reports of non booting systems with those sticks.
Problem is though, the idea was to get to 220/230 with good timings, getting to 220 with arse timings won't be any better than the RAM I currently have....
I'm currently running 2x256 CorsairXMS3500 (BH5), and it won't run CL2 no matter what. CL2.5 2-5-2 works fine though (up to 230, Vddr=2.8).
Kingston KHX3200/256 and KHX3200K2/512 (BH5 based single and dual kits respectivly), seems to do best on the A64 platform right now. I'm not sure how good the CH5 based stuff is (KHX3200A/256 and KHX3200AK2/512)
Well, the stuff I just ordered is "KHX3200AK2/512" so it will be interesting to see. Though in general oppinion it seems that BH-5 is better than CH-5, although this RAM I have now is BH-5 chips and it's crap. So I guess I'll just have to wait and see.
doh, I was hoping for a little speed increase from that too. I bet thats one of the things they are going to bring in with Socket 939.
This is wierd, My machine passes Prime95 after ages of testing, and has no problem with 3DMark and such, but at some random point in Windows, may just freeze entirely (wouldn't be heat as it is cooler doing nothing).
I have the freezing as well. Its only slight. The other issue I have remaining is crappy hard drive performance... I don't have SATA and my IDE raid card was the buggy component in my build
If it stops freezing once you have the new memory.. it might be that. I have the same memory as you.. and had the odd freeze in Windows. Could be related to the same?
I have the freezing as well. Its only slight. The other issue I have remaining is crappy hard drive performance... I don't have SATA and my IDE raid card was the buggy component in my build
If it stops freezing once you have the new memory.. it might be that. I have the same memory as you.. and had the odd freeze in Windows. Could be related to the same?
May be. I have actually dropped it down to lax timings at 266 and my Prime95 errors stopped even at 233Mhz FSB (I need a processor only test damnit!).
I memtested this RAM the other day and it was fine, so it may be an incompatability....
I haven't looked at it, Il check it when/if it freezes and post back
Memory seems to be a very sensitive component in this platform (as Im sure you have read). I dunno, gonna order some kingston myself... see how it works
Right, I just put everything back to stock, played stalker for about 10 mins and it locked up. I then got into Windows, tried to do something a bit later, and it locked up.
I put in my Memtest CD, the test screen appeared for a breif second and the machine restarted.........
The guys over at the MSI forum hate Corsair because they aren't familiar with the concept of increasing the RAM voltage. It really needs at least 2.65V to be stable. I see people over there recommending against it all the time, but never once do they ask what the voltage is at.
ARGH. I tried to cancel the order because they have dropped the price of faster shipping, but noooo, it's past the point where I can cancell it. Due Wednesday. Not Happy at all. This is why everyone is against eBuyer, they're slow and expensive
If my machine doesn't work with the new RAM in then I think I will just cry, as I have no other ideas, other than a New PSU (Using an Enermax 431W atm) which I can't afford to buy (this RAM is for my so my parents can have my old mobo and CPU to swap out their old Slot A Athlon). I don't think I could talk them into a new PSU, and my only other 400w got killed by that ****ty Gigabyte motherboard.
Comments
2 Possible lists of items -
Scan - http://www.scan.co.uk/products/Products.ASP?CatID=22&Category=Memory
Komplett - http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/kl.asp?AvdID=1&CatID=17&GrpID=9&t=1014&l=2
I won't link to Dabs as it is too hard to navigate unless you know exactly what you want.
You'll have to play with system dividers, potentially bringing your RAM down and FSB up. Don't worry, the A64 loves asynch.
I don't have specifics as I don't own one (yet.)
Had to dive out and buy an MSI K8T NEO. Thankfully I didnt get hosed on price.. and im just getting it sorted.
Can't use my HPT raid card... its what was causing me so much grief.. so now Ive gotta take my disk array into work.. so I can get all the data off it..
But Im there..
This board HAS no dividers of any kind. Though I believe it is the RAM doing this as the fact I can't set the timings any higher at all, which leads me to believe the RAM is completely maxed out regardless.
So, back the the Question, which RAM? (I only need 512MB) as I now have ~£90 to spend.
PS! Your BIOS might say 400/333/300/266/200 instead of 200/166/150/133/100 (same thing). Try 166/333
Lasse
Cheers Lse.
http://www5.abit.com.tw/test_report/KV8-MAX3/index.php
That's the list. Im reading Kingston HyperX is becoming the current king of memory for performance and stability. It's a tough question to ask, as right now.. there are only a few of us here with a 64 system
Check with the ABIT usa forums.. http://forum.abit-usa.com/ ...
Problem is, I doubt they are going to find me anything within the £90 budget, if they even know what the £ symbol stands for...
Kingston HyperX 512mb 400MHz DDR Non-ECC CL2 (2-3-2-6-1) DIMM (Kit 2)
£85.77 inc VAT
The VIA kit isn't locked like nForce boards, so the chipset could be sensitive to being pushed to that speed.. but I couldn't say for sure. It's hard to be 100% accurate when Ive only had mine up and running for 12 hours..
All I can say is that the Kingston is very highly rated for compatibility, stability and price. So read a few forums that are very AMD specific. AMDmb have a dedicated 64 forum.. with lots of different 64 system users. Also, the MSI site has a big 64bit forum.. both those sites are saying hyperX or Mushkin is the ram to have to achieve good clocks and performance hikes
Corsair seem to be very out of favour.. as do Crucial/Micron. Lots of reports of non booting systems with those sticks.
I'll go have a look at AMDmb.
Kingston KHX3200/256 and KHX3200K2/512 (BH5 based single and dual kits respectivly), seems to do best on the A64 platform right now. I'm not sure how good the CH5 based stuff is (KHX3200A/256 and KHX3200AK2/512)
Does the KT8 support Dual Channel?
This is wierd, My machine passes Prime95 after ages of testing, and has no problem with 3DMark and such, but at some random point in Windows, may just freeze entirely (wouldn't be heat as it is cooler doing nothing).
If it stops freezing once you have the new memory.. it might be that. I have the same memory as you.. and had the odd freeze in Windows. Could be related to the same?
May be. I have actually dropped it down to lax timings at 266 and my Prime95 errors stopped even at 233Mhz FSB (I need a processor only test damnit!).
I memtested this RAM the other day and it was fine, so it may be an incompatability....
When yours freezes, is the HD light stuck on?
Memory seems to be a very sensitive component in this platform (as Im sure you have read). I dunno, gonna order some kingston myself... see how it works
I put in my Memtest CD, the test screen appeared for a breif second and the machine restarted.........
-drasnor