Terminology and interrelated settings

[chadwickvm]

Ok, I thought I new how to overclock but I guess not. I figured it was just a matter of changing multiplier or fsb to your liking. So now, I read about how running memory asyncrinously can really slow down your system and AGP/PCI settings won't run very far off of their 66/33 mhz speeds respectively, I wonder what I am missing. My questions are. How do I keep my computer working peak if I change my FSB and multiplier with respect to running ram syncrinously and keeping my agp/pci working. At the moment, I have 1GB of Samsung 333MHz DDR, a MSI KT4 Ultra, and my Processor is going to be upgraded to whatever is best to overclock between an XP2400 and XP3000. What is it i need to consider? Will I need to change my original timings from x-x-x-x to y-y-y-y (not sure what they currently are)? Any help would be great. If you want, e-mail me at chadwickvm@yahoo.com and maybe I could bounce a few questions off of whoever responds. Thanks.

 

[twofruitz]

whats your system, to vaguely answer your questions the lower your memory timings (3-4-4-8) the faster you can run your CPU. However faster memory timings are better with a lower voltage.

<A HREF="http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=6973142" target="_new">3dmark2001</A>

2.4C @ 3.0G
Asus P4C800
Corsair 2x512 3200
Sapphire 9600pro @ 500/700
80G Seagate S-ATA150

 

[chadwickvm]

Well, now that I'm looking at my bios closely, i don't think i have any option to change the timing divisions. The only thing that looks close says CPU Ratio but it is actually the multiplier.

 

[Coyote]

Did you change "SPD" to "manual" in the bios ?

XP 2000+
MSI KT3 ULTRA-2 KT333
Maxtor 60GB ATA 133 7200RPM
512MB PC2700
ABIT G4 Ti4200 OTES 64MB
Win98SE

 

[chadwickvm]

Yeah, its user atm.

 

[Coyote]

I may be full of huey, but after lookin at that mobo on the MSI site I can't beleive that ram timings can't be changed. But I couldn't tell what bios you've got form the site. Can you post whether it's award or ami? then I'll have a look and see if I can help you find the right place in the bios

XP 2000+
MSI KT3 ULTRA-2 KT333
Maxtor 60GB ATA 133 7200RPM
512MB PC2700
ABIT G4 Ti4200 OTES 64MB
Win98SE

 

[chadwickvm]

AMI BIOS 1.40

 

[Coyote]

OK, I have ami bios om my MSI KT3 Ultra at home. So hopefully they are similar. Go to "advanced chipset features" in the bios. There you will (hopefully) find "Dram Timings" select it and change to "user". This should enable you to adjust you ram settings at will.

btw, when you select Dram Timmings, it will bring up a new screen that you may not have seen before, it displays current settings and allows for their adjustment. Really hope this helps

XP 2000+
MSI KT3 ULTRA-2 KT333
Maxtor 60GB ATA 133 7200RPM
512MB PC2700
ABIT G4 Ti4200 OTES 64MB
Win98SE

 

[Coyote]

ChadwickVM are you having any luck yet?


XP 2000+
MSI KT3 ULTRA-2 KT333
Maxtor 60GB ATA 133 7200RPM
512MB PC2700
ABIT G4 Ti4200 OTES 64MB
Win98SE

 

[chadwickvm]

Well, when looking for the timings, I thought it would be expressed in a ratio form. . . But here is what is under that menu.
SDRAM FREQUENCY: 266MHz, 333MHz, 400MHz, AUTO (SET TO AUTO)
SDRAM CAS# LATENCY: 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, AUTO (AUTO)
ROW PRECHARGE TIME: 2T, 3T, AUTO (AUTO)
RAS PULSE WIDTH: 5T, 6T, AUTO (AUTO)
RAS TO CAS DELAY: 2T, 3T, AUTO (AUTO)
BANK INTERLEAVE: DISABLED, 2-WAY, 4-WAY, AUTO (AUTO)
DDR DQS INPUT DELAY: 18, 08, 0E, 0F, AUTO (AUTO)
SDRAM BURST LENGTH: 4QW, 8QW (4QW)
SDRAM 1T COMMAND: DISABLED, ENABLED (DISABLED)
FAST COMMAND: NORMAL, FAST, ULTRA (NORMAL)
FAST R-2-R TURNAROUND: DISABLED, ENABLED (DISABLED)

The only thing I can think of is that I'm suppose to match my FSB frequency to some multiple of the 3 possible SDRAM frequencies, which probably isn't the case.

Also, are there any of those settings that I should change? the words in () mean thats the current setting i have for it.

 

[pIII_Man]

you dont have to mach em to anything...rule of thumb is the lower the better however if you loosen the timmings (higher number) you probably will be able to run the ram/fsb faster making the system as a whole faster.


If it isn't a P6 then it isn't a procesor
110% BX fanboy

 

[Coyote]

ChadwickVM, I'm a noobie OCer so I don't feel comfortable in recommending specific changes for your rig. Without knowing what CPU you are using (or will be using) I don't think your questions can be answered except in a very general way. My impression is that you are interested in OCer feature of this board to help in selecting new CPU. It may be helpful to visit forums dedicated to your specific mobo and see what others are able to do with their rigs. Here's one for amd/msi combinations:<A HREF="http://www.amdforums.com/forumdisplay.php?s=214d8a97365e628890d4a3f533ee702a&forumid=12" target="_new">http://www.amdforums.com/forumdisplay.php?s=214d8a97365e628890d4a3f533ee702a&forumid=12</A>

You should be able to post their and get help from those w/same mobo as well

XP 2000+
MSI KT3 ULTRA-2 KT333
Maxtor 60GB ATA 133 7200RPM
512MB PC2700
ABIT G4 Ti4200 OTES 64MB
Win98SE

 

[chadwickvm]

I'll check it out thanks. I'm really just trying to figure out what everything means. I'm not even sure what "loosen the timings" means. Thanks everyone for the help though. I know it hasn't been easy.