Settings help

[llama_man]

Pleas excuse my complete n00b-ness, but memory stuff baffles me. Maybe I'm getting too old.

Anyway, I have 4x512Mb of Geil value RAM on an Asus A8N-SLI board (nForce 4). Now, I know I should have bought 2x1Gb, but the second pair were an upgrade...

I understand that it is possible to force my board to run at DDR400 and 1T, rather than the default setting (which will be DDD333 with 4 sticks). The question is - how?

My BIOS has a setting to allow me to set the MAXIMUM speed to DDR400, but I guess setting the maximum to this might still mean that it's running slower?

What other settings do I need to enter to force it to run at DDR400?
The options available are:

Memory clock value (100/133/166/200) - I assume I need 200 here
Cas latency (2/2.5/3) - my sticks are advertised as cas 2.5
Min #RAS active time - ??????
RAS# to CAS# delay - ??????
Row precharge time - ???????
1T/2T timing - I guess i set this to 1T?

If it helps at all, Geil state that the stats for my memory are 2.5-8-4-4

Help would be much appreciated!

 

[llama_man]

Many thanks for your help. It had occurred to me to enter the x-x-x-x ratings, but I wasn't sure if there were in the same order! Besides, I didn't want to change anything that might change the voltage and fry my RAM!

I didn't google search because:

1. I was on my lunchhour and I didn't have much time left :!:
2. I trust the posters on this forum more than a random "twe4k urself a l337 r1g" site :roll:
3. I'm inept and lazy

 

[llama_man]

When you say "chipset". does this mean there'll be increased load through the Northbridge? If so, I may need to reconnect the fan for it :lol:

 

[7H4_D00D3]

If you rally want to run them @ 1T, I would find it a miracle since you have 4 modules : S....

 

[llama_man]

Apparently I would be able to run themat 1T if they were single-sided sticks. The AMD memory controller can (so I hear) only run 1T for four banks - so either 4 single-sided sticks, or 2 double-sided. In this case, my sticks are dual-sided, so I shouldn't be able to run 1T.

BUT I changed my settings to 1T and it runs fine. I guess it must have throttled back the other settings. I'll find out once I switch all the "auto" settings to manual and run a memory test.

 

[7H4_D00D3]

I can run my system @1T with two sticks, each one has 4banks and letme tell you, increased the write speed by A LOT, check my post @ http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=1019812#1019812

I still have to update it with the results recovered from past experiments....but that should be something

I conclude (for now) that high frequencies make a difference just a liiiittle bit better than tweaking the latencies, but the most performance is gained when both elements are balanced, for instance, with HTT set as 210 and 1T I kicked 215@2T in some tests, and the other latencies also have their performance boosts/penalties, that are very small for single changes, but with a liitle work and luck, you could get a very thight numbers there = lotsa performance for you ^^

 

[llama_man]

Thanks for the info - I'm only intending to run my memory at it's normal "stock" settings and latency - minus, of course, the throttling caused by the memory controller being scared of 4 sticks.

 

[7H4_D00D3]

No prob, and good luck on that, if 1T doesnt wokr, try tightening the other latencies

For some reason, I also found more stable 1T with overclocked memory, cuz without overclocking sometimes blue screening happened

 

[llama_man]

Do you mean over-clocking or over-volting? I've heard that running 4 sticks can drain the power a little too much, and giving the RAM a little extra juice can help fix this.

I'd be reluctant to try it though, as I'm terrified of playing about with voltages. As the old saying goes - "Mhz doesn't kill stuff, volts do".

 

[7H4_D00D3]

No, in fact, I dropped voltage of ALL that works in my pc

CPU: Required: 1.4
Me: 1.15

Ram: 2.5-2.6
Me: dunno, set it as "low" in the mobo, crappy options this BIOS has

I only se it to AUTO for the memory while OCing and 1.25 for the CPU and still, it's stable

A couple of days ago I tested my system for half an hour in memtest86+ HHT222 2.5-3-3-8@1T with low voltage for memory, no erros

I didn't want to run XP because I didn't know if my sysem wouldn't collapse, so, when I ave a LOT of time I'll give it a few extra hours on memtest and then --if succesfull-- in PI and Prime

The only problem is, since I live in a very hot place, my temps get a liitle high, CPU gets to 51ºC full load but "mobo" temp (?¿?¿?) rises up to 50-52ºC......I have the money to buy a couple of Ttake fans but Im holding it to buy a new vidcard and put both at the same time