RAM overclocking risks.

[THEpiGUY]

Hey everyone, and thanks for reading my post. I'm new to these forums and pretty much new to overclocking in general, so I have a few questions about my RAM.

I know that all (or at least most...) overclocking comes with an added risk. I was going to mess around with the timings of my RAM, mainly just change the 2T to 1T. Besides overheating/overvoltaging, what are the risks of doing this? And will I be able to get back to the BIOS if I mess up the settings too badly (disregarding frying my ram from overvoltaging)? I have an ASUS A8N32 board in case you needed to know. All I really want is to be able to at least activate the BIOS with different timings. If I'm able to do this, I'm satisfied.

Any and all help is appreciated.

 

[badge]

Hey everyone, and thanks for reading my post. I'm new to these forums and pretty much new to overclocking in general, so I have a few questions about my RAM.

I know that all (or at least most...) overclocking comes with an added risk. I was going to mess around with the timings of my RAM, mainly just change the 2T to 1T. Besides overheating/overvoltaging, what are the risks of doing this? And will I be able to get back to the BIOS if I mess up the settings too badly (disregarding frying my ram from overvoltaging)? I have an ASUS A8N32 board in case you needed to know. All I really want is to be able to at least activate the BIOS with different timings. If I'm able to do this, I'm satisfied.

Any and all help is appreciated.

If you read the features list of your ASUS motherboard, you should see you have the feature Crash Free Bios. This allows you to access your BIOS by simply pressing the delete key from your keyboard should you crash your BIOS. If you have entered your BIOS and found your RAM timings and know the new timings you wish to enter, do so. If everything goes as ASUS has planned, you won't hurt anythnig :lol: HTH.

 

[THEpiGUY]

alright, thanks guys very much. I just don't wanna have to buy 2gb of ram because of any stupid errors. I'm gonna try it in just a few minutes. And, just in a very strange case that something goes terribly wrong, can't you take the battery out of the mobo and put it back in and it restores the original settings, letting it completely boot up again? I've heard something like this, can't remember exactly what it was. Again, thanks for all the help.

 

[badge]

Crash Free BIOS is designed so you won't have to open the case and reset the jumper or remove the battery. It's a great feature. I still have several MB's that I have to open up and reset the jumper if I crash it trying to overclock.

 

[THEpiGUY]

Alright, thank you so much for the information, and giving it to me without being a jerk . (I've asked basic questions in other forums, not so nice... ) I'm going to give it a try now.

 

[ches111]

Remember to go slow (small increments) and always test for stability (how long is up to you) after any small tweak...

Too many people go for broke on OC'ing thier systems and either cause damage (not likely but possible) or instability.

Always take a systematic approach to OC noting your changes and their net effect. This way you know what actually makes a difference/the most difference.

 

[ivoryjohn]

Some RAM responds better to increased voltages than others, but raising the voltage on RAM past a certain point can increase risk of damage to the memory controller built into A64. I don't know, but would assume that a m/b based memory controller would have a similar threshhold (but since most m/b chips are less dense fabrication, they are probably more hardy in this respect).

I expect the exact voltage where this could occur would depend on your RAM type. I think that for an A64 with DDR, the threshold is over 3 volts. The danger in that case would be to the A64 more than the RAM.

I have found that if you are cautious and take small steps, you should have no fear of damaging your hardware. Your system will refuse to boot, or refuse to run stable long before you are going to smoke anything.

You will also find that a lot of ram is sold today pretty near it's max speed, that is, not all RAM is adept at over clocking. That is why most overclockers will buy ram that is specced beyond what the system calls for so they can over clock while the ram remains within spec. Fortunately, the better boards allow us to use ram dividers to keep ram within it's stable zone.

 

[THEpiGUY]

I always take overclocking slow; I'm very cautious about my system since it's the only one I'll be getting for probably 5-6 years, and it's pretty nice, esp. for the time when I got it. When overclocking my CPU a while back, I'd go up by small increments of FSB, I think I'd go up by 2 every time to see if it would work. Then after I hit the limit, I went down about 5 or 6, can't remember exactly.

Staying on topic, I tried some overclocks on my RAM timings and I think I'm satisfied. Went from 3-3-3-8 (it was supposed to be 2-3-3-6....?) to 2-3-2-5 (yes, just at 200MHz, haven't decided to mess with that yet). Not sure of stability as of yet. Couldn't figure out how to change the Command Rate, but maybe I'll find it eventually... Also couldn't find anything about a FSB:RAM divider...
Scary for a second, when I set it to 2-2-2-5, it did a series of loud beeps (8 per second). But Crash Free BIOS saved the day when I rebooted. Never knew it could do that 8O . Thanks everyone for all the help. I very much appreciate it.