Question regarding CL4 timings and P5W DH

[Aeon25]

Hi, I overclocked my E6600 to 3600 Mhz and it's still running stable after 4 hours of 100% load. Now it's time to have a look at tuning my memory TWIN2X2048-6400C4 (XMS2-6400 2048MB 4-4-4-12 2X240 DIMM), but having read the stickied Core2Duo overclocking guide, I'm no longer sure what to do.

Reason is this line in the guide:

1. Set ‘DRAM Timing’ to manual or disable SPD (use SPD for P5W DH)

Currently my P5W DH Deluxe's bios is set to SPD and CPU-Z tells me this:



I ran my memory at 4.0-4-4-12 before, and I was about to set it to that again until I read the above part in the guide.

Any recommendations?

 

[CompuTronix]

I have the same rig & RAM. Runs great at 4-4-4-12. I've found that the RAM tops out at 933 Mhz with 5-5-5-15. Also, was that screenshot of Core Temp at Idle? Check out the following Topic for info regarding appropriate temps:

Core 2 Duo Temperature Guide

Hope this helps.

Comp 8)

 

[Aeon25]

I have the same rig & RAM. Runs great at 4-4-4-12. I've found that the RAM tops out at 933 Mhz with 5-5-5-15. Also, was that screenshot of Core Temp at Idle? Check out the following Topic for info regarding appropriate temps:

Core 2 Duo Temperature Guide

Hope this helps.

Comp 8)

It did help, thanks

Though as I just installed my new Hyper 6+ cpu cooler, I'm wondering why you asked about the temperature shown in the picture. Is there anything odd about it I need to know about?

It was indeed taken at Idle, but since you specifically asked about it, I took another look at the temperature guide you linked and these are my temperatures:

Idle
Tcase 31
Tjunction 41

100% load
Tcase 50
Tjunction 65

With ambient temperature being around ~22.

I'm guessing these values are okay, since the guide reads 50c Tcase and 65c Tjunction with TAT @ 100% load are safe and reasonable temperatures. and TAT being the heaviest load my system will ever get...

 

[CompuTronix]

Your temps are perfect. What's your Vcore?

 

[Aeon25]

Bios settings

Vcore 1.5 (1.46 actual according to speedfan, 1.5 in everest)
Vdimm 2.1 (2.1 actual according to everest)
Vmch 1.65
Vich 1.20
Vfsb 1.40


I raised the Vmch from 1.05 (lowest) to 1.20 cause the OS crashed last night and I did not want to further push the Vcore and it seems to be running stable ever since. What you think about these voltages?


About the memory once more In bios I've set my memory to:

CL 4
tRCD 4
tRP 4
tWR 4
tRAS 12

CPU-Z gives me a readout of:
CL 4
tRCD 4
tRP 4
Tras 12
Trc 16

So pretty much the same.

But Everest shows this:
4-4-4-12 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS)
tRC (row cycle time) 22T
CR (command rate) 2T
tWR (write recovery time) 6T

I'm not sure why the tRC is off, and I don't have an option to change the tWR in bios I think. Also, when I run MemSet 3.2 I don't see any entry of 22 or 22T and the only entry with a 16 is Page Close Idle Timer 16T, which I guess is the tRC..


And both Sandra and Everest recommend a timing of 5-5-5-18 @ 400 Mhz:

5-5-5-18 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS) / 22-42-3-6-3 (RC-RFC-RRD-WR-WTR) but I cant set any of the latter ones in my bios (MemSet probably can but most of the Subtimings don't show any abbreviations)

I did get a 100 point improvement in 3DMark 06 after setting the 4-4-4-12 timings in bios, so I guess i at least didn't make anything worse

 

[CompuTronix]

Bios settings

Vcore 1.5 (1.46 actual according to speedfan, 1.5 in everest)
Vdimm 2.1 (2.1 actual according to everest)
Vmch 1.65
Vich 1.20
Vfsb 1.40

I raised the Vmch from 1.05 (lowest) to 1.20 cause the OS crashed last night and I did not want to further push the Vcore and it seems to be running stable ever since. What you think about these voltages?

About the memory once more In bios I've set my memory to:

CL 4
tRCD 4
tRP 4
tWR 4
tRAS 12

CPU-Z gives me a readout of:
CL 4
tRCD 4
tRP 4
Tras 12
Trc 16

So pretty much the same.

But Everest shows this:
4-4-4-12 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS)
tRC (row cycle time) 22T
CR (command rate) 2T
tWR (write recovery time) 6T

I'm not sure why the tRC is off, and I don't have an option to change the tWR in bios I think.

Vcore is OK.
Vdimm may tolerate reduction to 2.0 or 1.95.
Vmch typically needs 1.6 to 1.65 for 400 Mhz FSB.
Vich is OK at 1.2.
Vfsb may tolerate reduction to 1.3 or 1.2.

You can find the BIOS setting for tWR (write recovery time) 6T under "Chipset" then "Advanced Chipset Settings" and "DRAM Write Recovery Time". Set it to [4 Clocks].

The following link is an excellent coolong mod (shown in my sig) for the Asus P5W DH Deluxe.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=106563

With this cooling mod, my board is stable at 414 Mhz max. Also, I took the mod a step further by adding a 40mm fan to the northbridge heat sink to further reduce temps and increase stability. The fan is a Cooler Master Blue Ice SLC-S41-U1, and is on the shelf at Comp USA for $10.00. Just discard the heat sink that's boxed with the fan, and use the supplied screws. It's a perfect fit, and the three wire plug will allow the motherboard to monitor the RPM.

Also, I've found 1305 BIOS to be very stable, as all the later releases have unresolved problems with "Stack Overflow" errors when running low level programs such as Norton Ghost or MemTest.

Hope this helps.

Comp 8)

 

[Aeon25]

Thank you very much

I'll follow your suggestions and will gradually lower my voltages over the next few days.

 

[CompuTronix]

If you don't do anything else, at least consider removing the very shiny and decorative, but rediculous heat dissipation inhibitive covers from the nothbridge and southbridge chipsets. This will really help them to run significantly cooler.

Comp 8)