DDR TIMING BLUES

[HANZ7]

I just built my 1st system: P4 2.8C, Asus P4C800 Deluxe, 1GB TwinX Corsair DDR 3200LL, Maxtor ATA133 160Gig, Radeon 9700 Pro, Audigy 2. With only minor hassles, got it up and running. Haven't been able to get the memory modules to function at the said 2-2-2-6 1T performance though! I have been to the Corsair homepage and looked thru their "training" on memory - found out what each of the numbers were, and applied them to my BIOS. Startup only counted 300-800MB of memory and got a "failed memory test". Presently it's set to 2-3-3-7 and stable. Kinda frustrating since I dished out the extra cash for Low Latency memory. Any ideas?

 

[slvr_phoenix]

There's not much that you can do. There's nothing wrong with the RAM itself. nForce2 owners have never had these problems, nor have people running it in single-channel. So Corsair is pretty firm on the RAM not being the part at fault.

Corsair's support forum is filled with people having the same problems. Generally the official answer from Corsair's 'Ram Guy' (or whatever) is to run at higher timings. Some get away with just 2-3-2-2-6. Some have to use even higher, like you did.

You can also try disabling PAT since it seems as though manually-adjusted low timings are better performing than PAT + kind-of-low timings.

Once I saw suggested to raise the voltage to 2.7v or even as high as 2.8v because Corsair's waranty supposedly covers up to 2.8v. (Though I haven't verified this, so it could be incorrect.) Then again, how much this will do for an Asus owner is pretty debatable as last I knew the Asus Springdales and Canterwoods were running VDIMM overvolted to 2.68v even though the BIOS setting is at 2.55v. (Or something like that. My memory isn't the best so those voltages might be a tiny bit off.)

So basically, welcome to the Springdale/Canterwood nightmare. I'd really love to say that it's Corsair's fault, but in light of all of the evidence it is a <b>really</b> strong argument that Intel's Springdale and Canterwood chipsets just can't handle low-latency dual-channel DDR400 very well.

"<i>Yeah, if you treat them like equals, it'll only encourage them to think they <b>ARE</b> your equals.</i>" - Thief from <A HREF="http://www.nuklearpower.com/daily.php?date=030603" target="_new">8-Bit Theater</A>

 

[HANZ7]

Thanks for the help.

 

[mixerman]

Does this same problem arise from using Kingston HyperX PC3500 memory? I believe they have low latency times as well.. I think the settings are: 2-3-3-7-1

Can somebody explain to me what each number in the timing above actually means and stands for?

Also, has anybody got any experience using this exact ram? I just brought the kit of 2 x 512mb PC3500 HyperX so I want to know what timings work good... I have the Abit IS7 with the P4 2.8C

Thanks

My system:
P3 850mhz (100fsb), 512 Micron PC133, Abit SE6, IBM Deskstar 75gxp (60 gig @ 7200rpm), Hercules 3D Prophet 2 GTS (64 meg), SB Live MP3, Pioneer 16x DVD, Asus 45x CD-Rom

 

[Chael]

the usual timings are:
CAS latency, (usually 2, 2.5 or 3)
RAS to CAS delay (usually 2 or 3)
RAS precharge (usually 2 or 3)
RAS active time (usually 6 or 7)
Im not really into the exact operation of each timing, but these values seem normal for modern systems.


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[TKH]

Actually if you visit Kingston website, you'll find out that when you run the PC3500 at 200MHz (DDR400), the recommended timing is 2-2-2-6. When you up the frequency up to 217MHz (DDR433) then you should set the timing to 2-3-3-7. This is proven to be true to nForce2, but I don't know Springdale/Canterwood because I've heard a lot of timing and low latency problem on these platforms.

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