Original RAMBUS and TH7-II RAID

Hi all.
Is there any hope of reaching any good overclocking results with my Original RAMBUS RDRAM (2X256)?
I've got the TH7-II RAID with a NW 1.8A.Two WDC 60GB in RAID.
My best result so far is @2.3 with RAM set to 300, and a VCore 1.7V. With my RAM set to 400, i can't get FSB over 114!

I cant see what else is holding me back. Would the memory voltage mod do me any good?

PS!
Have tried the most Bios'es. Currently running with the last from AnnaMarie (TH7H_7A)

Regards
Palves
Norway.

Seems it really is your memory is holding you back! The memory voltage mod is senseless IMO.

You have the possibility to flash a BIOS with 1.85v support and see how far you can up the FSB.

If you calculate you could do up to 150MHz FSB mit RAM set to 300MHz. I think 133MHz is realistic and stable.

I can't do 2.4GHz with 1.7v. I would need the voltmod. But I stay at 2.2GHz.

Merkor

The problem with the TH7II is either the board or the RDRAM may be holding you back. You really need PC800-45 that will do around 145/4x to troubleshoot this.

My board (ICS-03s) will boot at 142/4x but not 144 so I know that is the limit. That's a pretty good board.

Then check your RDRAM at 4x with Memtest to see where it clears. If your board itself can only do 118/4x than you are stuck there.

What type of RDRAM do you have? The best ones are Samsung 16-device, double-sided, but they are difficult to find now. The worse ones I've seen did 125/4x and the best ones 140/4x. These are 256 MB sticks. For 128 MB sticks the best I've seen do 145/4x. Cooling the ram helps. The sticks that did 125/4x on a P4T-E did 134/4x on a TH7II with a DDR cooling fan rigged to a CRIMM to blow over the RDRAM.

If you don't have good RDRAM than get a good CPU that can do 170 fsb and check your ram at 3x settings to find it's max. If the best you can do stable is 166/3x that means either your ram or your board is only good for 166x3 divided by 4 = 124.5/4x.

Good answers, thanks.
I'm not sure what kind of RAM i've got.
It only says "Rambus PC800 512MB RIMM ORIGINAL
184-P I820/840/850 400MHz 2X256"
The highest i can get with 4X is 115 FSB = 460
With the RAM set to 3X it clears at 127 FSB = 381, it will boot higher, but not load Windows. (Bluescreen)
So there is something else holding me back
I will try cooling my RAM and get the Bios with 1.85V.

Thanks again.

Palves

Well, the 1.85V didn't get me any further.
Neither did the RAM cooling.
Seems like there is little to gain doing the memory volt mod also.

I'll stick with it as it is, and change to another board and DDR RAM later........

Palves

hi Palves,

Thats a pretty strange problem. I know its a dumb question, but you did remember to lower the fsb/agp ratio? besides, this would probably also just cause a lock-up or reboot.
Does your th7ii undervolt alot? And what is the minimum voltage that your chip will do 18*127 at? and upping the voltage from there doesnt help i thing?

regards

Palves, is your agp/fsb set to fix? You may be o/cing the agp and pci busses, that can cause BSOD.

steve

AGP/PCI is set to FIX.
Need 1.7V to get 128 FSB with RAM set to 3X.
Everything over 1.7V gives me alarm and no boot!
Turned of every alarm setting i could think of in Bios.
My board do undervolt. When using default (1.5V) MBM shows 1.39V.
Could it be something with the RAID set? I guess IDE 3&4 also stay at FIX? Have'nt tried to run XP on a single no RAID IDE connection. Using the 2.32 driver.

Other stuff in my PC is:
DigiDoc 5
Audigy Live
3Com Ethernet
MSI GF3 Ti200

Also a Cold Cathode kit, lots of fans and so on..... Could it be my Chieftec 340W PSU thats not good enough?

Palves

So, when your coreV is set at 1,70 it actually only provides around 1,59? I need 1,70 (1,775 in my bios, im using Mr. Natturals 40B) actual to get my 1,8a to 2,4.
There really must be something in you bios that can be turned off, to prevent the overvoltage alarm. Maybe there is something that you overlooked.
I dont think its the PSU, since I'm also using a Chieftech 340W, and i got 3hd's and 3 cdrom drives and 6 8cm fans in my system. My system is perfectly stable.

What's the pack date and batch for your 1.8a? I've got a TH7-II with corsair rdram, and at first the most I could oc was to about a 115 fsb...I was dissapointed...that was with an older 1.8...I got a newer 1.8a (pack 7-8-02 I think), and was able to hit a 150fsb at 1.65 without a hitch...before I had cranked the voltage up to 1.85 and it wouldn't go over 115 at all...and wasn't completely stable there. The newer 1.8a's are much better :>

Thanks for the inputs.
I've reach the conclusion that its probably both my CPU and RAM!
On the CPU it says:
SL63X MALAY
L150A385-2027
INTEL '01

I think i'll get a newer CPU. Is there any problems using the 533MHz once? I'm looking at the 2.4 or 2.53 GHz.

Would you buy a new board today, or wait for Seriel ATA and other things. I'm not sticking with RDRAM, but changing to DDR RAM. There is always gonna be something new around the corner anyway!

Palves

It's just a question of luck I guess....it's working fine over here, my mobo and 2 RIMMS are almost a year old, but they both run fine at 533MHz bus and PC1066 speed.