can samsung ddr pc2100 get into 200Mhz FSB ? help !!

hey guys ... i've got a new soltek nforce2 board right now and i'm running out of money to buy DDR RAM. shops over here is now selling generic Samsung DDR PC2100 for only $30 bucks. i'm planning to get a pair of it and it will only cost me about $60 bucks rather than spending much more money for Corsair.

my quesion is, can this ram perform up to at least 166Mhz FSB or mayb 200Mhz ? bcoz i've found a guy in this forum said it CAN DO 200Mhz without problem with his A7N8X Deluxe ... ( and for sure he lowered down the multiplier )

anyone got same xperience with him ? please help me ...

Maybe....and I emphasize "MAYBE" if it was PC2100 with TCB3 chips on it (PC2700 chips), then it'd be possible. If it says TCB0 on it, not a chance in hell (Well, maybe some LN2).

Take a look around....there are some decent deals on ram out there....kingston hyper-x PC3000 I've seen for 45 dollars a stick (256mb)...I just ordered some Twinmos PC3200 at 58 dollars a stick (cheap all points considered).

I was messing around with my crucial ddr2100 and it got up to 160fsb and could prolly do more with my epox, donno how stable it was because Im doing a little surgery on it right now .

True Samsung TCB0 chips are very good, but not 200mhz good. I had 512mb of PC2100 Samsung that would do [email protected]. It would do higher I think, but my chip couldn't take it.

Anyway, I think you can probably hit 166. If you can spend a little more, go for Kingston's HyperX PC3000. It'll do its rated speed of 185 at tight timings... not much more at those timings, but it should hit 200 with relaxed timings. You can find this stuff for about $45 per 256mb stick.

This is a good case for using existing older, cheaper memory than expensive ones to save money but even boosting performance.

I doubt you can run PC2100 up to 200 MHz directly in SYNC mode. But you can use the following set up to gain lot of performance.

You can run two sticks of PC2100 (assume you have two sticks) in dual channel ASYNC mode, and you will be getting memory performance like PC2400, or PC2700, ... Actually you are winning on getting more memory bandwidth than just running them in SYNC mode, which most ppl would suggest for AMD MB.

It's been reported that nforce2 MB can run between 180 - 220 MHz FSB out of the box, so it really depends on your "luck".

Since you mentioned A7N8X, I assume your MB can run dual channel. Since I don't know your MB max FSB and CPU, I can just use an example. E.g. assuming your FSB can go to 200 MHz. Then you have to set the CPU multiplier, ...

1. If you plan to run the PC2100 at official speed (133 MHz). Set your ASYNC dual channel at 66% (= 133/200), which is the ratio of the stock freq of the memory to max FSB. I did some analysis, your PC2100 memory would run like a PC2700 (167 MHz) !!! It is only about 18% away in memory BW and 3D performance than using expensive PC3200 memory (2 sticks $200) at 200 MHz SYNC mode.

2. If you find out you can overclock your PC2100 to PC2400 (which is doable if the memory is good). Then you shall set your ASYNC dual channel as 75% (= 150/200), which is the ratio of the memory frequency to max FSB. I did some analysis, now your memory would run like a PC2800 (175 MHz) !!! It is only about 15% away in memory BW and 3D performance than using expensive PC3200 memory (2 sticks $200) at 200 MHz SYNC mode.

Save $140 for other parts !!!

In case you can overclock your PC2100 even higher, you can do similar calculation to get closer to the target PC3200 (200 MHz) performance. E.g. ASYNC 80%, but sometimes this setting may not be very stable, have to test out.

When you get your MB, first find out its max FSB and do the calculation and bios setting accordingly.

Details about some analysis of the nforce2 dual channel ASYNC mode performance can be found in this link

Shade00 said:

True Samsung TCB0 chips are very good, but not 200mhz good. I had 512mb of PC2100 Samsung that would do [email protected]. It would do higher I think, but my chip couldn't take it.

Anyway, I think you can probably hit 166. If you can spend a little more, go for Kingston's HyperX PC3000. It'll do its rated speed of 185 at tight timings... not much more at those timings, but it should hit 200 with relaxed timings. You can find this stuff for about $45 per 256mb stick.

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the samsung ddr pc2100 that i'm referring do has TCB0 on it .. but what do you mean by "True Samsung TCB0" is there any variant that sucks ? you're pushing it to [email protected] V .. that's cool ... have u tried anything higher ? mayb with some nforce2 board ( that locks the pci and agp ) ?

dinster said:

yeah .. there is TCB0 on it .. so it's sucks.. is that what u mean? but for me it is still quite good if it can perform maybe 166Mhz or 180Mhz... it's not too far away from 200Mhz.. what do you think?

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Hard to say.....start testing it at various speeds, and burn it in with a looping Sandra run for a while. 166 should be possible, but every stick is different....hell, I've got a stick of Crucial that won't go over 140 in 5 different boards.