Toss the Mushkin PC400 2-2-2 for something faster?

[Deptmaster]

I have two 256 sticks of Mushkin DDR400 CAS 2-2-2 in my current system consisting of an Intel 2.53 533fsb and Asus P4PE (845). I've never really had the opportunity to see how much faster than 400Mhz they can go as the CPU fsb is my limiting factor right now.

I recently received a Intel 3.0C and my new Asus P4P800 should be arriving sometime next week so I'm not sure what I should do about this memory. According to the CPU database I don't think 3500-3700Mhz is an unreasonable expectation with my water-cooled setup. That translates to a system bus of 233-246Mhz, just a little faster than my memory was designed for.

So it seems I have two options either i use a 5:4 timing or I ditch my memory for some geil, hyperX, or komusa adata DDR500 memory with considerable slower timings.

Screw the economics I just want to know which options would give me the best performance.

Thanks, Ian

[Speed_Mechanic2]

You could also VDIMM mod your P4P800 to allow you some extra voltage for your memory, if you feel like this is something you would like to have.

[Deptmaster]

I'm getting really antsy the board shipped out today. I think a VDIMM mod is a little above my skills I don't want to kill this board before i get it installed. Hopefully 2.8V will be enough to get these chips up to atleast 233 MHz with loose timings so benchmark it to see if was worth buying something faster.

[Grandpa Dan]

I'm using Mushkin now. I've tried the Hyper-x pc3500. IMO you can't get much better than the mushkin. I run a high fsb w/ dividers and tight (2-2-2-5) timings with no probs. My sandra mem. bandwidth is in the 5800's.

[Valk]

if you get something faster =| you sell taht ****nat to me =|

[Biznatch]

I have 2 of the 3200's running at 225mhz on 2.8v with 2-2-2-5 timings....Can't imagine anything much better than mushkin.

[sp00L]

I'm tossing in another vote for Mushkin. See my sig. On 875 chipset, 2-3-2-6 is needed. I'm at 2-3-3-7 but that's at 225 of the rated 217. Rock solid stable on dual prime's. My OCZ LTD Plat is in the f'ing drawer and can't match the Mushkin for speed, stability, and low voltage usage.

[Speed_Mechanic2]

If I were in your shoes, I would see how high the memory goes at the max voltage given by the motherboard (2.85V) in a 1:1 relationship. Then I would drop the ratio to 3:2 and see how high the processor goes. If your cooling is capable of going above 250MHz (3.75GHz), then you may think about dropping the ratio down to 5:4. If your stuck betwen 233MHz-250MHz, this is where a volt mod is needed to give you a chance of having your Mushkin run at DDR466+ w/ 2-2-2 timings.

[tyson-chris]

that being said however, if you don't want to voltmod, there has been much debate over this and it seems that people have concluded that 5:4 @2-2-2 gives better performance than 1:1 at loose timings (for intel systems).

so either way, i would not sell those mushkin sticks, as everyone has said. those bh-5 black level 2 sticks are pretty much the best you can get today. though all the pc4000, 1:1 3-4-4 stuff had a fair amount of initial hype, there are many who are moving back to bh-5 and running 5:4 after all the tests people have done and shown better performance with. there have been a ton of threads on this topic already, so you can check it out for yourself if you want. this is of course if you don't voltmod, and your memory gives out before your fsb does. if you can run 1:1 @2-2-2, then you've got the best of both worlds.

i have the exact same sticks as you, and mine does 2-2-2-11 (11 because of an "anomaly" of sorts with nf2 systems that make it run slightly better with higher tras) @233mhz @ 2.98v.