A little BH5/6 FAQ

A little BH5/6 FAQ

I've been seeing lots of BH5/6 related questions lately, so I decided I would write up a little FAQ that would help answer peoples questions.

What is BH5?
BH5 is a type of memory chip that was produced by Winbond up until September 2003. These chips are unique in the fact that these chips are able to run at extremely low latencies (2-2-2-5-1T) and still run at a fairly high FSB. There is currently no chips on the market that has been able to replicate these kinds of timings at the same FSB. These chips are also able to handle quite a bit of voltage.

What is BH6?
BH6 is a very similar chip when compared to BH5. These chips are also able to run the tight timings of BH5. The only real difference between BH5 and BH6 is noticed by overclockers. BH6 usually needd more voltage to achieve a higher overclock.

Does Winbond still manufacture BH5/6?
Unfortunately, no. Winbond stopped producing BH5/6 in September 2003. They were replaced with the CH5 chip. CH5 can run timings almost as tight as BH5 (2-2-3-6 usually) but arent able to overclock as high as a BH5/6 chip can.

Why did Winbond stop producing BH5/6 and switch to CH5?
Cost was the main reason for switching from BH5/6 to CH5. The CH5 chips are cheaper to make due to the fact that they are less complex to manufacture than BH5/6 chips.

Will Winbond ever produce a similar chip again?
There have been some rumors that Winbond would again produce a chip with similar qualities to BH5. According to the rumors, the chips would be called BH4, and be able to run low-latency at high speeds. Again, this is just a rumor.

Is there still BH5/6 on the market?
Yes, but in very limited quantities. As of 3/21/04, the only modules on the market with these chips are Mushkin 2-2-2- Special (BH6), OCZ Platinum Limited Edition (BH6), and Kingston HyperX 3200 Non-A (BH5, not a guarantee) (If you know of others, please let me know)

I think I have BH5, but I am not sure. How can I find out?
There are a few ways that you can go about this. The guaranteed way to find out is to look at the chips on the memory module. If your modules have heatspreaders on then, you will have to remove them (use a small screwdriver to slide the clips off, then pull off the heatspreaders). Be forewarned though, removing the heatspreaders will void the lifetime warranty that is included with most memory, so be careful. After removing the heatspreader, take a close look at the writing on the chips. If they say "Winbond BH5" somewhere on the chips, then you have BH5 chips. If they have some other chip manufacturer's name on it, then it isnt Bh5. If it has the memory maker's logo on it, then the chips have been remarked, and you will need to use another method.
Another way to check is to pop the modules into your comp and test it. Go into the BIOS, and set your timings like the following...

Cas-Latency: 2
RAS to CAS Delay: 2
RAS Precharge: 2
Cycle Time: 6

Exit the BIOS and reboot. If you are able to boot into your OS, thats a good sign. Next, run a memory benchmarking program, such as Memtest86. If you are able to pass Memtest with no errors, then it's almost certain that you have BH5. Just to be 100% sure, give your system a mild overclock, then run Memtest again. If no errors arise, then it is sure that you have BH5.

Hopefully this will guide will help answer some of the question that have been posted quite a bit lately. I'm sure I forgot to include some stuff with this little FAQ, so if you have some information to contribute, please post it

Cas-Latency: 2
RAS to CAS Delay: 2
RAS Precharge: 2
Cycle Time: 6

Exit the BIOS and reboot. If you are able to boot into your OS, thats a good sign. Next, run a memory benchmarking program, such as Memtest86. If you are able to pass Memtest with no errors, then it's almost certain that you have BH5. Just to be 100% sure, give your system a mild overclock, then run Memtest again. If no errors arise, then it is sure that you have BH5.

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I'd like to add to this.


CH5 will not boot with solid 2s AT ANY SPEED. Believe me I already tried for the hell of it.

If you PC boots with solid 2s at any speed you have BH type RAM.

Nice FAQ you wrote there.

Two little things, Winbond BH-6 chips arn't any newer then BH-5. They were produced during the same timespan. There is more BH-6 chips on the market today because of the lower demand during late 2003 (when BH-5 was still quite available) for them. And Winbond won't be making any sequel to BH-5, for they are getting out of the commodity DRAM (like PC DDR) business, and likely will be selling off their DDR assets.

Winbond BH-6 chips arn't any newer then BH-5. They were produced during the same timespan. There is more BH-6 chips on the market today because of the lower demand during late 2003 (when BH-5 was still quite available) for them. And Winbond won't be making any sequel to BH-5, for they are getting out of the

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Forgot to mention that as well. The 5 / 6 identifier describes the speeds its rated for. Namely 5ns or 6ns. Thats why BH6 isnt as good cuz its only rated for 6ns which is slower than 5ns.

This brings up the BH4 issue as well. BH4 is better than both 5 / 6 cuz its rates @ 4ns. However Winbond has moved on to DDR2. If BH4 ever surfaces it will be an DDR2 incarnate.

Winbond won't be making DDR2.

Winbond won't be making DDR2.

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U sure about that? Im almost positive that where their BH efforts have gone to. That and the production of CH5.

Sentential said:

U sure about that? Im almost positive that where their BH efforts have gone to. That and the production of CH5.

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Winbond is getting out of the DDR (DDR2) business. They, putting it simply, don't like it anymore. It's too fickle, with prices always varying due to the slightest change in the industry. They will be gradually phasing out production of standard-DRAM (DDR) products while selling more market-friendly speciality-DRAM products (not DDR). Winbond lost alot of money in 2003 explictly because DDR SDRAM prices were so very instable.

Good old bh-5, but i do not think that there will ever be a need for that kind of chip, timings are going out a higher fsb's are going in, even amd's can now hight quite good fsb's. This change is reflected in ddd2, bad timings (4-4-4-12) but high fsb's.

Speed_Mechanic2 said:

Winbond BH-6 chips arn't any newer then BH-5. They were produced during the same timespan.

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Actually, BH6 production started something on the order of a year before BH5 surfaced. For a period they were both produced, but BH6 is entirely the predecessor of BH5, not the contemporary. It just goes to show you how good BH6 was in that it is the only suitable replacement for the long-gone BH5.

Freddie said:

Good old bh-5, but i do not think that there will ever be a need for that kind of chip, timings are going out a higher fsb's are going in, even amd's can now hight quite good fsb's. This change is reflected in ddd2, bad timings (4-4-4-12) but high fsb's.

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But there will always be those looking to produce leading performance regardless of the compromises others accept.

Thank you all for your contributions. I have edited the top post to reflect some mistakes

As for DDR2, the looser timings really wont matter in the long run. Thanks to the 4-bit prefatch and the higher bandwidth provided, the timings will make less and less a difference in terms of speed in DDR2 modules

I'll add one thing, a lot of chips can do 2-2-2-6 timings, I think the main point to get accross is that it should be done at 200mhz fsb. And one more thing, not all BH5 is doing what it's supposed to do.....like the BH5 I just found sitting under a rock, I mean heatspreader. But I'll look into that in the coming weeks seeing as how my MSI mobo doesn't even do 200fsb with a 5:4 ratio. *grumble grumble*

BTW good write up

Nice writeup. Now I know what all the fuss is about.

I am a newbie. But my Buffalo PC3200 2x256 (CH-5 chips) can run at 2-2-2-8 (or 11) and pass hours Prime95. Problem is that it can't get over 205fsb even with loosen timing.




QUOTE]Originally posted by Sentential


I'd like to add to this.


CH5 will not boot with solid 2s AT ANY SPEED. Believe me I already tried for the hell of it.

If you PC boots with solid 2s at any speed you have BH type RAM. [/QUOTE]

I am a newbie. But my Buffalo PC3200 2x256 (CH-5 chips) can run at 2-2-2-8 (or 11) and pass hours Prime95. Problem is that it can't get over 205fsb even with loosen timing.




QUOTE]Originally posted by Sentential


I'd like to add to this.


CH5 will not boot with solid 2s AT ANY SPEED. Believe me I already tried for the hell of it.

If you PC boots with solid 2s at any speed you have BH type RAM. [/QUOTE]

I am a newbie. But my Buffalo PC3200 2x256 (CH-5 chips) can run at 2-2-2-8 (or 11) and pass hours Prime95. Problem is that it can't get over 205fsb even with loosen timing.

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^^ What voltage? Unless you are using 3.5v Im very suprised that CH5 could muster that. I have yet to see ANY CH5 that will run at those speeds without 3.5+v

I used 3.1v Vdimm on my modded Soltek SL-75FRN2-RL mobo. The Vdimm mod can only give max. extra 0.4v. I used 2.7v in the bios.

It is running at 2-2-2-11 10x multi 200fsb
XP2500 Mobile at 1.7v (1.6v is ok too)

Also running @2-2-2-11 10x 210fsb
Prime-ing it for 2 hours and still going.

BTW. the Buffalo mem I got just last week was from Newegg (2x $44 ship)

Sentential said:

^^ What voltage? Unless you are using 3.5v Im very suprised that CH5 could muster that. I have yet to see ANY CH5 that will run at those speeds without 3.5+v

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BH-4 died over a year ago. Winbond hasn't touched it since....so I've been told by are few people in the industry

Steve

I've got some 2X512 KHX3500... I'm not sure if it's BH-5 or not. The seller claims he ran it 2-2-2-6 @ 2.8V up to 225mhz on a IC7 mobo so I assume they are BH-5 when I bought them.

However, I can't get it to pass memtest over 185mhz whatever voltage and timing I gave. 2-2-2-6 and 2.5-4-4-7....

I've got 2X256 corsair XMS V1.1 and they are definitely BH-5. However, I can get them to 230mhz @ 2.8V 2-2-2-6.

The only reason i can think about is the corsair is old bh-5 and the kingston is new BH-5 and there are known problem with new BH-5 with new Nforce2 ultra400 chipsets.

Anyone can guide me to threads about this problem?

EDIT: the kingston show up as 2-2-2-6 when I load optimized timings? Does that confirm it's BH ram?