bandwith vs. timings, single vs. dual ch, Help me out here plz!

Hi there,

I have been having great luck with a single stick of Kingston ValueRam PC2700, running @ 210 with 2,5-3-3-11 timings. However, I feel I could get a few Mhz more out of my 2500 Barton, currently @ 2310 (11 x 210).

Also I want to switch to dual channel, for that bit of extra "zap".

I can get hold of 2 sticks of Kingston HyperX PC3000 sticks really cheap. Should I go for it? I have been reading a lot on the subject, and it seems that people on this forum do not get at 210 mhz all that easy with this RAM.

So really, can I expect better performance with these HyperX sticks even if I reach only, say, 200 mhz at 2-2-2-6 in dual channel? where lies the "break even point" so to speak. at 195 mhz, 190 mhz etc? (I hope this still makes sense)

Any help appreciated.

here is a thread where several of us compared excactly what your aksing about http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=267160

Thanks for the link ColtIce, really helpful.

I guess it will be a bit of a gamble then. Dual Channel does not seem to do much, but tight timings seem to be pretty crucial.

Does anybody with a similar setup like mine by any chance want to share his results with oc-ing this particular RAM?

The KHX PC3000 used to have BH-5 chips, but I'm hearing that some folks are not getting BH-5 chips anymore on the PC3000. My pair of KHX PC3000 does very well. I'm using an Intel system with dual channel DDR, so I'm not sure how comparable it is to AMD, but I understand Intel dual channel DDR is harder to overclock RAM and get tight timings than with AMD single channel. Here is a screen shot of what mine will do (it says PC2700, but it's really my KHX PC3000 RAM). The same RAM will do 2,2,2,5 timings @ 3.0v in my AI7 mobo which allows more vdimm than my IC7 which was used for this screen shot. If this RAM no longer has BH-5 chips, then you might not get as good of results.

Batboy: you sure your ram is bh5? bh5 should able to get 2-2-2-5 @ your frequency, shouldn't need 3 volts to achieve it, especially you got the 256mb ram which should oc even better, I was wondering because I just got myself some bh5 (should arrive in a few day) so I just wonder is that all bh5 can achieve.

It'll do 2,2,2,5 up until about 217 frequency (PC3500 speed) with 2.7v and then it starts needing more voltage. I think DDR434 and 2,2,2,5 is pretty darn good for PC3000 RAM. Like I said, when I give it more vdimm, it'll do that same speed listed in the screen shot with 2,2,2,5 timings. Remember, BH-5 overclocks easier in AMD mobos than dual channel i865/i875 chipsets. I have Mushkin PC3500 level 2 that definitely has BH-5 chips and the KHX PC3000 does almost exactly the same as the Mushkin.