Why does my muskin barely run stock?

[whoever]

Im curious why my mushkin is soo crappy.

I bought it about 9 months ago, is pc3200 ddr400muskin 512mb sticks, adding up to a gig in an nf7.


It can't even hit 210! I bumped up the timming to 3-4-4-8 and still nothing. I even tried 4-5-5-9 and it still sucked, so i tried maximng the timings out and nothing.


What seems to be the problem? I went ahead and threw some heatspreaders on there even though im pretty sure they don't do anything at all.


My ram really kind of sucks. If I could OC my ram a little I could get my 2600-M to hit 2.6ghz and if I could hit 216 I'd be at 2.7! My chip can handle it; its just the ram that sucks.

by the way when I say it can't hit 210 I mean it can't even boot.

[jack222]

What psu do you have? What is the 12v rails.

[whoever]

I've got an Antec 480w true blue


its got 22A 12v line. I'll check the stability of the 12v rail as soong as I get to my computer later today.

Im running two 10K sata Drives, 1 CC, an ahton XP with 2.1v running through it, 1 gig of ram in to sticks @ 1.9v, and a fan controller pushing 2 120s, and a 5800 with a molex plug sucking down power (these things require 350W alone!)


Its funny you mention psu cause I was getting some really strange restarts, like hit enter in bios and it just dies. I'd think 480W would be plenty but maybe not? And then again power is all about amps.

Also I was planning on going SLI in the next few months with this psu but maybe that won't be happening.

[HousERaT]

I've seen in other areas that some mushkin ram has issues with NF7 systems. You might want to switch the ram around and see if they work better in other slots (switch them around and also try them in the one slot you haven't used).

[fldrice]

What kind of Muskins do you have?

[Sentential]

What kind of Muskins do you have?
Agreed. Unless its a blue or a black, I would think that your results are pretty well expected

[someguy7]

[QUOTE=whoever]

I bought it about 9 months ago, is pc3200 ddr400muskin 512mb sticks, adding up to a gig in an nf7.

It can't even hit 210!
If I could OC my ram a little I could get my 2600-M to hit 2.6ghz and if I could hit 216 I'd be at 2.7! My chip can handle it;
[QUOTE]

Which model nf7? V2.0? Some nf7's just aren't good overclockers as far as fsb speed, especially with 2x512mb memory. Many have had to resort to running a CPC off modded BIOS. Have you replaced the nb hs/f or put a good application of thermal grease on it? They are known to have poor application from the factory. Have you tried increasing the voltage to the memory? You should be able to get up to 2.6ghz if you know it will do it. Why not just change the multiplier?;) Check out the Abit Forums http://forum.abit-usa.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=26 you'll find a lot of good information there about the NF7 and AN7 motherboards. The NF7 line is fairly notorious for being picky about memory.
Regarding Mushkin memory, I didn't have any luck running an NF7-SV2.0 with the 2x512 blue dual pack I received last week as a gift. Wouldn't run without errors in Memtest at 2-3-3-6 to 2-3-3-11 at anywhere from 2.6v to 2.8v at 200fsb(didn't try any higher) in dual channel. Running both sticks at the same time in single channel mode also produced errors at the specs listed above. Running each stick individually at 2-3-3-6@2.6v@200 produced no errors. With 2.5-3-3-7@2.6v@200 I was able to run in dual channel without errors. I ended up RMA'ing to Mushkin and have yet to receive my replacements. I find it odd that of the seven chipset types Mushkin suggests timings for, they have the blue line at CAS2.5 in 6 of them :shrug:

[Reefa_Madness]

In all probability these modules use something like Mosel chips which, in that case, your results are probably in line as those ICs, as a general rule, don't have much headroom.

In addition, as some have posted above, the NF7 (like most boards with the nForce2 chipset) could not hit high fsb with 512MB sticks. One of the reasons is that the NF7 is set to use CPC of 1T and cannot be changed unless you use a modded BIOS. The DFI Lanparty, on the other hand could change it in BIOS and it was known to regularly hit 240 and beyond, even with 512MB sticks.

All that said, I still believe that the real constraint probably lies with the chips used in those modules. Check out this recent value ram shootout/review over at Anandtech.

http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.aspx?i=2392

[whoever]

Well its not bloue or black, its just regular, sorry i couldn't be more usefull.

Does anyone have any thoughts on these strange restarts though? Im not getting blue screens im getting restarts shutdowns split 50/50.

So I guess my options are to try one stick and see how it overclcoks.

[fldrice]

If it's just the Mushkin Green Line, those results are expected. Typically, speed binned value ram don't OC very well.

[whoever]

If it's just the Mushkin Green Line, those results are expected. Typically, speed binned value ram don't OC very well.


yeah I tried one stick and that didn't do it. It looks like my ram just sucks, i figured all mushkin wer good stuff but I guess not.

[shadowdr]

The newest 27 official bios will change the command rate on it's own.I have two sticks of 256 twinmoss ram.It was the bh5 but one stick was bad and an RMA returned me a stick of the cheaper CH5 instead (Thanks allot MemoryX).Anyway because of the mixed ram I could only get to 216 without errors in prime.Si I figured adding a stick of 512 value ram would at least increase performance and maybe still get the 216.I got the mushkin green and installed it.The command rate changed itself to 2t but bsods at any setting above or below 200 at random.It will go to 210 and pass Memtest and prime but still will bsod at random usually at startup and shutdown.You would think it would run 202 with looser timings but no.You get what you pay for I guess.Don't waste your money on Mushkins value ram.It will only run at 200 mhz with 8 3 3 2.5,nothing above or below without bsod's.