help DRAM problems

Anyways, thanks to eobard today, I found out I could squeeze some more stuff outta this beat up chip of mine.

here's my old sys:
1155 Mhz (110x10.5)
DRAM=146

Now, I tried 1170 Mhz (117x10), but it seems the cpu won't boot up with DRAM at 146, only at 100

Although, I had to lower the DRAM, Sandra gave me some fair improvments in my scores

If I used 1150 (115x10) then I should of had better scores due to the higher FSB speed....but.....again I had to lower DRAM to 100

Sandra gave me identical results to when I had my sys running at 1155 Mhz maybe 1-2 lower...

help me out
1170 isn't really stabel enough for me. I had alrdy one crash, and I'm running again just to see if it'll crash again running SETI.

I think it's my cheap ram at 128 MB (dunno what kind) SD 133

I've got the cheapest (quality) memory in the world, sometimes I have to reapply the duct tape even! When you set the memory setting to the lower choice with the fsb at 117 then that's the speed you get. Don't go by the readout in the bios, you're setting the system beyond what the bios thinks is possible. Your mem speed choice will either be fsb or fsb+pci. Therefore 117mhz fsb gives you the choice of 117mem or 156mem. The lower choice will always equal the fsb and the higher choice will equal 4/3rds of the fsb. I've got mine set to = fsb which is 115mhz, not 100mhz, that's not too bad and it guarantees I can set my timings to the fastest and still have it run solid. Any cheap 133 memory can handle 115mhz but if you want the higher setting you'll need to buy the good stuff or lower your fsb to probably 107mhz at most. I'd just go with the lower speed setting with the fastest timings for CAS and such if I were you.

oooh my head is spinning!

jeez, okay, but can you explain why I'm getting identcal performae at 1155 (110x10.5 [DRAM 4/3rd]), and 1150 (115x10[DRAM FSB speed])?

Frodo Baggins said:

oooh my head is spinning!

jeez, okay, but can you explain why I'm getting identcal performae at 1155 (110x10.5 [DRAM 4/3rd]), and 1150 (115x10[DRAM FSB speed])?

Click to expand...

I'm not sure if you mean cpu or memory performance. Either way I don't think it matters. Assuming all things else are equal and the entire system is always stable using either setting then fsb is preferable to multiplier increases. Sandra memory and cpu tests don't calculate all of your peripherals (thank skip we've got a spell checker now) capabilities. I'd rather have everything running at 110% and stable than only the cpu running 110% and stable. Part of the reason you're not getting much difference is because you're comparing 110mhz with 115mhz, that probably doesn't mean much. If you were comparing the base 100mhz with the hidden max 117mhz for that board then you'd notice the difference in just about any test. Maybe you shoud try 111mhz * 10.5 and see if that holds (1165.5mhz), it's less that the 1170 the system crapped out at but above 1155 and your memory might hold at 4/3rds (148mhz).

*Moved to "Memory"*

Okay, I'll leave it on right now with SETI, to see if it's stable at 1170. But, how big is the difference between using the DRAM at same speed as fsb and the dram 4/3rd the fsb?>

Frodo Baggins said:

Okay, I'll leave it on right now with SETI, to see if it's stable at 1170. But, how big is the difference between using the DRAM at same speed as fsb and the dram 4/3rd the fsb?>

Click to expand...

Well clearly the memory gets a 33% boost but how that effects overall performance is subjective, it depends on what the computer is doing.