RAM timings and/or frequency's confusing...

I'm really lost on whats with my ram. First of all, here a link to the type of RAM I have ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820223030 ).

I also have an Asus p4p800se motherboard. Just flashed the bios to the latest version.

What is my RAM frequency supposed to be at? (All system info in sig if needed). My bios reads 266 mhz when it is booting up (I can see it flash that), and here are my options...


Here are my RAM timings according to the Bios:


BUT, according to Everest these are my timings...


And according to newegg, the timings are at:
Cas Latency 2.5
Timing 2.5-3-3-7

So, what should I be doing? Like I said, all info in sig. If you need more, I would be happy to give it.

Thanks!

Set your RAM freq to 400MHz which will equal what it's supposed to be running on stock and manually reset the timings in your BIOS to what the manufacturer listed.

BTW... Rosewill don't exactly shine when it comes to RAM

Since Rosewill's timings (according to the egg) should be...
Cas Latency 2.5
Timing 2.5-3-3-7

RAS# Precharge should be...
RAS# to CAS# delay should be...
Precharge Delay should be...
Burst Length should be...


Sry, but there's 4 numbers for teh timings, but my bios has 5 and I don't know which go with which. I have virtually no experiance with RAM. Thanks!
tLove

tLove said:

Since Rosewill's timings (according to the egg) should be...
Cas Latency 2.5
Timing 2.5-3-3-7

RAS# Precharge should be...
RAS# to CAS# delay should be...
Precharge Delay should be...
Burst Length should be...


Sry, but there's 4 numbers for teh timings, but my bios has 5 and I don't know which go with which. I have virtually no experiance with RAM. Thanks!
tLove

Click to expand...

RAS# Precharge should be: 3
RAS# to CAS# delay should be: 3
Precharge Delay should be: 7
Burst Length should be: 3

When you overclock, there is no magic frequency or timings that your RAM should be at. Rather, you want to run the RAM at the fastest possible frequency and lowest timings possible that will stay stable for the components you have and the level of overclock you can achieve. This is typically done by trial and error.

If your signature is current and you are running a 3.0E at 3.6 gig, then that means you are at 240 FSB. There is no way that RAM will run at the 1:1 memory ratio (400 setting in the Asus BIOS), so use the 320 memory setting (5:4 ratio). That will probably be your max memory frequency possible given that RAM.

Before you start tweaking the timings, manually set it at what the manufacturer claims is default (which should be what you posted in that screen shot using SPD timings (auto). I can't read it very good because of the screen glare, but it looks like 2.5-4-4-8-4. Now increase the vdimm (RAM voltage) a little to say about 2.7v for the time being. Boot and make sure everything works ok.

Now comes the fun part. Change the timings one at a time and test for stability. For example, try 2.5-3-4-8-4 and if that works, try 2.5-3-3-8-4 and if that works, try 2.5-3-3-7-4 etc. etc. Keep track of what works and what don't. There you go, have fun.

Well... its been a fun afternoon.

The Asus board has a built in overclocking function, wher you can pick "manual, standard, 5%, 10%, 20%, 30%." I've always just used 20% because it works, and 30% would never load windows. Now, if I go to manual, a bunch of options open up (basically everything you see in the background of the first picture. The default CPU External Frequency (FSP right) is 200 Mhz. I also have the option of changing my ram/agp and all that jazz. Well, first off I just said the FSP to 240, which should give me a value of 3.6Ghz CPU. Well, it never loads that and claims that overclocking has failed. So then I try leaving it at 200 MHz and taking my ram to 400MHz. This works, so I try bumping up the FSB agian, but still no luck. Eventually I had to reset everything to default, and just use the 20% option, because everytime I make a number manually it fails. I can't change the freqency either, without loosing those 600mhz. So yeah, I think I'm stuck with what I got.

I've tried using AiBooster (Asus o/c software program) but it never likes what I do. Ever. I had the bios on standard settings and booted up. I changed the FSB to 240 to give me 3.6Ghz in AiBooster and my PC froze immediatly. So I have to use the bios, and if I bring up AiBooster now it freezes the PC instantly. Grrr.... don't know anything else to do. Don't wanna loose my 3.6Ghz though!

Any other suggestions are welcome.
Batboy, how come I can't set the Ram to 400Mhz? I hear what your saying about setting to 320, but then I'm gonna loose my 3.6Ghz because I can't change the FSB value without crashing the PC.

THANKS!

The auto overclocking probably bumps up the vcore too or something like that. I really suggest using manual overclocking, but you might need to learn a little more about the fine art of overclocking first.

batboy said:

The auto overclocking probably bumps up the vcore too or something like that. I really suggest using manual overclocking, but you might need to learn a little more about the fine art of overclocking first.

Click to expand...

Hmmm.... so I guess I'll check my vcore for everything now using everest, then check it using 3.0... and then go from there. I'll let you know results by the night hopefully.

Wait... this is all the info I can find out. Any other useful program (besides AiBooster) that will tell me my voltages?




Hope these help, I appreciate all this .

batboy said:

The auto overclocking probably bumps up the vcore too or something like that. I really suggest using manual overclocking, but you might need to learn a little more about the fine art of overclocking first.

Click to expand...

Alright! I bumped up my V-core to 1.48 and got my FSB at 240. Also got my ram running at 5:4, which is great! Also got my RAM timings a bit lower. Two things...

What should I do if Prime95 crashes 10 min in... my temps are great, never go above 49C. And, what do you think is the best Vcore I could use... think I could get it cranked the FSB to 250 and still have a stable PC?

BTW, my aquamark score jumped to 43,000+. Haha, thanks again!

Let's get this system running completely stable at 240 FSB first before you start dreaming of 250 FSB.

You don't want to go above 1.5v on the vcore, so you are close to the limit there, maybe one more bump is possible.

A couple of other things, first make sure the AGP/PCI is locked at 66/33 and second you might want to bump up the vdimm to 2.75v (that's the DDR reference voltage that was in your second screen shot in post #8).

If you are still having stability problems, then you might have to relax the memory timings a little to see if the RAM is the bottleneck. Try those things and see if any of that helps.

My suggestion would be to drop down your multi and like batboy said, see how far your RAM can go.

Be sure to use memtest when you do cause you don't want to boot into windows with unstable RAM and corrupt it.

Don't start out with agressive timings or Vdimm. Put it on stock settings and slowly work your way up from there. 2.5-3-3 is where you should start at, but once you start getting errors see if you can do CAS at 3 as this is the most important timing when it comes to OC'ing. Some RAM like it and some don't, that's why you need to figure it out early on.

Your last resort should be 3-4-4-10 (if your RAM can stay stable at 3 CAS) and if not then 2.5-4-4-8 at around 2.8V-2.9V on Vdimm.

If you are gunning for better performance (higher bandwith) then try keeping your timings at 2.5-3-3 as RAS to CAS on 4 will give you better stability but drop down your performance slightly.

thanks for all the input. Gonna try out all those things on monday/tuesday, for this weekend I am home! I'll let you guys know how it goes then. Thanks.