The other night I finally got my P4T-E up and running with the vid pin trick (wire in hole method). Worked like a charm so I'm running 1.7 volts. I have the ISC-13 chips. I am running a 1.6a Malay and tested 12 sticks of RDRAM for overclocking ability.
The first RDRAM I tried were an old batch of 256-MB 16-device, double-sided sticks, date 0113 and 0119 (made 19th week of 2001). On a tip from BMG he said 128-MB sticks made between 0109-0125 did around 138-144 FSB, so I gambled and bought these older sticks, even though they are not 128 MB sticks. These did 140 FSB, 4X. Ho hum I thought.
Next I tried four identical 128-MB sticks made in the good time period above, dated 0119. Four together would not do 140/4X stable, so I didn't even bother to see how low they did. I think they are good for 133-138. Then I tried two sticks alone, and they were crappy. They do maybe 142/4X, even less. Since I already had two 256-MB sticks that will do 140/4X (for 512 MB), not good enough.
Then I tried two 256-MB, 16-device, double-sided sticks I recently bought from Googlegear. They are not that recent, having 0145 date codes on them. They were crappy too, not as good as the old sticks and wouldn't even do 140/4X. Since they are subpar compared to the first sticks I tried, I didn't bother to see how low they'd go, but I imagine they are good for 133-138 at best.
Next I tried a recent batch of 128-MB sticks from Googlegear (0205H). Cold Disposition said he got 2 sticks at 150/4X, so I bought four sticks soon afterward, but I didn't have such luck. Four sticks would not even do 140/4X, and I think they are good for maybe 133-136. I had high hopes for 2 sticks but nada: they were worse than the old sticks made last year. I imagine two sticks might do 138/4X. I tried different combinations of these sticks in hopes of finding two good ones, but they all seem the same.
The ironic thing is the first set of sticks I tried turned out the best! And the 0113 256-MB stick is a used stick! The only reason I was able to get the 0119 stick is it was the display stick at a hole-in-the-wall store. They offered a recent stick in a box but I told them I wanted the demo stick (they thought I was crazy).
Fortunately I'm in Japan so I can sell all the other sticks as used and recoup most my costs.
But the verdict isn't very good. Those who think the latest batches of RDRAM should be doing maybe 140-150 at 4X are wrong. Maybe Samsung is binning them? For PC1066 maybe, but these won't do for PC1200.
And I definitely found running 4 sticks goofy. But I think all of the sticks are good for at least 133. Man, you should see the kind of memory errors I was getting. At 150 the computer would just go beeep, pause, beeep, pause. At 145-148 the HD would hang, or I'd get memory error messages trying to boot into Win98. At 140-145, I could boot, but my floppy would fall asleep while trying to restore a partition using DriveImage. One time I got a colorful box on the screen on boot, changing colors, another time the text was messed up in the BIOS. But put in these good sticks at 140 and wow, like magic. Everything works.
For me, I am content. 140 FSB at PC1120 is nothing to snort at, since it is 512 MB (thanks for the tip, BMG). 256 MB is not enough for gaming nowadays, IMO. So my 1.6a is at 2.23 now. Not too shabby. I mean figure a 1000E cDO Coppermine running 140 FSB??? 133 at best maybe, but not 140.
Figure I stick in a 1.8a and I should be good for 2.52 at 140 FSB. Then when the PC1200 comes out, I can try for 150 FSB.
At 2.23 gig, I ran 3DMark2001 and got 11,750. I got 15,130 in 3DMark2000. My gawd! I was seeing 200+ frame rates in the low detail sections of the former, and 500 fps in the low detail section of Adventure. I presume these are pretty good scores? I upgraded from a 952 mhz Coppermine so I am used to half those marks. I was running a PNY Ti 4600 at 315/735.
Only problem is my Sandra memory scores are pretty low, barely hit 2000 on both, when they should be over 3000. I have TURBO RDRAM disabled, since I'm already running on the edge.
P4T-E, ICS-13 chips, 1.005 BIOS
Malay 1.6a Northwood at 2.23 (140 FSB)
Nidec (Sunflower) heatsink/cooler (33 C idle, 43 stress)
512 MB Samsung PC1120, 16-device, double-sided (2 sticks)
9.1 gig Seagate 10K/4 MB cache/5.4 ns U160 boot drive
Tekram DC390-U2W U80 SCSI controller
Maxtor 80 gig 740DX slave
PNY Ti 4600 at 315/735 (Det. 27.42)
Soundblaster Live 5.1
Afreey 56X
The first RDRAM I tried were an old batch of 256-MB 16-device, double-sided sticks, date 0113 and 0119 (made 19th week of 2001). On a tip from BMG he said 128-MB sticks made between 0109-0125 did around 138-144 FSB, so I gambled and bought these older sticks, even though they are not 128 MB sticks. These did 140 FSB, 4X. Ho hum I thought.
Next I tried four identical 128-MB sticks made in the good time period above, dated 0119. Four together would not do 140/4X stable, so I didn't even bother to see how low they did. I think they are good for 133-138. Then I tried two sticks alone, and they were crappy. They do maybe 142/4X, even less. Since I already had two 256-MB sticks that will do 140/4X (for 512 MB), not good enough.
Then I tried two 256-MB, 16-device, double-sided sticks I recently bought from Googlegear. They are not that recent, having 0145 date codes on them. They were crappy too, not as good as the old sticks and wouldn't even do 140/4X. Since they are subpar compared to the first sticks I tried, I didn't bother to see how low they'd go, but I imagine they are good for 133-138 at best.
Next I tried a recent batch of 128-MB sticks from Googlegear (0205H). Cold Disposition said he got 2 sticks at 150/4X, so I bought four sticks soon afterward, but I didn't have such luck. Four sticks would not even do 140/4X, and I think they are good for maybe 133-136. I had high hopes for 2 sticks but nada: they were worse than the old sticks made last year. I imagine two sticks might do 138/4X. I tried different combinations of these sticks in hopes of finding two good ones, but they all seem the same.
The ironic thing is the first set of sticks I tried turned out the best! And the 0113 256-MB stick is a used stick! The only reason I was able to get the 0119 stick is it was the display stick at a hole-in-the-wall store. They offered a recent stick in a box but I told them I wanted the demo stick (they thought I was crazy).
Fortunately I'm in Japan so I can sell all the other sticks as used and recoup most my costs.
But the verdict isn't very good. Those who think the latest batches of RDRAM should be doing maybe 140-150 at 4X are wrong. Maybe Samsung is binning them? For PC1066 maybe, but these won't do for PC1200.
And I definitely found running 4 sticks goofy. But I think all of the sticks are good for at least 133. Man, you should see the kind of memory errors I was getting. At 150 the computer would just go beeep, pause, beeep, pause. At 145-148 the HD would hang, or I'd get memory error messages trying to boot into Win98. At 140-145, I could boot, but my floppy would fall asleep while trying to restore a partition using DriveImage. One time I got a colorful box on the screen on boot, changing colors, another time the text was messed up in the BIOS. But put in these good sticks at 140 and wow, like magic. Everything works.
For me, I am content. 140 FSB at PC1120 is nothing to snort at, since it is 512 MB (thanks for the tip, BMG). 256 MB is not enough for gaming nowadays, IMO. So my 1.6a is at 2.23 now. Not too shabby. I mean figure a 1000E cDO Coppermine running 140 FSB??? 133 at best maybe, but not 140.
Figure I stick in a 1.8a and I should be good for 2.52 at 140 FSB. Then when the PC1200 comes out, I can try for 150 FSB.
At 2.23 gig, I ran 3DMark2001 and got 11,750. I got 15,130 in 3DMark2000. My gawd! I was seeing 200+ frame rates in the low detail sections of the former, and 500 fps in the low detail section of Adventure. I presume these are pretty good scores? I upgraded from a 952 mhz Coppermine so I am used to half those marks. I was running a PNY Ti 4600 at 315/735.
Only problem is my Sandra memory scores are pretty low, barely hit 2000 on both, when they should be over 3000. I have TURBO RDRAM disabled, since I'm already running on the edge.
P4T-E, ICS-13 chips, 1.005 BIOS
Malay 1.6a Northwood at 2.23 (140 FSB)
Nidec (Sunflower) heatsink/cooler (33 C idle, 43 stress)
512 MB Samsung PC1120, 16-device, double-sided (2 sticks)
9.1 gig Seagate 10K/4 MB cache/5.4 ns U160 boot drive
Tekram DC390-U2W U80 SCSI controller
Maxtor 80 gig 740DX slave
PNY Ti 4600 at 315/735 (Det. 27.42)
Soundblaster Live 5.1
Afreey 56X
