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Ballistix PC4000's can't get stable!!

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Vexx

Member
Joined
Jun 19, 2002
I posted this in the dfi-street forums.. just loooking for help :]

I've been looking through the other threads trying things to get my ram stable!

No matter what I do I get errors in duel channel.. I tested each stick in single channel last night and go n behold they worked fine!

I've tried 3 different bios.. 704 623 and 510 orange and yellow slots. I've been useing the stock timings 3 4 4 8 2.8v..

some settings get less errors some get other errrors..

I've tried droping the multiplyer to 9.0 10.0 still full of errors..
droping the htt to 2.5 or 2.0 didn't do much ether

im running out of ideas
:shrug:
 
I'm running a similar setup. The 704-3 bios worked best for me, with the sticks in the Orange slots. You may not need that much Vdimm. I could get up to 275 Mhz 3-3-3-8 at 2.67V measured at the slots with a multimeter. A lot of what you can achieve depeds upon you memory, CPU, motherboard, bios and PSU. That's five variables to get synched. The SD should be ablt to handle 10x250 at 1.50 Vcore. I'd start there with the ram settings all at default, save the timings set to the above and running 1:1 (250 Mhz). If you can get that stable, then inch up the FSB and adjust the Vcore as needed. Mine will run 10x270 at 1.500V, but that is with some extreme water cooling. Give that bios, and those setting a shot and see what happens. This is important with the 704 bios: Never take the VID control above +113% or better yet, leave that parameter alone for the moment. You shouldn't need it to get to 250 or even 270 Mhz.

Hoot
 
Hoot said:
I'm running a similar setup. The 704-3 bios worked best for me, with the sticks in the Orange slots. You may not need that much Vdimm. I could get up to 275 Mhz 3-3-3-8 at 2.67V measured at the slots with a multimeter. A lot of what you can achieve depeds upon you memory, CPU, motherboard, bios and PSU. That's five variables to get synched. The SD should be ablt to handle 10x250 at 1.50 Vcore. I'd start there with the ram settings all at default, save the timings set to the above and running 1:1 (250 Mhz). If you can get that stable, then inch up the FSB and adjust the Vcore as needed. Mine will run 10x270 at 1.500V, but that is with some extreme water cooling. Give that bios, and those setting a shot and see what happens. This is important with the 704 bios: Never take the VID control above +113% or better yet, leave that parameter alone for the moment. You shouldn't need it to get to 250 or even 270 Mhz.

Hoot

okay thanks hoot I'll try that when I get home and let you know :)
 
use active cooling, crucial doesn't say it's required, but it's pretty obvious that you need to when you're clocking memory at 250+mhz. I had errors running at 265mhz till I pointed a fan at them and viola it didn't error anymore.
 
ocing newbie said:
use active cooling, crucial doesn't say it's required, but it's pretty obvious that you need to when you're clocking memory at 250+mhz. I had errors running at 265mhz till I pointed a fan at them and viola it didn't error anymore.

the heat spreaders on the chips just get what I would call "luke warm"..
and besides the 120mm fan on the XP-120 pretty much hovers over them..
 
ocing newbie said:
mine get really hot, that's wierd yours don't. have you tried them one at a time yet?

Yep no errors in memtest @ DDR500 3 4 4 8 2.8v and 2.7v

I ran them both for about 3 hours at each setting
 
Hoot said:
I'm running a similar setup. The 704-3 bios worked best for me, with the sticks in the Orange slots. You may not need that much Vdimm. I could get up to 275 Mhz 3-3-3-8 at 2.67V measured at the slots with a multimeter. A lot of what you can achieve depeds upon you memory, CPU, motherboard, bios and PSU. That's five variables to get synched. The SD should be ablt to handle 10x250 at 1.50 Vcore. I'd start there with the ram settings all at default, save the timings set to the above and running 1:1 (250 Mhz). If you can get that stable, then inch up the FSB and adjust the Vcore as needed. Mine will run 10x270 at 1.500V, but that is with some extreme water cooling. Give that bios, and those setting a shot and see what happens. This is important with the 704 bios: Never take the VID control above +113% or better yet, leave that parameter alone for the moment. You shouldn't need it to get to 250 or even 270 Mhz.

Hoot


ah hoot I'm glad to let you know I'm rock stable at 10 x 250 at the exact settings you recommended.. First time I've got to play some BF2 on my Athlon 64 system and i've had it for like 3 weeks.. I'm going to do some gaming then i'll try and push it more!

thanks again! :)

btw my temps seem great.. not getting over 40c on load... does that seem a little low for a XP-120?
 
Vexx said:
ah hoot I'm glad to let you know I'm rock stable at 10 x 250 at the exact settings you recommended.. First time I've got to play some BF2 on my Athlon 64 system and i've had it for like 3 weeks.. I'm going to do some gaming then i'll try and push it more!

thanks again! :)

btw my temps seem great.. not getting over 40c on load... does that seem a little low for a XP-120?

For your next step, set Vdimm to 2.7, if it's not already there. Leave the CPU where it's at for the moment and change the memory divider to 7:6. That'll crank those sticks up to 290 Mhz. Give it one pass through MemTest86 and if it passes, get back to gaming. Report in this evening.

Oh yeah, 40C seems a little low for good air cooling at 1.50Vcore and 2500, but not terribly outlandish. Don't worry about that right now. The SDs are very tolerant of heat.

Hoot
 
Hoot said:
For your next step, set Vdimm to 2.7, if it's not already there. Leave the CPU where it's at for the moment and change the memory divider to 7:6. That'll crank those sticks up to 290 Mhz. Give it one pass through MemTest86 and if it passes, get back to gaming. Report in this evening.

Oh yeah, 40C seems a little low for good air cooling at 1.50Vcore and 2500, but not terribly outlandish. Don't worry about that right now. The SDs are very tolerant of heat.

Hoot

I gave that a try last night hoot.. i didn't mess around too much with settings I had to get some sleep.. but Prime was failing and I was getting reboots
 
Vexx said:
I gave that a try last night hoot.. i didn't mess around too much with settings I had to get some sleep.. but Prime was failing and I was getting reboots

Sorry to hear that but yeah, some times you got to walk away and take care of yourself first. Perhaps jumping to 290 right away on the memory was a bit too agressive.

So, this works: Memory in the Orange slots, 704-3 Bios
10x250 @ 1.50Vcore LDT 4X Memory 1:1 (250 Mhz) 3-3-3-8-1T @ 2.7Vdimm

And this doesn't:
10x250 @ 1.50Vcore LDT 4X Memory 7:6 (290 Mhz) 3-3-3-8-1T @ 2.7Vdimm

With water cooling and the IHS removed, my CPU core is probably a lot cooler than yours. No way to compare them as I use an external thermal diode reader and you're using the onboard monitoring circuitry. So, it's hard to predict how well your SD will overclock.

This is what I'd try next:
10x270 @ 1.55Vcore LDT 3X Memory 1:1 (270 Mhz) 3-3-3-8-1T @ 2.7Vdimm

-or-

11x250 @ 1.55Vcore LDT 4X Memory 1:1 (250 Mhz) 3-3-3-8-1T @ 2.7Vdimm

Don't be afraid to try 2.6Vdimm when the memory is running at 270 Mhz or less. Some times less voltage works better, especially if your room and or case interior are warm.

Give either one pass through MemTest86 Test #5 and if it flies go to Windows and one pass through SuperPi 1M. If it flies, try gaming or put it on Prime95 Torture Blend and hit the hay.

I know how maddening it can be wanting to both experiment and game at the same time and only having so much disposable time on your hands. The good news is running stability tests like Prime95 do not require your presence. Unless you're concerned about an approaching electrical storm, or have pets and/or siblings who want to **** with your machine if you leave it running unattended, let it work while you're doing something more pressing.

Good Luck

Hoot
 
Hoot said:
Sorry to hear that but yeah, some times you got to walk away and take care of yourself first. Perhaps jumping to 290 right away on the memory was a bit too agressive.

So, this works: Memory in the Orange slots, 704-3 Bios
10x250 @ 1.50Vcore LDT 4X Memory 1:1 (250 Mhz) 3-3-3-8-1T @ 2.7Vdimm

And this doesn't:
10x250 @ 1.50Vcore LDT 4X Memory 7:6 (290 Mhz) 3-3-3-8-1T @ 2.7Vdimm

With water cooling and the IHS removed, my CPU core is probably a lot cooler than yours. No way to compare them as I use an external thermal diode reader and you're using the onboard monitoring circuitry. So, it's hard to predict how well your SD will overclock.

This is what I'd try next:
10x270 @ 1.55Vcore LDT 3X Memory 1:1 (270 Mhz) 3-3-3-8-1T @ 2.7Vdimm

-or-

11x250 @ 1.55Vcore LDT 4X Memory 1:1 (250 Mhz) 3-3-3-8-1T @ 2.7Vdimm

Don't be afraid to try 2.6Vdimm when the memory is running at 270 Mhz or less. Some times less voltage works better, especially if your room and or case interior are warm.

Give either one pass through MemTest86 Test #5 and if it flies go to Windows and one pass through SuperPi 1M. If it flies, try gaming or put it on Prime95 Torture Blend and hit the hay.

I know how maddening it can be wanting to both experiment and game at the same time and only having so much disposable time on your hands. The good news is running stability tests like Prime95 do not require your presence. Unless you're concerned about an approaching electrical storm, or have pets and/or siblings who want to **** with your machine if you leave it running unattended, let it work while you're doing something more pressing.

Good Luck

Hoot

I'm going to have to let it sit where its at atm until I get my case temps worked out.. there reaching 40C... the 120mm intake fan has 2 HD infront of it.. but once I get those moved or out of it i'll give these settings a try hopefully by the end of this weekend. BTW do you know if those those Fans that slide into your PCI slots and blow air out the rear of the case are worth investing in?
 
Vexx said:
I'm going to have to let it sit where its at atm until I get my case temps worked out.. there reaching 40C... the 120mm intake fan has 2 HD infront of it.. but once I get those moved or out of it i'll give these settings a try hopefully by the end of this weekend. BTW do you know if those those Fans that slide into your PCI slots and blow air out the rear of the case are worth investing in?

That could definitely be a factor. My Electronics room is as constant 20C as the thermostat can deliver and inside my case is 23-25C. As for those PCI slot fans go, I've had no experience with them, but I've heard people say they aren't worth much in terms of improvement. I have one powerful, but quiet 180mm fan drawing air in through the radiator which is in the lower front of my box and one 120mm slow fan pulling air out the rear just below the PSU. That's why I love towers for overclocking.

Hoot
 
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