Divider of 14

I finished OCing my new 3.2E and starting building the new family computer with my old 2.8C. I bought a refurbished Asus P4P800 Deluxe from Newegg and some cheap PC3200 Mushkin RAM. After building it I tried to OC it. Found I had no problem going past fsb of 215. In fact, I'm at 235 right now. That should be way beyond my RAM at 1:1. I checked all my settings. Seems correct. The system runs fine. Nice and cool. I've made no volt increases. I did notice that in the bios Advanced window it says:
Ratio Status: Locked
Ratio Actual Value :14

Shouldn't that be 16? So is my RAM running at 205 fsb and my CPU running at 235 fsb? Could somebody explain this to me?

Thanks
KV

That 14 is the multiplier it looks like, which is locked. 14 x 200 = 2800, thus being 2.8GHz. Unless you had a ES chip, there would be no way to change that.

KVwire has a 3.2E which is indeed supposed to be 16X. But if you are using an old Asus BIOS, the 3.2E can also run at 14X, which is cool because then you can run the FSB higher. If you want to use the 16X instead, you should be able to set the multiplier to that. There are several recent posts about this subject if you look around.

As for your RAM, are you using the Mushkin PC3200 or the Corsair PC3700 in this rig? If it's the PC3200 and if you have the memory set at the 1:1 ratio (400 with Asus), then that's some excellent RAM. If you are at the 1:1 ratio and if the FSB is at 235, then your RAM is running at 235 too. If your memory is still set on the default "auto" setting, then the mobo probably automatically dropped the ratio down to 5:4. Use CPU-Z to check for sure.

This is the board with the P4P800 and the 2.8C. So it should be at 14. OK. I'm just trying to figure out why I can hit 235 fsb. I have the bios in manual for OC. I have the RAM set at 400 (1:1). Strange. I'm going to double check my bios here. It just doesn't seem right. Is there a program I can run to check my settings?

Thanks.
KV

Edit: I just checked my bios. Still on manual, still 235 fsb, RAM at 400. I just don't trust that the board is really using those settings. RAM is at 2.5,4,4,7

Download and run a free program called CPU-Z to check your settings.

KVWire said:

This is the board with the P4P800 and the 2.8C. So it should be at 14. OK. I'm just trying to figure out why I can hit 235 fsb. I have the bios in manual for OC. I have the RAM set at 400 (1:1). Strange. I'm going to double check my bios here. It just doesn't seem right. Is there a program I can run to check my settings?

Thanks.
KV

Edit: I just checked my bios. Still on manual, still 235 fsb, RAM at 400. I just don't trust that the board is really using those settings. RAM is at 2.5,4,4,7

Click to expand...

Have you compared performance of 2.5-4-4-7 and 3-4-4-8. The reason that I'm asking is that I have seen rigs on which the looser timings actually resulted in higher benches?

Thanks Batboy. I'll grab CPU-Z tonight and see what's really going on.

And I'll play with the RAM settings a little. I still haven't pushed the rig to where it won't boot or is even unstable. I chickened out at 235.

KV

CPU-Z says what the bios says. So I increased the system up to 2.40. Ran fine. It finally froze at 2.42. I made no voltage increases. I think it was the CPU and not the RAM that froze. Nice stick for $73.

KV