what does"DRAM Timing by SPD" in BIOS mean?

[clock-n-roll]

in my bios, in the advanced chipset features I get 3 options for my memory timing I have tried all 3 in sandra memory benchmark and here is what I get
CAS2 clock 100 306/314
CAS3 clock 133 373/408
DRAM timing by spd 444/521

the mobno manual sucketh and does not explain what this means! PLEASE HELLLLLLLP!!!

Thanks

 

[diehrd]

Well if I were you, I would go by speed no matter what it means !!!!

 

[Gomez Addams]

It means the timing info for the memory is taken from the module itself. Here is an excerpt from a page at http://www.crucial.com/library/sfiles_terms.asp.

"Another term you'll hear associated with SDRAM is serial presence detect or SPD. SDRAM modules typically include an extra chip (called an EEPROM chip) which stores information about the module. The motherboard can gather information from this chip and change the necessary settings in order to be compatible with the SDRAM."

 

[proze]

basically, if you choose the "by spd" option, you're letting the motherboard "autodetect" the timing settings for your ram, based on the spd chip on the ram stick. if you get better results with that option enabled, then use it.

can you set your ram to 133mhz cas2? if so, then do it. probably see another small increase.

 

[clock-n-roll]

I ran it for about an hour at this setting and I changed it back after my cpu temp alarm started going off. My cpu rarely saw above 40c previously and the alarm was going off at 55c at this setting. The computer ran better at this setting, but I am not comfortable letting the cpu get that hot so I changed it back to cas 3 133.

My machine wont boot at cas2 133 unfortunately and the link posted was dead ( error 404 )

dunno what the cpu had to do with ram timing but it was hotter!
Thanks!
Chuck