Crucial Ballistix PC3200 (DDR400) 1GB Kit

[abracadabra]

Good idead but there .16TG ones. WEll iv run memtest #5 21 times @ 2.5-3-3-10 ddr510 2V6+V03 and its stable. running all memtests now. So the extra 5mhz fsb must be making the memory unstable and not the voltage

i have an old fan out of a dell optiplex GX1, http://www.impactcomputers.com/89651.html. That seems like a very expensive fan? its must be amazing! Any ideas if its worth using, if so wheres the best place, considering i dhave a zalam 770 wich covers the ram slightly so i cant put it where you put urs rob

 

[Greg King]

Not to offend you but it has been said earlier in the thread that activly cooling your RAM will, just like a CPU, keep it stable better as well as allow a higher overclock. I have the same Zalman as you, well the 7000 but there isnt much differance between the two really, and it only cools one side of the lowest DIMM. I have a ghetto rigged 80mm fan blowing down onto my RAM and it has helped out incredably. I am not sure how much timings effect your temps, it any, but the higher the voltage, the higher your temps.

If I were a betting man, I would hone in on your clocks rather than your volts for stability issues here. The voltage will only allow your RAM to hold tighter timings in higher clocks...stable.

So to answer your three questions,

1. Yes, cooler memory runs better....just like a cooler CPU is ideal for overclocking and stability.

2. I think that temps, if hotter, would be neglegable at best. With the tighter timings, you still are pumping 3.1v through your sticks. I personally would not attempt 3.1 for long. I got 265 with 3.0v and I didnt want to go any higher than that with the voltage.

3. I think that DDR 250 would run slightly cooler than DDR 600

 

[Greg King]

That seems like a very expensive fan?

That is an obsurd price for a stinking fan. More power to you if you throw it on your RAM, it will help. For 50 dollars, that fan better fold on its own!

 

[(cf)Eclipse]

that previous guest post was mine. i'm not used to boards that let you post without logging in

and if it's a fan, it's worth using. i upgraded my 5v'ed 80mm tornado to a quieter 120mm fan, but still moves similar amount of air. without it, i'd probably have to clock back like 10mhz

 

[abracadabra]

I get the picture. The reason i spent £90 on case was to allow good cooling and thus a quieter sysytem. Seems im forced to use a fan on my ram if i want it overclocked! Im stable now 2.5-3-3-10 drr 510 @2V6+V03. Anymore voltage or any tighter timings and errors appear. It seems certain now that another fan will help me. Sorry eclipse i see u mentioned this a few posts into the thread. Ill rig up my 80mm and point it at the ram to see what i get out of my ram then. An eye sore really! A more visully appealing solution would be much preffered but due to the restriction i have with my zalman 7700 i think ghetto would have to be the way to go!

 

[Greg King]

Why are you so adament on getting the most out of your RAM just to install Gentoo? Or is it just to see what you can get out of your RAM? That I can understand...

 

[abracadabra]

I didnt ever say i was adament on getting the most out of my ram in order to install gentoo. However i do need it stable before i install gentoo. If you know anything about that distro then you'll be familier with the fact that alot of compiling needs to take place in order to run the system, thus my looking into overclocking. As my cpu can handle 260*10 and many people have achieved ddr520 with this ram i feel i may aswell do it to. Im having fun also. Even bitching with you. You have ballistix pc4000 but you do not state your overclock, im interested, what is it?

 

[Greg King]

First off, I wouldn't call what we are discussing "bitching." Don't get so defensive; I am just trying to help you.

At the bottom of page 5 are the results of mine that you were looking for. Since then, I have gotten up to 268 MHz (268 x 10) at 3.0v with my timings at 2.5-3-3-10. I know that's not stellar but I am satisfied with them so far and with better cooling, I know that more is available. I am not trying to verbally spar with you, just trying to find exactly how I can help you.

 

[abracadabra]

Maybe defensive. So do you think there will be much difference in 2.6ght 2.5-2-3-10 over 2.55ghz 2.5-3-3-10. The first settings will be what id use with less noise without another fan and the second set is what i think id get with a fan on my ram. thanks

 

[(cf)Eclipse]

you must have that backwards

the difference between the two are probably negligable...

BUT
the cooler you keep the ram, the longer it'll last.



btw rob, you need different smilies

 

[abracadabra]

Well its official, whats in my sig is 100% stable. Thanks guys. Yes it was backwards! oops. Ill take that into account ( about temps ). Somethong is making my antec neopowers fan speed up! perhaps it is the ram. Ill put that fan in and let you guys know what differance it makes if your interested. It will prob be a few days because that fan i mentioned earier is for dell motherboards + the wires are to short.

 

[Rob Williams]

Grats, you will get great performance out of that configuration. That's using 1:1 right?

 

[abracadabra]

Note the sig change. This had to be done because i decided to to more stress testing in my room with the windows shut on a boiling hot day. Now i am happy to say this config is stabe even in a very hot room which is what i wanted. Thanks alot for your help. Ive just done some benchmarks and even though the numbers dont mean much its looks like quite an improvment? I could from now try get 2.5-2-2-5 out of my ram. Perhaps this willneed up to 3V1 though so would need better cooling. Ive had loads of fun in the last few weeks learning about overclocking, i knew i wanted to do it for my linux compiling, divx encoding and games, thus the parts i purchased for my new comp but didnt think it would make much difference. Perhaps in a few months i might look into this watercooling stuff and maybe its worth me getting a venice core! Memory bandwidth seems a little low especially at stock 2-2-2-5 or that about right? Cheers

OC ............................. stock 2-2-2-5

cpu arith 11412.................... 9164
________ 3907/5051.................3129/4055

cpu multi 23540......................18895
________ 25316......................20360

memory band 6982.......................5682
________ 6904.....................5619

3dmark03 13104 12566
3dmark05 6416 6303

 

[Rob Williams]

Those scores are bang on bro.. good stuff. You have nothing to worry about.

As I said, to see any more improvement, I believe you'd need a newer model AMD.

Good stuff for sure though.

 

[abracadabra]

Well my computer is still working!woo hoo. I thought id do some more stability testing even though theres prob no need. Earlier on in the thread in place TFTs was the suggestion fo running prime95. After googling for 10 mins i was shocked to see i couldnt find any clear documemtation on which settings to use. So i ask you, which setting do i use for ABSOLUTE MAXIMUM STRESS testing of cpu and ram.

Surely it would be custom? with min tft=8, max tft=32768 and 1024 for ram. and time to run each tft, well aslon as i want i guess 30mins?. Am i right? Why dont other people do this? i want to run it for 48 hours. You may think this is unneccecary but frankly i want to do it anyway.

Please dont just say do blend because surly theres a more vigorous test! Thanks guys

 

[Rob Williams]

I personally never used anything but Small FFT's. If you can pass that for 24 hours, you are golden. Blend mode may be used specifically to stress test weaknesses in memory, which you will likely not have.

You could custom it if you are really ambitious, but I am not even sure if that would be much different than Small FFT's. I could be wrong..

 

[abracadabra]

well ive done all types of prime95 an passes 24 hrs with all of he, my games run fine too. I do however have stuttering about three times when playing a divx movie, soemtimes i have to copletly restart the movie. it does it on any movie and doesnt do it when the system is not overclocked. Its definitly related to the overclock. Im confused now because i thought my system was stable!. Hope you can help me with this one rob,thanks. Perhaps this should be posted somewhere else.

 

[Rob Williams]

There are some things that just don't like overclocking.. and I have wierd issues like that as well.

I remember when Unreal Tournament first came out.. my system was very overclocked, and rock stable. However, every once and a while, the game would just close on me for no apparent reason. After digging further, I discovered it was a common issue, because the game's fussy when it comes to overclocking.

I knew it was not because of an unstable overclock, because every single other game and app worked fantastic.

I possibly have another wierd quirk due to overclocking as well. Every so often when I open Winamp, all my settings are reset. I never actually took the time to figure out if it's due to overclocking, because I never use stock, but it could be.

So, to be honest, if you want to watch movies, I'd just revert the OC, or possibly try a different player.

 

[abracadabra]

I see. Thats a bummer for me, i was hopeing everything would be dead stable. I might just splash out on an expensive cpu and a more stable motherboard. seems a shame really.

 

[Rob Williams]

Naw man, I wouldn't upgrade if you don't really need to. Once you overclock, you will always overclock, no matter which CPU you have

Did you try a different media player? My similar CPU is overclocked as well, and I have no issues with skipping. I use Windows Media Player for videos and WinDVD for DVD's, obviously.