Corsair XMS and Platinum Neo2

[DiscipleDOC]

I'm looking for the best timings for my RAM. My specs are below, and my timings (at the moment) is 2-2-5-2 at 1T. When I try to go over 220 MHz FSB, I get the dreaded BSOD. Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

[saturnotaku]

From what I've read, Corsair memory doesn't always get along particularly well with the A64. However, in your case have you lowered your HT multiplier? I couldn't run my system stable over a 215 fsb with the multiplier set at 5x. I have mine set at 4x now and a 225 fsb, though I might try and push it higher since I realized I can de-sync my memory speed on the Neo2.

[DiscipleDOC]

From what I've read, Corsair memory doesn't always get along particularly well with the A64. However, in your case have you lowered your HT multiplier? I couldn't run my system stable over a 215 fsb with the multiplier set at 5x. I have mine set at 4x now and a 225 fsb, though I might try and push it higher since I realized I can de-sync my memory speed on the Neo2.
Yup, I got the HTT set to 4. I'm reading other places and they say that you can relax the timings to take the fsb higher.

I'll do more research....

[saturnotaku]

I've already got the timings on my memory as relaxed as I'm comfortable (8-4-4-3) but my system just is not stable on an FSB at 233 or greater (which my PC3700 is rated for). Over 240 the board won't POST, 233-239 my video card freaks out. 225 has been fine at 1.525 vcore (don't wanna go higher on stock cooling) and 2.7 memory. I'm trying out 230 as I type this and it's been OK so far. If I'm stable here, I'll leave it alone as I don't feel like investing in new cooling and/or memory.

[saturnotaku]

OK, this is ticking me off. It's not stable at 230 now. Looks like I'm stuck at 225, but I found out the .5 multis are working just fine so I'm at 225x10.5 for 2362 MHz. It's strange because my video card is what's giving me grief at high FSBs. My machine will appear to lock up, it will flash artifacts, then VPU recover kicks in and I have to reboot. I've tried upping my AGP voltage to no success so this is leading me to believe that perhaps the AGP/PCI lock on this board is not working correctly.

I don't know, as long as I'm stable where I'm at now, I won't complain too much since I'm only on stock cooling. And I also have one of the first 3500+ CPUs that were made so that may be part of it as well. Pretty disappointing really. :(

[DiscipleDOC]

OK, this is ticking me off. It's not stable at 230 now. Looks like I'm stuck at 225, but I found out the .5 multis are working just fine so I'm at 225x10.5 for 2362 MHz. It's strange because my video card is what's giving me grief at high FSBs. My machine will appear to lock up, it will flash artifacts, then VPU recover kicks in and I have to reboot. I've tried upping my AGP voltage to no success so this is leading me to believe that perhaps the AGP/PCI lock on this board is not working correctly.

I don't know, as long as I'm stable where I'm at now, I won't complain too much since I'm only on stock cooling. And I also have one of the first 3500+ CPUs that were made so that may be part of it as well. Pretty disappointing really. :(

I got mines working like a charm! ;) I relaxed the timings to 3-3-10-3, and these are the results:
http://mastermind.topcities.com/Images/Athlon64/3DMark/RAM.jpg

Here's the overclock!
http://mastermind.topcities.com/Images/Athlon64/3DMark/cpu-z.jpg

Here's 3DMark2K1!
http://mastermind.topcities.com/Images/Athlon64/3DMark/3Dmark2k1.jpg

I'm happy now! :D

[saturnotaku]

Oh my, looks like my new goal is to whoop you here. I'm testing out some new settings to see if they're stable. What are your Sandra memory bandwidth scores?

[DiscipleDOC]

SiSoft Sandra is a no go. I've tightened the timings down to 2.5-3-3-7 and it's faster than before, but SiSoft is still crahing. Anyone have any ideas?

Also, I'm able to play HL2 with no hiccups.....

[DiscipleDOC]

Here's my second try:
http://mastermind.topcities.com/Images/Athlon64/3DMark/3Dmark2k1(2).jpg
http://mastermind.topcities.com/Images/Athlon64/3DMark/cpu-z-2.jpg
http://mastermind.topcities.com/Images/Athlon64/3DMark/RAM-2.jpg

[saturnotaku]

You trying to go 1:1 on that? I'm going 6:5 on my system and I got better memory bandwidth on this ratio as I did when I was running straight 1:1.

[DiscipleDOC]

You trying to go 1:1 on that? I'm going 6:5 on my system and I got better memory bandwidth on this ratio as I did when I was running straight 1:1.

Could you explain what you mean, sat?

[saturnotaku]

1:1 means your FSB and memory speeds run in-sync (the "auto" speed setting in DRAM configuration in the Neo2 BIOS). Setting your FSB to 225 MHz for your CPU means your memory runs at the same speed (DDR450).

Setting the memory frequency to 166 establishes a 6:5 FSB to memory ratio. In my current configuration, my FSB is at 270 MHz, which means my RAM is at 225. You also have the option of setting it down to 133 MHz, which is 4:3 IIRC but that's more for folks with phase change and other exotic setups.

I was always under the impression that running your FSB and memory in-sync would offer the best performance but this has not been the case for me. Sandra showed 6100 mb/s at 1:1 on a 225 FSB. But with a 270 FSB and 6:5 ratio, I'm scoring near 6500 mb/s. That's a huge gain without running my memory at any higher frequency than it was running previously.

[OCForums_Osirus]

Ok, here is my take on it.
Im running at 300HTT, and 250FSB, which is the divider of 5:6. Timings at 2.5-4-7-4 1T
Sandra scores 7GB+ with 91% efficency.
You have a multipiler of 11, try to drop it to 10x and set your DRAM config to 166.
This will run your system at 166:200 or 5:6 ratio.
Also set your HT to 3x, as it is recommened if your going over 250fsb.

Try the timmings 2.5-4-7-4 2T. See if that helps.

Also, to confirm you have
Dynamic Overclocking - disabled
cool and quiet - disabled
spread spectrum - disabled