K
Ken Fox
Hi,
I posted about this in the OC'ng Newsgroup but since this ng is the most
familiar with the Bios of a P4P800 Deluxe, I thought I'd post here as well
for any suggestions people might have.
Cutting to the chase, I seem to be getting results beyond what I would
expect given the memory modules I'm using, but only to a point. I guess my
major difficulty is understanding the BIOS settings on my mobo, and getting
the CPU and the RAM to communicate at a reasonable rate.
The setup is an Asus P4P800 Deluxe mainboard with bios revision 080009.
Previously I was running a P4 2.2ghz 400FSB CPU with DDR266 Crucial RAM.
That hardware ran fine at a FSB of 460, a 15% OC.
Now, I've got two sticks of 512MB Corsair "Value Select" DDR400 RAM =1GB
running in dual channel mode. The processor is a new 2.6GHz P4c <stock
cooling> with 800FSB, installed this morning (had to wait until I was fully
sober!) The RAM, which I mentioned in an earlier thread, was purchased at
Frys in San Diego on a rebate deal with the two sticks including sales tax
costing ~$130. Given prior posts on this board I had limited expectations
for the OC'ability of this RAM.
The RAM and CPU swap occured without incident and the system booted up fine
on default bios settings. I then began to cautiously OC the system. I must
say that the bios settings are confusing, and there does not appear to be a
straightforward way with this bios to manually adjust the CPU:RAM FSB
ratio. The settings for the DRAM frequency are limited to 266, 333, 400,
and "auto." From what I can tell, changing this setting can diminish but
not improve performance, and does not effect the afforementioned CPU:RAM
ratio.
Each time I pushed up the CPU FSB setting the DRAM frequency rose the same
amount, confirmed (if I can believe what I'm seeing) with CPU-Z, Sandra, and
whatever else I tried, up to a 10% OC. I nudged the voltage up a tad as I
went up, but
never set the vCore at above 1.575, although Asus Probe shows that it is
actually about 1.65 right now. When I got up to a FSB frequency of 230 (OC
of 15%), the CPU:RAM ratio dropped to 3:2, and I cannot get it to be better
than that with everything I've tried so far.
Prior to going above 880 (220)FSB the ratio of CPU to RAM frequency remained
at 1:1, but will not change from 3:2 when above 10% with anything I've tried
to do with the timings.
Standard spd timings were 2.5, 4, 4, and 8. The system would not boot with
a CAS setting of 3.0, but will boot with 2.5 and 2.0. The DRAM precharge
delay (last number in timings) can be reduced to 7 but it doesn't seem to do
anything.
I have done some Memtest86 runs, got 7 passes without errors at a 10% OC
(FSB 220/880, CPU:RAM ratio of 1:1). I have not done any Memtests at higher
frequencies because my suspicion is that the benchmarks will be worse with a
CPU:RAM ratio of 3:2 even if the CPU is racing along at 3+GHz. if the RAM is
slow is as molassas. Heat has not been a problem so far at any setting I've
tried up to a CPU OC of 20% (3.120GHz).
I have not tried monkeying with DRAM voltage and maybe this would change
things but I'm reluctant to do that if it won't change the CPU:RAM
frequency. I thought the bios would have a straightforward way to adjust
the CPU:RAM ratio, but if it does I cannot find it!!
Any suggestions on how to get more performance out of this arrangement would
be hugely appreciated!
Thanks!
Ken
I posted about this in the OC'ng Newsgroup but since this ng is the most
familiar with the Bios of a P4P800 Deluxe, I thought I'd post here as well
for any suggestions people might have.
Cutting to the chase, I seem to be getting results beyond what I would
expect given the memory modules I'm using, but only to a point. I guess my
major difficulty is understanding the BIOS settings on my mobo, and getting
the CPU and the RAM to communicate at a reasonable rate.
The setup is an Asus P4P800 Deluxe mainboard with bios revision 080009.
Previously I was running a P4 2.2ghz 400FSB CPU with DDR266 Crucial RAM.
That hardware ran fine at a FSB of 460, a 15% OC.
Now, I've got two sticks of 512MB Corsair "Value Select" DDR400 RAM =1GB
running in dual channel mode. The processor is a new 2.6GHz P4c <stock
cooling> with 800FSB, installed this morning (had to wait until I was fully
sober!) The RAM, which I mentioned in an earlier thread, was purchased at
Frys in San Diego on a rebate deal with the two sticks including sales tax
costing ~$130. Given prior posts on this board I had limited expectations
for the OC'ability of this RAM.
The RAM and CPU swap occured without incident and the system booted up fine
on default bios settings. I then began to cautiously OC the system. I must
say that the bios settings are confusing, and there does not appear to be a
straightforward way with this bios to manually adjust the CPU:RAM FSB
ratio. The settings for the DRAM frequency are limited to 266, 333, 400,
and "auto." From what I can tell, changing this setting can diminish but
not improve performance, and does not effect the afforementioned CPU:RAM
ratio.
Each time I pushed up the CPU FSB setting the DRAM frequency rose the same
amount, confirmed (if I can believe what I'm seeing) with CPU-Z, Sandra, and
whatever else I tried, up to a 10% OC. I nudged the voltage up a tad as I
went up, but
never set the vCore at above 1.575, although Asus Probe shows that it is
actually about 1.65 right now. When I got up to a FSB frequency of 230 (OC
of 15%), the CPU:RAM ratio dropped to 3:2, and I cannot get it to be better
than that with everything I've tried so far.
Prior to going above 880 (220)FSB the ratio of CPU to RAM frequency remained
at 1:1, but will not change from 3:2 when above 10% with anything I've tried
to do with the timings.
Standard spd timings were 2.5, 4, 4, and 8. The system would not boot with
a CAS setting of 3.0, but will boot with 2.5 and 2.0. The DRAM precharge
delay (last number in timings) can be reduced to 7 but it doesn't seem to do
anything.
I have done some Memtest86 runs, got 7 passes without errors at a 10% OC
(FSB 220/880, CPU:RAM ratio of 1:1). I have not done any Memtests at higher
frequencies because my suspicion is that the benchmarks will be worse with a
CPU:RAM ratio of 3:2 even if the CPU is racing along at 3+GHz. if the RAM is
slow is as molassas. Heat has not been a problem so far at any setting I've
tried up to a CPU OC of 20% (3.120GHz).
I have not tried monkeying with DRAM voltage and maybe this would change
things but I'm reluctant to do that if it won't change the CPU:RAM
frequency. I thought the bios would have a straightforward way to adjust
the CPU:RAM ratio, but if it does I cannot find it!!
Any suggestions on how to get more performance out of this arrangement would
be hugely appreciated!
Thanks!
Ken