Quick Question on RAM

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by nickwsu, Feb 2, 2006.

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  1. nickwsu

    nickwsu Private First Class

    It has been mentioned that you need good RAM to overclock. Will my Corsair value select work pretty much the same? Would it potentially be ruined?

    thx
     
  2. ibbonkers

    ibbonkers First Sergeant

    your ram may become unstable even with just a mild oc or it may oc well. no 2 sticks will react exactly the same. value ram tends not to oc as well as higher end ram and higher end ram generally has tighter timings. if your ram starts becoming unstable back it down a little and you should be fine. just make sure you oc in small increments and then test your system for stability before proceeding
     
  3. Tonglebeak

    Tonglebeak Specialist

    Dropping your CAS latency from 3 to 2.5 is a good start.

    Remember to run higher voltages through your ram as you increase the clock speed, but try to stay under 2.8 volts for safety.
     
  4. ACE 256

    ACE 256 MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Overclocking Expe

    :confused:..... I have never noticed a big dif. from value ram to the expincive stuff when it comes to overclocking..... Like right now im running 2 512MB sticks of kingston valueram ( 400 DDR timmings 3 4 4 8 ) It will happaly run DDR 500 with timings 2 2 2 6 @ 3.3 volts ( Winbond BH-5 ;) ) ...then again iv seen the most expincive ram you can get at the time not overclock more then 5Mhz. Its just like CPUs the fastest ones rearly are the best overclockers.

    Donno what Tonglebeak is trying to say thare but lowering your cas will not help you overclock....you best bet is to run stock timings and see how hi it will overclock....once you have found the max speed on stock timmings... you can try upping the timings to get more speed out ( 2.5 3 3 8 to 3 3 3 9 is a good start ) just bench before and affter some chipsets like slower ram at tighter timings rather then fast ram at loose timings. any more then 3 4 4 11 is normaly overkill inless your running DDR2 that normaly has crap timings stock... As for ram voltage 3.3 is normaly the max you should run. all in all dont go above 3.0 w/o active cooling on the ram. My ram @ 3.3 is as cool as it is @ 2.5 then again i have a 120MM fan blowing on them....
     
  5. Bambo

    Bambo Private First Class

    Depends a lot on which chip is being used. You can be lucky and get value ram with oc-happy chip - normally you wont be. Makers are not stupid and as you can see from prices of super-ram there is much $$ to get. Also better PCB and what they often refer to as "handpicked" "qualified" etc. means $$. With value ram you probably dont even know what chip you get, same model might come with 4-5 dif. chips. And then it matters how well ram-chip works with 1. chipset in general and 2. Specific bios.

    Just because you cant seem to lower timings does not mean ram cant overclock. A standard Samsung PC2700 I had couldnt use anything but 2.5-3-3 but could do 200fsb on NF2 easy. No need to overvolt or anything. Change of timings and it would crash out quickly, also at much lower fsb. Have to know the nature of specific module. Trying to force super timings with voltage is not a good idea.

    About voltage you can easily blow up things with more than 3.0v - or less. Again, depend on module. Some react positive to more volt (up to a point), others will have limit after which you are only doing harm.

    Since there are no rules all you can do is make detailed research. And most importantly TEST with memtest86 and such tools. If you have wrong setup computer will be very unstable and can take out registry files in a flash. A quick tour at Corsair forums should give you an idea what to expect with Value ram on your motherboard.

    With never chipsets Corsair Value wont hurt oc that much since they can make use of memory dividers so only cpu gets more mhz while ram is locked or at least kept within safe area.
     
  6. nickwsu

    nickwsu Private First Class

    Thank you guys for the input. I don't think I will mess with changing the timings and volts to the RAM since I really don't know much about it at this point.
     
  7. Cowpers07

    Cowpers07 Private E-2

    Don't know if this is any use to anyone. I used Memtest86 recently on my Corsair XMS memory in an ASUS A8N32-SLi Deluxe board, it came up with errors (100's) during test #6. After swapping out memory sticks and even changing motherboards we (PC suppliers) discovered the fault is with "Legacy USB support" for some reason Memtest86 sees this as a fault in the memory modules. Disabling Legacy support removes the faulty test results. Enabled support only showed up when I updated the BIOS to ver. 1103.
     
  8. Adrynalyne

    Adrynalyne Guest

    That seems odd. Maybe I'll run memtest later and see what happens.

    My new RMA'ed board just got to me yesterday and was pre-flashed with 1103.
     
  9. Adrynalyne

    Adrynalyne Guest

    I've looked around. This has been a known issue with Asus BIOSes for several years. Its a false positve.
     
  10. Cowpers07

    Cowpers07 Private E-2

    Excuse me if this is a dumb question:rolleyes: What's a false positive? I had guessed it couldn't be a major issue as the PC runs fine and ran Prime95 for a good ten hours with no faults. I have to admit I don't even know what the Legacy is for.
     
  11. Adrynalyne

    Adrynalyne Guest

    False--incorrect result.

    Psotive- memtest tests for errors. A positive result equals an error :)
     
  12. Cowpers07

    Cowpers07 Private E-2

    OK that's clear enough, thanks for that ....so as a positive equals an error, this "false positve" is not an error therefore ...why did it give an error :)
     
  13. Adrynalyne

    Adrynalyne Guest

    I'm not going to argue semantics with you.
     
  14. Cowpers07

    Cowpers07 Private E-2

    I'm not Jewish :)

    Really I'm not having a go here.
     
  15. ACE 256

    ACE 256 MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Overclocking Expe

    Tread lightly Cowpers07.........

    A false positive would be an error that has nothing to due with hardware instability (normally due to a software problem or in this case poorly written bios code)....
     
  16. Cowpers07

    Cowpers07 Private E-2

    So why does it manifest itself in this way, that is, as an error in a memory test? What I'm asking is where is the BIOS code held? and how does it manage to screw with what I guess are sum values when the memory modules are tested?
     
  17. ACE 256

    ACE 256 MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Overclocking Expe

    This is all I can find. Donno why it happens but it does. Just leave it at that.....
     
  18. Cowpers07

    Cowpers07 Private E-2

    Thanks for the link..but you can keep your attitude.
     
  19. ACE 256

    ACE 256 MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Overclocking Expe

    Again i say... Tread lightly Cowpers07.........
    This is going nowhere fast.. Closed.
     
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