Ram question.

Mikeyman64 · Post by **Mikeyman64** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 11:16 pm

Hah, another question.

I have bought some ram recently. 2 1GB sticks of Patriot DDR2 1000 SDRAM. When I boot my PC, the post only says it's DDR2 800. The voltage and timing is all set to Auto so I guess that needs a bit of tweeking. Does anyone know what good timing/voltage would be for these sticks? I don't mind overclocking if it would give me better performance.

atari2600a · Post by **atari2600a** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 11:19 pm

What's your CPU clock speed?

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 2:21 am

Usually means:

1) your motherboard can't support 1000 - many only go up to 800. Check the BIOS screen to see what it gives as options, if 800 is max, that answers your question - put up with 800 or change the motherboard.

2) your BIOS needs updating (flashed) to update it to accept 1000 - check the manufacturers web site first to see if an update is worth it - flashing can be risky too..

timmeh87 · Post by **timmeh87** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 9:09 am

what kind of cpu is it.

1000 is not really a standard speed AFAIK. that ram sounds like it is overclocking ram. if the board is in 'auto' mode is probably picking the right speed. computer hardware will (usually) NEVER purposely overclock itself, warranty purposes blah blah blah. (the exception here seems to be graphics cards...)

youd have to crank your FSB from 200 to 250 to get the ram to 1ghz, of course thats an overclock your CPU might not be able to handle. (25%)

if you are really intense with your overclocking you could spend days messing with your ram/cpu timings. overclocking the cpu is obvious preformance gain, but messing with ram timings is like and extra 50mb/s on top of the existing 6gb/s. not really worth it in my opinion.

Mikeyman64 · Post by **Mikeyman64** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 4:23 pm

I found out that my mobo only supports up to 800.

But the post also says its running in Single Channel when it's two sticks of Dual Channel memory and my mobo manual says it supports DC. How can I make that work?

My processor is an AMD X2 4200 at 2.21Ghz.

atari2600a · Post by **atari2600a** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 4:40 pm

Clock speed /= CPU speed

Clock speed = MHz X Multiplier = CPU speed

timmeh87 · Post by **timmeh87** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 10:10 pm

the ram has to be in two slots that are the same color, or otherwise in the right physical place for dual-channel mode to work.

Mikeyman64 · Post by **Mikeyman64** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 10:15 pm

timmeh87 wrote:the ram has to be in two slots that are the same color, or otherwise in the right physical place for dual-channel mode to work.

That helps.

atari2600a wrote:Clock speed /= CPU speed

Clock speed = MHz X Multiplier = CPU speed

That just confuses me. I'm not quite sure what you are trying to tell me. I do know what a CPU clock speed is.

timmeh87 · Post by **timmeh87** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 11:17 am

when atari said "/=", he meant "not equal". (I personally prefer !=)

all he was saying is that the CPU clock is derived from the FSB (Front Side Bus) clock and the CPU multiplier (which can be any multiple of 0.5 and cant be changed on most processors).

the ram clock is also derived from the FSB (multiplier is 4), as is the PCI clock and the AGP clock.

changing the FSB has an effect on most of the computer, there are many factors that limit how high it can go. btw, 200 ('800') is what you are at, which is the fastest any computer in your configuration is designed to go anyways. 1ghz DDR ram (that is, PC4000 DDR) is nice overclocking ram

.

-can you play with the ram timings in your BIOS? if you cant speed them up you might be able to have fun tightening the timings up. in my experience the computer usually just dosent POST though. cause my rams crappy I think.

some fancy motherboards have independent clock generators for everything so you have complete control over everything. those are called "expensive overclocking motherboards". I recommend getting on in your next computer

Mikeyman64 · Post by **Mikeyman64** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 11:39 am

timmeh87 wrote:-can you play with the ram timings in your BIOS? if you cant speed them up you might be able to have fun tightening the timings up. in my experience the computer usually just dosent POST though. cause my rams crappy I think.

some fancy motherboards have independent clock generators for everything so you have complete control over everything. those are called "expensive overclocking motherboards". I recommend getting on in your next computer

Yes, my motherboard can change ram timings. It can do many things, I think you could call it a "slightly expensive partial overclocking motherboard".