Ram recommendations for IC7?

Hi folks,
I've just acquired an Abit IC7 with a PIV 3.0c and i am looking for 1GB dual channel memory kit for it.

My current memory is a single stick of 512 Corsair XMS3200 and when i had a go at overclocking, it reached between 235 and 240 (3450-3600MHz) which pretty much blew me away.

So, do i go for another XMS3200 and hope it goes clocks as well as the other or do i go for some faster sticks to really see what this PIV can do?

The problem is i don't know how much headroom this Cpu(SL6WK Costa Rica) has left, it may bottle out at 250 which means something like a Gig of Twinx4000 Pro would be an expensive decision. Allthough i could allways RMA it.

Help, opinions, experiences..

Thanks

I'd suggest you save yourself some money and just stick in a second stick of what you already have. Mind you, having said that the Corsair isn't cheap, but it probably is cheaper than getting two new DDR500 sticks (even the cheap - but great - Kingmax DDR500 that I'm using.)

You've no guarantee that a second stick, especially in dual-channel mode with PAT, is going to let you hit the same fsb, so be warned. Don't just think because 1 stick did it that 2 will, especially DC & PAT. You might however get away with it with much slacker timings. Who knows, overclocking is always a bit 'suck it and see'. Of course, those slacker timings might end up defeating the object (but shouldn't do, as P4's like higher fsb.)

I'd say that 3.6 (on air?) is about as high as that chip will go anyway. Sure, you might get a bit more from it (especially with water, etc), but what's the point: it isn't going to make that much 'real world' difference. Unless it's just bragging rights you want! :-)

In short, if you REALLY want to see how high you can go, and don't mind the cost, buy some DDR500 (etc) RAM. If not, and you want to save a few bob, locate a second stick of what you have - oh, and maybe try second-hand, as there are a lot of people out there selling 3200, so you might get lucky. Remember, though, that it might not go as high as you'd like.

Nomadd

Thanks for the reply bud. Ive just ordered some Ocz EL Gold stuff to try out. Expensive but if it doesn't OC much more i'll rma it and go for another 512 XMS. I haven't tried Ocz ram before but i've read mostly good things so i'd thought i'd try it out.

Yeah it's aircooled (Swiftech huge thing :) and still on default voltage so i'd be surprised if i don't get much more than said speed but i'm aware that dual channel usually OC's less than single for obvious reasons.

Anyway, more importantly i'm having fun testing all this out in my spare time seeing what it will do. Ram should be here tomorrow hopefully and don't you just hate waiting for new hardware deliveries.

What speed grade did you go for? DDR500? I looked at the OCZ, but it was waaay outta my league price wise (about twice the price of my Kingmax). I have a 3.2 P4 @3.6, so I didn't really need 'the best' RAM, as I wasn't going for a crazy fsb. I'll be interested in hearing how you get on with the OCZ, as the only 'high end' stuff I've ever used before was Corsair. Keep us posted.

Nomadd

Yeah mate, it's OCZ Enhanced Latency Gold Edition Dual Channel Kit (OCZ5001024ELDCGE-K) 2x512MB DDR500 PC4000
CL2.5 (LIFETIME WARRANTY)
I think it runs at tighter timings at lower FSB as well but if it doesn't impress me much i'll try an RMA/exchange.

I know what you mean price wise. I don't normally go for this expensive stuff either. the Corsair XMS was the first "up market" ram i purchased. Having said that i've had a nightmare with certain ram, twinmoss being one of them. I exchanged 5 sticks of DDR 400 and just gave up on it in the end, probably due to motherboard (in)compatibility.

Should be here tomorrow (Wednesday) hopefully so i'll deffo post back some results.

This Abit IC7 seems to be a nice mobo but the sideways Ide ports can be a tad awkward to put the cable in if your cramped for space.

Hi mate, I have the same board (see sig) and I run Geil Ultra Plat PC4000 (1gb), it flies and it is quite overclocker friendly (they use 3.5ns chips so the potential is for 570mhz......with enough volts of course).
They are quite reasonably priced too and I can vouch for their compatability. Only a thought.

Oh sugar, i cant reach 250 FSB (500 DDR) on 2.8V and slack timings. I might as well RMA it and get another Corsair 512 XMS3200 stick.

Thanks all for input.

Are you sure it's the RAM causing the problems? Only reason I mention this is that the OCZ stuff is supposed to be pretty well tested for the speed grades it ships at - that's what you are paying those crazy prices for... Are you sure that board REALLY hits 2.8 volts?; mobo's have very flakey voltage readings at times, irrespective of what the BIOS is telling you. Maybe wander across to extremesystems.org to see if anyone else has hit similar issues with that mobo/RAM pairing.

Maybe it's just an incompatibility issue? I have the Asus P4C800E-Deluxe, which I know is one of the boards most vendors validate against. With ABIT being such a well known name, I would have thought the RAM would be fine for the board you have; still, might be worth checking the OCZ site to find out which boards they validate this RAM on?

Have you tried each stick individually? Have you tried the sticks in different slots? Have you tried it with PAT switched off? Have you tried it in single channel mode? Have you monitored you temps (CPU and mobo) when overclocking? Are you 100% sure your processor is capable of the speeds you seek - remember, the processor is having to do a lot more work when trying to keep up with this new RAM config., so the high frequencies you managed to reach before may not be reachable now. Sorry to go one, but I think there are a few things you should try before you RMA it, as you might end up back in the same boat with different RAM. All of the things I've listed are RAM issues I've had to deal with in the past.

ANyway, if you're really stuck, I'll give you £50 for it. :-)

Nomadd

Ps. Remember my earlier comments: I think you will struggle to get another stick of your existing RAM running DC/PAT at 250 fsb (or anything close to that...)

I've done nearly all that apart from disabling PAT. How do you disable it? My PAT settings are AAADD you can only disable the last 2 setings.

I'm currently at 240FSB - 3.6GHz at timings 3,4,4,8 @2.8V the max my Mobo(IC7) will allow. At these setting it's a great system but that Ram will not run at its rated speed 2.5 4 4 7.

All said and done i don't think it's worth it to spend £200+ and not get as high as before. I really want 1 gb of ram rather than a great overclock now anyway.

I assume it's the ram holding me back and i just get the feeling there's more in this cpu. I've been testing it with Memtest86+ 1.20 untill it reports errors then either backing off timings or increasing voltages. i haven't tried each stick individually because i wont be using that configuration and even if it did reach 250+ fsb like that, it proves nothing unless both sticks can do it anyway.

It really just could be an incompatibilty between these DIMMS and your board. Problem is, all of this RAM is being run out of spec., that's why I refused to pay so much more for OCZ/Corsair this time around, and just bought Kingmax instead. And even with that it's strange: my RAM (DDR500) won't get anything like spec. in the first two dual-channel slots on my mobo; I was about to RMA it, but thought I'd try the second two slots, and hey presto it works perfectly in them! Strange, but true.

I think this may be the problem you'll hit elsewhere with such high fsb's. Sometimes it'll work, sometimes not (especially at 2.5, which TBH doesn't make it any faster than 3 on P4 systems.) I guess you could RMA the RAM and try some more, or a different brand, but once again there will be an element of luck involved. And remember, it may not utimately be the RAM that's the problem... Do you have a mates system you can try it in (I'd offer myself, but I'm 200 miles South of where you live.)

Nomadd

I've not tried putting it in the other slots, i may try it tonight though. I've had the cpu up to 3.8 on 3 4 4 7 on the 5:4 divider so its capable of going that high but not with this ram. Whenever i rated timings, bang, errors everywhere :bugger:

Anyway, i've just got the rma number and i've got 30 day to decide what to do. Wonder if they'll miss them gold heat spreaders :evil:

Plenty of mates with PC's but not P4's :(

PSU is an Enermax 460 and all volts when monitoring are spot on and the temp at 3.6 on idle is 44c, under load it goes to 50 -56 odd so temps are ok as well.

Great fun anyway and thanks for your comments mate