DDR400 with 3.1Ghz processor or DDRII with 2.5Ghz Processor?

sastusbulbas · 14 Mar 2009 at 20:20

Hello,

I am currently running into brick walls with my overclocking.

I can run my E5200 @ 12.5x240 with my old DDR 400 2Gb Corsair XMS Pro PC3500LL, maximum seems to be 3.3Ghz at 12.5x250. Seems most stable at 12.5x240 though. Note setting above 2.7 usually end up with my divider around 6:5 which I am not sure is most stable.

I can only run my E5200 @ 12.5x200 with 4Gb DDR2 Corsair XMS PC-6400, all overclocking above 12.5x220 seems unstable. The PC usually seems more stable with the DDR2 memory at 533Mhz, I have to set it manually to 667Mhz (divider at 3:5, though 667Mhz seems unstable with games?).

When I look up the memory spd in CPU-Z it shows options of 270Mhz and 400Mhz, I guess that is why the motherboard automatically chooses 270Mhz?

I can get the E5200 to run at 12.5x220 (2.6Ghz) with the DDR2 set at 199.5Mhz with a divider of 1:1 not tried this out much though.

What sounds like the best option out of the above?
I assume keeping the divider as low as possible (1:1) is desireable?

Cheers,
Steve

pastymuncher · 15 Mar 2009 at 18:53

Are you increasing vcore on the cpu to try to get it stable? Is that even possible with an Asrock board? Even the worst clocking E5200's should hit 3.2Ghz. DDR2 would be better due to the extra bandwidth available although the E5200's are fsb limited. I rarely run the ram at 1:1 as most of the time i have the ram running faster than the fsb. My second rig with a E5200 and 2GB of PC2 5300 (667mhz) is running at 4:5 due to the fact i am running the cpu at 12.5x 266 (3.33Ghz) and the ram at 333 mhz to get the most out of the ram. Do you also have the correct voltage and timings set for your ram? Remeber also that as you increase the fsb you also increase the ram speed so you need to adjust the memory multiplier/divider accordingly.

sastusbulbas · 15 Mar 2009 at 23:11

Hi Pastymuncher,

I am not sure if the motherboard is all that great an overclocker, but did find it strange I could OC more with old DDR than DDR2.

Saying that, I have been running it at12.5x210 (2.6Ghz) with the DDR2 memory at 210mhz, divider is at 1.1, timings are 4/3/3/9 the games feel a little snapier, not sure if that is due to 4Gb of ram though.

Running the memory at 670mhz is instable with one of my games.

I will try out 9.5x266 with memory set at 266, to try and mimic a 1066 CPU, and see if I can increase it from there.

If this motherboard is so limited though, that I cannot get any decent OC, which of the above settings will be best?

sastusbulbas · 16 Mar 2009 at 22:03

Well the bellow settings did not work.

CPU Frequency [266]
PCIE Frequency [100]
Agp/PCI Frequency [66/33MHz]
Spread Spectrum [Disabled]
Boot Failure Guard [Enabled]

Ratio (Multiplier) [9.5] (9.5x266=2527, for a close match to the CPU default of 2500 MHz)

All other CPU setting that follow: [Disabled]

DRAM Frequency [266MHz (DDRII533) ]
Flexibility Option [Disabled]
DRAM CAS# Latency [Auto]
DRAM Bank Interleave [Auto]
Precharge to Active (Trp) [Auto]
Active to Precharge (Tras) [Auto]
Active to CMD (Trcd) [Auto]
REF to ACT/REF to REF (Trfc) [Auto]
ACT (0) to ACT (1) (Trrd) [Auto]
Read to Precharge (Trtp) [Auto]
Write to Read CMD (Twtr) [Auto]
Write Recovery Time (Twr) [Auto]
DRAM Bus Selection [Auto]
DRAM Command Rate [2T]

Advanced Memory Configuration:
[Untouched]

Advanced Host Configuration:
Pipeline DRQCTL [Enabled]
GTL Control [Auto]
Other setting on this page [Auto]

DRAM Voltage [Low]
AGP Voltage [High]

Primary Graphics Adaptor [AGP]
AGP Mode [8x]
AGP Fast Write [Enabled]
AGP Aperture Size [64MB]
AGP Staggered Delay [Auto]
AGP GADSTB Output Delay [Auto]
AGP 3.0 Calibration [Auto]
AGP 3.0 DBI Function [Auto]
DBI Output for AGP Trans. [Auto]
DBI Output for FRAME Trans. [Auto]

V-Link Speed [Normal]

PCI Delay Transaction [Disabled]
IDE Drive Strength [Normal]
PCIE Downstream Pipeline [Disabled]
OnBoard LAN [Enabled]
OnBoard HD Audio [Enabled]
Front Panel [Enabled]
CD-In [Enabled]

Currently running 12.5x225 (2.8) any more and I keep getting a blue screen and restarts. This has my DDR2 at 300Mhz, FSB DRam at 3:4.

Would be nice to get over 3Ghz, I don't understand why I can get over 3Ghz with 2Gb of DDR 400?

Still wondering if I am better off with a higher CPU clock and DDR400 or lower CPU clock with DDR2?

Phatjayunoi · 17 Mar 2009 at 02:07

Try the DRAM Voltage on Normal or High?

pastymuncher · 17 Mar 2009 at 13:35

To decide which way to go try benchmarking the rig with DDR and then DDR2.

It will be the board holding you back. The Asrock Frankenstein boards are rubbish and ideally should be avoided. They seem to make sense from a upgrading point of view as you can use your old parts, but they make too many compromises which would have been avoided by buying a decent motherboard in the first place.

sastusbulbas · 17 Mar 2009 at 22:31

The current settings in my signature give me the best Windows Experience index score on Windows 7
I guess that is some indication of a slight improvement, as I have went from 5.5 with DDR 400 to 5.9 with DDR2 and now with my current settings its at 6.0 overall (Hard Drive) with my CPU and Ram at 6.2

I will have a few more goes later through the week. Maybe play with memory timings?

I am currently pondering on a new graphics card (up to £200) and motherboard (up to £150), I am sure my Hyper PSU and CPU and Ram will get me started. I still want to move up to a better PSU, an E8*** series CPU, and PC-8500 ram.