Is CAS-2 important for P4 CPUs ?

Toff

Toff

Toff

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Please correct me here (I'm sure to make mistakes!)

I have an IC7-MAX3 with a P4 3.0HT (prescot I think) I have decent air & watercooling in place, so I'm finally ready to increase my overclocking!

Obviously, I've locked the PCI and AGP bus and I want to leave the CPU / RAM ratio at 1:1 :) I hope to raise my FSB to about 250 / 260 ish (depending on how stable it remains) but I need some quality memory to do this (just using bog standard crucial stuff at the moment).

I heard that AMD CPUs are highly dependant on low latency RAM to provide a very quick system. Apparently it's not so critical on a P4?

Should I forget about CAS 2 memory and just go for some DDR4200 (533MHz) - so at least I know the memory will cope with the higher FSB?

Please let me know if I've got the wrong end of the stick here! :confused:

Thanks in advance - Toff.
 
most ram will do CAS 2.5 even if rated at 3.0 so in that respect what ever you get should provide you with the latency you need, as for "intel specific" latency requirements, i will admit im not too sure, but as a general rule of thumb, lower is better untill you get to 2.0 as any lower than this is pointless. since your buying good quality clockable ram soon (youl have to to maintain 1:1 and an OC) the ram should be more than capable of doing CAS 2.0 just make sure you buy 2 1 gig sticks instead of 4 X 512.
 
I don't know a huge amount about P4s but I think the best performance is to be had with high MHZ and slack timings on this platform.

Edit your sig too, max size is 400x75 pixels and no greater than 20kb.
 
Ya mate your sig is way too big, very nice golf though get yerself over to the motors section son. In response to the question, lower latency the better on all systems but no it won't make any noticeable difference on a p4.
 
Thanks for the help guys, much appreciated.

Am I right in saying that it's worth going for well-discussed memory (such as OCZ) everybody seems to be posting their timings for this brand - which could come in handy (as I've never overclocked my mem before!)

Sorry about the sig.. will reduce the size.

- Toff.
 
Toff:

I have the same mobo as you, with 3.4GHz N/wood., at the moment I have 2GBs (2 x 1GB) of OCZ PC3200 Platinum running at 2-3-2-5 @200FSB. On a 1:1 I have overclocked it up too 215MHz (stable) at these same timings (I didn't go any further), I'm sure 220MHz would be achieveable with a slightly looser timing, probably 2-3-3-5.

If you are looking for a 250/260MHz overclock with this mobo (which should be attainable), I would be going for PC4000, as you rightly suggest to cope with the higher FSB. :)
 
Toff said:
Please correct me here (I'm sure to make mistakes!)

I have an IC7-MAX3 with a P4 3.0HT (prescot I think) I have decent air & watercooling in place, so I'm finally ready to increase my overclocking!

Obviously, I've locked the PCI and AGP bus and I want to leave the CPU / RAM ratio at 1:1 :) I hope to raise my FSB to about 250 / 260 ish (depending on how stable it remains) but I need some quality memory to do this (just using bog standard crucial stuff at the moment).

I heard that AMD CPUs are highly dependant on low latency RAM to provide a very quick system. Apparently it's not so critical on a P4?

Should I forget about CAS 2 memory and just go for some DDR4200 (533MHz) - so at least I know the memory will cope with the higher FSB?

Please let me know if I've got the wrong end of the stick here! :confused:

Thanks in advance - Toff.
Click to expand...


I've used RAM on P4 with different CAS, and there is a noticable performance gain with lower latency RAM......................
 
Thanks guys.

In the end I went for a bargain in the "This Week Only" section...

OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC4000 Dual Channel Gold GX XTC Series EL-DDR CAS3

The low-latency PC4000 / PC4200 stuff seems quite a bit more expensive and very few people seem to have it in stock.

Is it possible to tighten-up the timings slightly on the above OCZ (3-4-3-8) and if so, has anybody written a how-to?

Kind regards - Toff.
 
Toff said:
Thanks guys.

In the end I went for a bargain in the "This Week Only" section...

OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC4000 Dual Channel Gold GX XTC Series EL-DDR CAS3

The low-latency PC4000 / PC4200 stuff seems quite a bit more expensive and very few people seem to have it in stock.

Is it possible to tighten-up the timings slightly on the above OCZ (3-4-3-8) and if so, has anybody written a how-to?

Kind regards - Toff.
Click to expand...
No real need. P4's dont really respond to timings as much as FSB. Crank up the FSB and you more than make up for the loose timings. Of course, you want as tight a timings as possible but it is not required on a P4. The tightest they will go is about 2.5-3-3-8 1T @ 200mhz but this is based on the average those chips achieve. Good choice for your platform though :).
 
smids said:
No real need. P4's dont really respond to timings as much as FSB. Crank up the FSB and you more than make up for the loose timings. Of course, you want as tight a timings as possible but it is not required on a P4. The tightest they will go is about 2.5-3-3-8 1T @ 200mhz but this is based on the average those chips achieve. Good choice for your platform though :).
Click to expand...

That's reassuring thanks.

The mem will be running at it's native frequency (I'll probably leave the FSB at 250) but If I tighten the timings, will it put extra stress / shorten the life of the memory?

Thanks - Toff.
 
Toff said:
That's reassuring thanks.

The mem will be running at it's native frequency (I'll probably leave the FSB at 250) but If I tighten the timings, will it put extra stress / shorten the life of the memory?

Thanks - Toff.
Click to expand...
Nope, changing timings has no effect on the lifespan - only voltage and heat can do that. I doubt they'd tighten up much more though. Maybe 3-3-3-8 at a push.
 
Ive got that same ram and it is a good set but not really much movement on speed at the stock timings and also not much movement on timings at stock speed. I couldnt get mines stable at 250mhz with 3-3-3-8.
 
Mr Mister said:
Ive got that same ram and it is a good set but not really much movement on speed at the stock timings and also not much movement on timings at stock speed. I couldnt get mines stable at 250mhz with 3-3-3-8.
Click to expand...
Well here is proof - I've only seen a few hit 3-3-3-8 in all honesty so unless you get a good kit, you'll be looking at stock timings.
 
smids said:
Nope, changing timings has no effect on the lifespan - only voltage and heat can do that.
Click to expand...

And because I'm planing to run the mem at it's native frequency.. I won't need to raise the voltage, right?

Thanks - Al.
 
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