RAM Timings

NightmareXX · 8 Mar 2006 at 16:51

Are my RAM timings any good? I'm just using Crucial PC2700 DDR RAM in a ECS K7S5A mobo.

How would I increase them?

Mikey1280 · 8 Mar 2006 at 17:44

They are ok, depends what the RAM is rated to do, you want to tighten them (decrease) not increase them. This can be done in the BIOS. It's unlikely that you will be able to decrease the CAS further but the RAS precharge may go down to 3. Change your RAM timings slightly, then run memtest from the CD, do not boot into windows until your RAM is stable as it can cause corruption. If the RAM does not pass memtest then change the timings back to the original and try less aggressive ones. What speed is your RAM running at?

NightmareXX · 8 Mar 2006 at 19:45

Well its PC2700 RAM running at 133MHz I would think. How would I go about changing the timings? Is that done within the BIOS? My mobo doesn't seem to have many OC'ing abilities

Larok · 8 Mar 2006 at 21:18

Not sure it would be worth the risk of instability.

pinkaardvark · 8 Mar 2006 at 23:11

Be better off running it at it's rated speed of 166mhz surely.

marc2003 · 8 Mar 2006 at 23:15

pinkaardvark said:
Be better off running it at it's rated speed of 166mhz surely.

not on socket a....

even though the ram rated for 166mhz default, you should never run it out of sync with the fsb as it absolutely kills performance. on the plus side, there is plenty of headroom for overclocking that cpu. or running tighter timings at 133....

pinkaardvark · 8 Mar 2006 at 23:23

marc2003 said:
not on socket a....

even though the ram rated for 166mhz default, you should never run it out of sync with the fsb as it absolutely kills performance. on the plus side, there is plenty of headroom for overclocking that cpu. or running tighter timings at 133....

My socket A is happy with 400mhz and more. Plus h ow can you run memory on a socket A chip out of sync with the FSB? You mean out of sync with the cpu surely?

marc2003 · 8 Mar 2006 at 23:29

pinkaardvark said:
My socket A is happy with 400mhz and more. Plus h ow can you run memory on a socket A chip out of sync with the FSB? You mean out of sync with the cpu surely?

i guess it's the terminology i use. i use the term fsb for cpu speed. so it would be very bad for the cpu to be at 133 with the ram at 166. it certainly was possible on my old msi k7n2 delta l.

pinkaardvark · 8 Mar 2006 at 23:32

marc2003 said:
i guess it's the terminology i use. i use the term fsb for cpu speed. so it would be very bad for the cpu to be at 133 with the ram at 166. it certainly was possible on my old msi k7n2 delta l.

Yeah so just run the cpu at 166 as well and drop the multiplier or was that only possible on the mobile chips?

marc2003 · 8 Mar 2006 at 23:39

pinkaardvark said:
Yeah so just run the cpu at 166 as well and drop the multiplier or was that only possible on the mobile chips?

chips upto a certain week in 2003 were multi unlocked too i think. week40 possibly?

but ecs are a budget brand for mobos and may limit the overclocking possibilities for the OP. you really want an nforce2 chipset for socket a clocking.

NightmareXX · 13 Mar 2006 at 23:06

Yea I can't OC it anymore then I have

Using speedfan to do it ATM and it works fine.

133 33.3 133 is the fastest I can OC it without it locking up on me.