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YZFAndy

YZFAndy

YZFAndy

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Joined
5 Sep 2007
Posts
316
I’ve just upgrade from some unbranded cheapo PC3200 512Mb stick’s to Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C4 and for some reason a quick bench mark with HWinfo is slower.

Also I can only run them at PC2-4200 = (533MHz) in the bois settings. With 667 speed selected I get the blue screen.

With the 533MHz settings, taking into account the fsb is overclocked I’m running with timings

Memory Type DDR2
Memory Size 2048 MBytes
Memory Frequency 300.0 MHz (1:1)
DRAM Interleave 4-way
CAS# 3.0
RAS# to CAS# 3
RAS# Precharge 3
Cycle Time (tRAS) 7
Command Rate 1T

Is this the best I can expect with this board or am I doing something major wrong? Didn’t really expect to spend £70 + and end up with lower performance.

Here' a paste from SISoftware Sandra, Sorry if it’s a bit much.

Benchmark Results
RAM Bandwidth Int Buff'd iSSE2 : 6325 MB/s
RAM Bandwidth Float Buff'd iSSE2 : 6325 MB/s
Results Interpretation : Higher index values are better.

Int Buff'd iSSE2 (Integer STREAM) Results Breakdown
Assignment : 6123MB/s
Scaling : 6099MB/s
Addition : 6547MB/s
Triad : 6533MB/s
Data Item Size : 16 byte(s)
Buffering Used : Yes
Offset Displacement Used : Yes
Bandwidth Efficiency : 66% (estimated)

Float Buff'd iSSE2 (Float STREAM) Results Breakdown
Assignment : 6130MB/s
Scaling : 6122MB/s
Addition : 6520MB/s
Triad : 6530MB/s
Data Item Size : 16 byte(s)
Buffering Used : Yes
Offset Displacement Used : Yes
Bandwidth Efficiency : 66% (estimated)

Performance Test Status
Run ID : COREDUO on 01 October 2007 at 20:07:34
Memory Used by Test : 512MB
NUMA Support : No
SMP Test : No
Total Test Threads : 1
Multi-Core Test : Yes
SMT Test : No
Dynamic MP/MT Load Balance : No
Processor Affinity : P0C0T0
System Timer : 2.7GHz
Page Size : 4kB
Use Large Memory Pages : No
 
Your TRAS is currently set to 7, thats probally the reason why your getting BSODs. Set it to 12.

You should be able to go all the way up to 800MHZ with timmings of 3-3-3-12, when you start going above then set the timmings as 4-4-4-12 and that should take you all the way up to 1000MHz.

Remember to set your Vdimm to 2.1.
 
I've only got it set like that to squeeze a bit more out of them. Even set to 4-4-4-12 at 667 i get the blue screen. Voltage option in my Bios are Low-Normal-High. Not sure what high is but i think i read somewhere it was 2.1.
 
Yeah I don't think the ASRock can give them 2.2v.

But the Ballistix should be able to run 667mhz 4-4-4-12 @2.1v.
 
YZFAndy said:
I've only got it set like that to squeeze a bit more out of them. Even set to 4-4-4-12 at 667 i get the blue screen. Voltage option in my Bios are Low-Normal-High. Not sure what high is but i think i read somewhere it was 2.1.
Click to expand...

Run your system back at stock (Everything) and then set your Memory to run at 667MHz with timmings of 3-3-3-12 and 2.1Vdimm and then run Memtest.

Since im not sure what exactly Low, Medium and High are representing voltage wise set it to Medium.

Then run Memtest.
 
One of the selling points of this mobo is the fact that the memory performance difference between using DDR and DDR2 is very small.

With C2d cpus the main variable that contributes to memory performance is the FSB of the cpu; latencies and running on a multi more than 1:1 have very little real world effect (although the benchmarks may look a lot better).

I found going from 1gb Patriot XBL PC3200 to 2gb Corsair XMS5400 C4 in this mobo made almost no difference in performance.

I also found that my DDR2 would not run at 1T, suggest you use 2T as this may cause the BSODs.

The other big "downer" with this mobo and DDR2 is that it generally won't overclock so far as it does with DDR; most people have found they can't go over 290 with DDR2 when they can get 300 with DDR.

Hope this helps

Yes - 2.1v is high
 
Last edited:
YZFAndy said:
I’ve just upgrade from some unbranded cheapo PC3200 512Mb stick’s to Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C4 and for some reason a quick bench mark with HWinfo is slower.

Also I can only run them at PC2-4200 = (533MHz) in the bois settings. With 667 speed selected I get the blue screen.

With the 533MHz settings, taking into account the fsb is overclocked I’m running with timings

Memory Type DDR2
Memory Size 2048 MBytes
Memory Frequency 300.0 MHz (1:1)
DRAM Interleave 4-way
CAS# 3.0
RAS# to CAS# 3
RAS# Precharge 3
Cycle Time (tRAS) 7
Command Rate 1T

Is this the best I can expect with this board or am I doing something major wrong? Didn’t really expect to spend £70 + and end up with lower performance.

Here' a paste from SISoftware Sandra, Sorry if it’s a bit much.

Benchmark Results
RAM Bandwidth Int Buff'd iSSE2 : 6325 MB/s
RAM Bandwidth Float Buff'd iSSE2 : 6325 MB/s
Results Interpretation : Higher index values are better.

Int Buff'd iSSE2 (Integer STREAM) Results Breakdown
Assignment : 6123MB/s
Scaling : 6099MB/s
Addition : 6547MB/s
Triad : 6533MB/s
Data Item Size : 16 byte(s)
Buffering Used : Yes
Offset Displacement Used : Yes
Bandwidth Efficiency : 66% (estimated)

Float Buff'd iSSE2 (Float STREAM) Results Breakdown
Assignment : 6130MB/s
Scaling : 6122MB/s
Addition : 6520MB/s
Triad : 6530MB/s
Data Item Size : 16 byte(s)
Buffering Used : Yes
Offset Displacement Used : Yes
Bandwidth Efficiency : 66% (estimated)

Performance Test Status
Run ID : COREDUO on 01 October 2007 at 20:07:34
Memory Used by Test : 512MB
NUMA Support : No
SMP Test : No
Total Test Threads : 1
Multi-Core Test : Yes
SMT Test : No
Dynamic MP/MT Load Balance : No
Processor Affinity : P0C0T0
System Timer : 2.7GHz
Page Size : 4kB
Use Large Memory Pages : No
Click to expand...

Do you mean you had PC3200 onthat board before or was that on a different board?
How long has PC3200 been DDR2??
 
Thanks guys. I think you have summed it up Topitof. Tried again back at stock settings with the faster memory speed and it was fine but when increasing the fsb I got the blue screens again anywhere over 275.
The trade off in between having mem speed vs. CPU overclock is too much so set it back down to PC2-4200 so I can run at 300fsb. Any way they’ll be going into something a bit better soon.
 
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