RAM speeds

[patrickd 0]

Basically I'm looking to buy some more RAM, and I've had my eye on the Corsair paired kit of DDR400. I also see RAM manufacturers selling RAM that is faster than DDR400, like PC3500 modules, etc. Are those for people who intend to overclock? Right now my setup is this:

 

P4 2.6 HT/800FSB

Intel D865PERL Mobo

512MB generic DDR400

 

I don't intend on overclocking anytime soon.. should I just get PC3200 or are the faster RAM speeds like 3500 beneficial even to non-OC'ers?

[sapiens74 0]

Yeah for those who overlockl

 

If you want stock CPU then get a nice pair of PC3200 with low timings

[Immortal 0]

Only overclockers need higher frequency RAM.

Currneltey i have the highest possible, with DDR533, PC4200.

 

Timings dont matter with i875P and i865PE chipsets, studies show a 3Mhz increase in FSB can overcome the difference between CL2.5 and CL2.

[sapiens74 0]

Timings matter if you don;t overlock, and if you Buy and AMD system, which makes more a difference.

[adamvjackson 0]

"For those about to overclock we salute you!"

 

Obligatory AC/DC reference...

 

[sapiens74 0]

It will work fine with one stick, although you will cut the speed of the Ram in half

 

 

Get 2 sticks

[sapiens74 0]

It's Dual channel memory

 

 

Pc3200 x 2 = 6.4 GB Memory Bandwith.

 

You may want to consider a 2.6c or a 2.4 which can do 3.4-3.6 easy with stock cooling.

 

 

http://home.hawaii.rr.com./sapiens74/

 

there is my setup with a 2.6c

 

 

Adding 512mB of ram today as well

[sapiens74 0]

I've seen the 3.2 go over 4GHZ but for the most part it maxes out about 3.5-3.6

 

http://forum.abit-usa.com/

 

 

www.abxzone.com

 

 

Both great references for memory, bios and settings

[sapiens74 0]

GOt a DVD writer on the way too.

 

Figured it was time to finally get one, that's why I added the ram. Editing my home DV videos really takes a toll on system memory

[Immortal 0]

I reccomend getting a 2.4C and overclocking that, you can acheive MUCH higher FSB's and remember FSB means faster RAM access which means faster system performance.

 

If your going for the Max3 mobo, as i did, make sure you do NOT get OCZ PC4000 or PC4200 RAM. They have very bad issues with this board. Also the board has issues with VDIMM over 2.8v (currentley being investigated).

The VTT, which should ALWAYS be half the VDIMM drops to around 1.3 when going over 2.8v, thats why OCZ ram has problems, it likes higher volts.

 

Thats why im using Geil Ultra Platinum Series PC4200 Dual Channel, it is very fast RAM. Stock FSB of 266Mhz, 533DDR, which means that your RAM probably wont be your bottleneck. Note with this RAM, you cant get very high GAT settings, saying this, if you want high overclocks you wouldnt really enable GAT anyways.

 

Your system looks very good, im baffled as to why you arent getting 2 raptors and putting them into RAID 0 and watching them take off!

My 2 seagates in RAID 0 absolutley fly!

 

My current rig, see sig, absolutley flies, even at stock i can beat many overclocked systems, both athlons and P4's in 3DMark 2003. For example it beats Sapiens74's overclocked setup by around 700 3DMarks in 3DMark 2003 and mines still @ stock (Ok i do have a 9800 Pro)! The max3 is definatley the best mobo for the P4 money can buy!

[sapiens74 0]

9800 pro?

 

Cheater!

 

Yeah the two raptors are insanely fast.

 

Faster then Any SCSI setup, including my 15k Cheetahs in my server.

[Immortal 0]

I just ran PCMark 2002 with my setup and only got a HHD score of 1720, is this normal?

 

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?pcm=1621683

[sapiens74 0]

I run HDtach

 

 

Seems to do well with the newer setup

 

Some older programs have trouble with the SATA

[Mr.Guvernment 0]

Alec - igot bad news for you - if you plan to play DoomII with things cranked - it is a DX9 game - and the FX cards cant handle dx9 for crap!

 

Doom III is opitmised for nvidia - but with the way nvidia has bene using "optimizations"

 

you would have been better with na ATI card in that sae range..

 

as for ram speeds.

 

u ideally want a 1:1ratio with your CPU FSB speed.\

 

 

pc2100 = 266mhz

pc2700 = 333mhz

pc3200 = 400mhz

pc3500 = 433mhz

pc3700 = 466mhz

pc4000 = 500mhz

pc4300 = 533mhz

 

or

 

pc2100 = 266mhz = FSB 133 x 2

pc2700 = 333mhz = FSB 166.5 x 2

pc3200 = 400mhz = FSB 200 x 2

pc3500 = 433mhz = FSB 216.5 x 2

pc3700 = 466mhz = FSB 233 x 2

pc4000 = 500mhz = FSB 250 x 2

pc4300 = 533mhz = FSB 266.5 x 2

 

or

Bandwidth should come from.. what?

frequency x bus width?

That would be (for PC2100) 266MHz (effexctive frequency, 133x2) x 64-bits (width of data bus) = 17024 Mega bits/s. If you want mega bytes/s, divide by 8, and you get 2128 MB/s. Multiplying by 64 and then dividing by 8 is the same as simply multiplying by 8.

[/list:u]

 

 

So on that note Alec - get a readeon 9800XT 256mb for the same price - or they have been from what i have seen - and you are GARUNTEED to be able to play all DX9 games with out comprimise or worry of NVIDIA emulating Dx9 to 8.1 as they will do becauise the hardware was simply nt made to handle the dx9 api's or what ever - i would think with the amount of reviews your ead, you probably came across this.

 

 

Also, - all benchs done with doomIII and nvidia cards are all beta's - so the coding will be better and will work just fine on ATI - i mean look at the HL2 benchs marks - and even Aquanox 2. ATI is the winner!

 

Check out the enw Asus 9800 - has higher clock speeds and some great add-ons in it!

 

 

and also yes - get a 2.4c which more realisticly will over clock to 3ghz - 3.2g easily with all stock and adecent fan.

 

 

I myself will be buying a dual Opteron system - have you considered the new FX64 chipos? they are giving the 3.2ghz EE a run for their money already!

[Immortal 0]

Hey Alec,

If you want the fastest and greatest, then the Athlon-FX 51 is the way to go, but will set you back a hellova lot and you must ONLY use ECC RAM with it, which slows it down.

 

If you want the best P4 rig possible, then go and get a Pentium 4 Extreme Edition. It runs @ 3.2Ghz and has 2MB of L3 cache along with the normal 512K od L2 cache. It has been proven to be the fastest P4 in ANY game, that extra L3 cache helps it along well.

 

one more thing, you wont be able to get to 4Ghz without watercooling AT LEAST, and even then its unlikley. After 3.8Ghz your aproching the chip limit really and the people that do go over this speed usually have tested so many different chips to find the best silicon!

 

I agree with Mr Guvernment on the Radeon 9800XT. It is by far better than the FX5950 and is the best DX9 card out there. The Asus variants also come with a good HSF that will provide you with overclocking potential.

 

I beleive Doom II uses OpenGL 1.4 or 2.0 im not sure, but the Radeons do excel in everything. True nVidia has DoomIII optomizations, but that usually means a few more FPS and sometimes, less image quality.

Personally i dont mind sacrificing a few FPS in doom III for better quality card and a better card for other games.

 

On the RAM issue, PC4200 RAM with operates @ 533Mhz is good for overclocking when in Dual Channel mode, as you can get very high frequencies.

You would do fine with PC3200 which operates @ 400Mhz, but that would mean no OC'ing. With PC4200 it gives you 66Mhz (133 DDR) of FSB overclocking room, which is worth it.

 

To sum it all up, get a Pentium 4 Extreme Edition, Asus Radeon 9800XT 256MB and PC4200 RAM (but stay away from OCZ, issues arise with the Max3).

 

Hope this helps.

[Immortal 0]

Hi Alec,

Well the P4 EE is actually a new Xeon core thats been made to run on 800FSB and in a 478pin package. The Abit IC7 MAx3 supports it with a BIOS update (Bios 13).

 

If you want more info on it Toms has done a good review of it and comapres it to the NEWER Athlon64:

http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030923/index.html

 

P4 EE costs a large sum, but the performance gain over the normal P4 3.2Ghz is quite a hefty amount. But the problem is they are in short supply, but famous retailers should stock them, try newegg or excalibur PC.

 

And heres a review of the 9800XT:

http://www6.tomshardware.com/graphic/20030930/index.html

 

 

Enjoy!

[Immortal 0]

Ive seen it done @ the Abit Forums.

 

You have to enable the on-chip raid ROM in BIOS and then using the intel RAID utility setup the RAID volume. Windows will see it as a normal HDD, but you must remember to press F6 before install and install the SATA drivers!

[Immortal 0]

So ur not going for the 9800XT then, ah well .

 

Your system will rule badly, be sure to post benchmarks when ur done!

[Immortal 0]

Quote:

P.S.=> Benchmarks? Yes, of course... eventually, you know I will want to compare it to your "internet & gaming hotrods" as I usually do, running a 'Dragrace/Shootout' type of test as I have done in the past here... they're fun, & a good gauge of how your system stacks up in a place full of Ferrari class systems! apk

Your rig will smash anyones, seriously, with that kinda power nothing will be out of its reach!

[Mr.Guvernment 0]

See Alec the prob;lem with the FX line is simple - DX9 support is almost not existent!

 

 

if u wanta future proof system get the ATI - it is a mattr of hardware design - the FX simply cna not handle proper DX9 calls and there for stinks and the result is slow games and some FPS over image quality.

 

 

The fx line witll play any Dx 8.1 and below game great - but u want a future proof systems!

 

i will name my first born after you if u get a fx 5900 what ever and can play a fully DX9 game BETTER then an ATI 9800PRO and above card!

 

 

now that is confidence in the cards..lol - also ATI si coming out with their new line in Febuary or suppoed to - an the i beleive R423? will be PCI Express compatible - tal baout future proofing

 

 

As for the CPU - have u maybe considered a Opteron? - my next system is going to be a dual Opteron 2.2ghz or faster - at the moment - the dual 2.2 opterons are kicking Xeon 3.2ghz in the butt and back again! - mainly due to their superiou memory banwdith and lakc there of for needing a northbridge chipset for the ram and other interactivity

[Mr.Guvernment 0]

ATi drivers have come a LONG way - and it is now NVIDIA - that is encrypting their drivers because they do not want pepole to see the shortcuts they are taking to get a few more FPS out of their line of cards. i have NO trust for NVIDIA with how they have operated ever since the FX line came out

 

you mention your old nvidia - that was then when they were good and could be trusted - but no longer, the ti4* line was their last quality product! and the FX line is a bunch of giant paper weights.

 

 

As for he CPU - u need to find a good stepping - use this link and do a search for the CPU u want to see - it will show the overclocking results and also the sSpec number which it will tell you what chip to get -

 

http://www.cpudatabase.com/CPUdb/

 

 

once you got the sSpec number where ver you buy your chip ask them to find one with that number. (it is on the side of the box)

 

 

here u can find out which p4's are a C1 stepping for 533 and below - almost all C chips have the same stepping - in fact they all do

 

http://processorfinder.intel.com/scripts/default.asp

 

 

The sSpec number is the one

 

http://www.devhardware.com/rhinoCms/__o9kdD6TShp/img/label.jpg

 

where is says PROD. CODE - in the above the sSpec number is SL6WH