Hi, I am looking for some ddr 400 ram, or other suggestions, that will allow me to clock my system a bit higher,if it is worth the expense.I have Kingston ddr 400 with 3-3-3-8 timing@ 200Mhz.I have made multiple changes in bios, but cant seem to break the 2.8 barrier with memtest.Have good stability and temp with cpu(43c under load) @ 2.8 but memtest fails.Have lowered HT to under 1000mhz and raised ram v to 1.75. I think the board is capable to about 3.0, but cant get memory past the 250mhz mark stable.I guess my question is it worth it for better ram just to get the extra speed? I will be using this system for a few more years and no I dont want core two duo.Thanks for any suggestions. p.s. moderate gaming but lots of video and photo work.
Current settings are:
CPU 2699
mult. x11
HTT 245.4
vcore 1.45
ddr 1.70
mem 3-3-3-8 2t
HT mult x4
HT bus @ 980

Be Good,
Robert
AMD64 3700@ 2.7ghz w/Big Typhoon
Asus A8N-E
w/chipset cooler
2x512 Kingston DDR400
WDC 70GB Raptor
Enermax 485W PS
Gf 7300 pci-e

With an A64 system, you don't HAVE to run the RAM bus in sync with the CPU bus. Just do your best to keep the RAM reasonably close to 200MHz & the HT bus reasonably close to 1000MHz.

Change your timings to 2.5-3-3-7 @ 1T, & set the speed at DDR333. Set the HT multi to 3x (you *may* get away with 4x). If you increase the CPU freq to 260MHz with the CPU multi at 11x, the CPU will run at 2860MHz & the RAM will run at approx 217MHz. Obviously you may have to play with the voltages.

If you set the RAM speed to DDR266, HT muti at 3x, CPU multi at 10x, CPU freq at 300MHz, the CPU will run at 3000MHz & the RAM will run at approx 193MHz. Once again, you will probably have to play with the voltages.

Make sure the PCI is locked at 33MHz, PCI-E locked at 100MHz, & all Spread Spectrum settings are disabled.

Thanks Jam, I will try those bios settings and check benchmarks.

Be Good,
Robert
AMD64 3700@ 2.7ghz w/Big Typhoon
Asus A8N-E
w/chipset cooler
2x512 Kingston DDR400
WDC 70GB Raptor
Enermax 485W PS
Gf 7300 pci-e

Well, I tried and tried, no matter what I set in bios, couldnt get prime95 to run past 7 minutes.Some settings crashed windows, even with loose ram timings and lower mult., and think I will be happy with what I have for now. I got all these parts at bargain prices and did not spend a fortune, so Im please with my OC. Thanks for the advice Jam.

Be Good,
Robert
AMD64 3700@ 2.7ghz w/Big Typhoon
Asus A8N-E
w/chipset cooler
2x512 Kingston DDR400
WDC 70GB Raptor
Enermax 485W PS
Gf 7300 pci-e