Burning in Old BH5 Memory

S

stocky

New member
I have some old BH5 memory which I am preparing to 'Burn In' ready for my Dothan peltier rig :)

I know that a few of you folks use BH5 memory at high FSBs, so any experience/ guide/ advice that you can all provide would be good.

I have read the 'uwackme' guide, which adcises the following:

Memory @ 3.3V

Set FSB to 230MHz (2-2-2-5/6?)

Then basically increase it until only a few errors occur in MemTest 'Test 5'. Increase every 4-6 hours whilst keep the errors low (10-20 MAX per loop)

Use fan on RAM.

Okay questions...

- Why 2-2-2-5 and some folk use 2-2-2-6? (AMD/ Intel??)

- Can I use Memtest on CD, if so how?

- 2 x 512 sticks at once, or one at a time?

- Will they blow up, or is there a fail safe?

Cheers :)
 
I'll try and help as best I can:

2-2-2-5 or 2-2-2-6 chosen on the stability fo your ram at each setting.

The guides is right but you can you up to 3.6v 24/7 and as you burn in, I actually pumped 4v through mine a few times - but not recommended.

20 errors a pass is a guide can be 32 but could also take longer to burn in.

IT's possible to use a CD boot disk with memtest on it I guess - I just never have tried so con't confirm I am afraid.

One at a time is best but together seems okay too as your only as good as the weakest stick - but if you are stuck at certain FSB, doing one at a time will help you identify the purpetrator and you can then decide if a new stick is required.

It's unlikely you'll blow em up if cooled properly, but like any overlcocking adventure they can go wrong - the benefit outweighs the risk IMHO.

Prepare to spend a week on this to realise the full potential of your BH5.

Hope this helps.

Mav
 
Cheers, I appreciate the advice :)

Would 2-2-2-6 provide better performance than 2-2-2-5, as the last number is better if it's larger, right?

I'm going to have to find out how to use the CD I think, as my two old Floppys are just about finished :(
 
There have been several tests on both timing sets, and 2-2-2-6 thru to 2-2-2-7 show same bandwidth and becnhmark results, but be lower the timings the better IMHO.

Mav
 
stocky said:
Cheers, I appreciate the advice :)

Would 2-2-2-6 provide better performance than 2-2-2-5, as the last number is better if it's larger, right?

I'm going to have to find out how to use the CD I think, as my two old Floppys are just about finished :(
Click to expand...

It all depends on the chipset, the Nforce 4 is happy at 6 or 7 on the Tras, they performe slightly better than at 5. Although it makes all of 0.01% of a diffrence. The old Nforce 2 prefered a Tras of 11, ie 2-2-2-11. Thats where it delivered best performance.
 
Ah, I see :)

I think that the 875 chipset can run it at 2-2-2-5, if I remember right...

I have 4x512 sticks to burn in, then cherry pick :D
 
How much can be gain from a new set of ram's max overclock then burning them in. What gains can be had?

Will this burn in method work on a pair of Mushkin/ocz ut ram?
 
Geomon said:
How much can be gain from a new set of ram's max overclock then burning them in. What gains can be had?

Will this burn in method work on a pair of Mushkin/ocz ut ram?
Click to expand...

Each sets different so result vary.

Take my BH5 for example - it's now memtest stable at 274Mhz using 3.7v, and I run 24/7 at 270Mhz (with my FX55 that is) at 3.65v actively cooled and with ocz ramsinks on them, temps are not even warm to touch.

To get there, took about a month in total of burning in - leaving the ram at a point where memtest errors hover around 60 per pass and letting it run for 12 hours at a time - that got me up to 268Mhz fully stable, but bench stable at 271mhz.

Then I sealed em in a plastic bag and dropped em in the freezer for 24hrs - took out and let them warm up to room temperature (2hrs) and then burned in again for a week (in 12hr overnight shifts) thats how I got up to 274mhz memtest stable.

If the ram you have goes straight into 265Mhz at 3.6v, then I would set the ram at +2mhz and run memtest overnight, reset the computer and run memtest again (see if numboer of errors has been reduced) - if errors are zero for 5 passes, push it up another 2mhz and repeat til you reach the limit.

Cheers

Mav
 
Mav you say you got yoor ram upto 274 by burning them in but what was the max they would do before you burned them in?
 
maverik-sg1 said:
Then I sealed em in a plastic bag and dropped em in the freezer for 24hrs - took out and let them warm up to room temperature (2hrs) and then burned in again for a week (in 12hr overnight shifts) thats how I got up to 274mhz memtest stable.
Click to expand...

:O omg...in the freezer? why?
 
I just run mine for 8 passes with 0 errors at 26 at 3.34v.

So I need to keep increasing it till I find that I'm getting 60 errors per pass and then to run it for 12hours. Is that correct? Also how do I know when Its had enough at a certain speed. Do the errors start to decrease?
 
Geomon said:
I just run mine for 8 passes with 0 errors at 26 at 3.34v.

So I need to keep increasing it till I find that I'm getting 60 errors per pass and then to run it for 12hours. Is that correct? Also how do I know when Its had enough at a certain speed. Do the errors start to decrease?
Click to expand...

8 passes at 26mhz unsing 3.34v :O r u sure?

Usually when u start burning in - after a 12hr stint starting with 60 errors a pass I would expect the first few mhz to burn-in nice and easy (meaning shut down ur computer restart and find zero errors after 5 passes).

If you get past a 12hr stint with no reduction (or could in fact increase of errors) then up the voltage and try again. Make sure you actively cool the ram and if you are using a DFI mobo the MOSFET in the top right corner of the board.

You will reach the limit when increasing the voltages and running 3x12hr stints provides no further improvement.

up 10 errors a pass in test 5 will mean you can probably bench at that speed.

Cheers

Mav
 
Its strange that, I first got the ram and it would only do 255fbs memtest 100% stable, after a month of running them in my system I now just did a memtest to see where I get errors and it had gone upto 263 100% stable and 50-80 errors at 264fsb.

I will use mav's burn in method over the next week to see if I get any improvments:whistle: .
 
For those who don't know, memtest can be run off CD boot, I have an ISO image somewhere I think if anyones interested.

I used mavs burn in method on my OCZ PC3500 BH5 and it works a treat. I even did the putting it in a bag and in the freezer for 12hrs. Thats another way to revive dead HDDs btw :D

Boardy
 
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