Need advice - good OC memory for MSI 865PE-NEO2/3.4Ghz P4 Northwood

S

swambast

New member
Hi everyone,

I was looking for some advice on some good overclocking memory, 1GB (2x512MB) for my 865PE-NEO2 board with a budget up to $125. Was hoping for something for 500Mhz (or faster), just don't know if the budget would contrain that. Was curious to see what others have had success with, and listen to some new viewpoints. Thanks again to all respond and for your suggestions, really looking forward to reading your opinions....

Regards, Steve

Thanks to all who offer their help & support, I always appreciate it! :D

MSI 865PE-NEO2-LS (601-6728-020)

AMI BIOS version 2.5

P4 3.65 Ghz/800Mhz FSB HT Enabled

4 DIMMS (256MBx4)=1GB KingMax PC3200 DDR400 running at 430@1:1

OCZ PowerStream 600 watt PS +3.3@28A,+5@46A,+12 total 38A +12V1@20A, +12V2@18A,+5vsb@2A

INTEL 865 .INF Drivers (7.2.1.1003 7/11/2005)

Main: Western Digital Raptor, 10K rpm, 36GB

2nd: Maxtor ATA133 7200rpm 120GB

CD-RW: Lite-On 52x32x52

BFG Tech GeForce 6800 GT OC 256MB GDDR3 AGP Graphics Card

SoundBlaster Audigy 2
 
Sweet Find...

Wow, sweet find, that does look enticing indeed...thanks! :worship:

Do you think this memory will help me pump out the 3.4Ghz Northwood even farther? I'm at 3.65Ghz now with a 1:1 OC on the Kingmax memory bringing it from 400Mhz to 430Mhz, and have a water-cooling system in place. Would this new memory help push the limits even further, or at what point would I know I am constrained by the CPU? :eh:
 
first off ,

1) the biggest problem with intel boards - Vcore Droop. The boards , especially the 865p chipsets have a hard time dealing with the power demands of a P4 ( be it northwood or prescott ). So my first advice to you right off the bat would be getting your board vcore droop modded if there exists such a mod. Cooling the PWM IC area mosfets actively also helps to a certain degree in getting a stable voltage.

2) Using 2x512 instead of 4x256 will put a lot less load on the Northbridge allowing it to OC the ram better. An additional fan for the NB chipset will also help.

3) The board you are using isnt the best board out there to oc such a nice proc. You get get an Abit IC7 or Asus i875p Chipset board. You will notice a nice bump in the performance.

4) Having the tight latency that the ballistix can run oced will help you get a better performance at the same speed than what you did in the past with ur 4 256mb modules ( 1T timings vs 2T , tighter latencies and such )

5) Vagp mod also help some ppl achieve high fsb oc. If you are watercooling ur setup then make sure u get a nice watercooling block for ur nb. It will help alot.

6) Northwoods like a fair amount of voltage to OC nicely. The higher the voltage on a P4 board , the more the droop. So a droop mod will benefit you HIGHLY.

These are the things that I can think of right off the bat. Anything else if I come across , I will let you know here.
 
|3ourne said:
first off ,

1) the biggest problem with intel boards - Vcore Droop. The boards , especially the 865p chipsets have a hard time dealing with the power demands of a P4 ( be it northwood or prescott ). So my first advice to you right off the bat would be getting your board vcore droop modded if there exists such a mod. Cooling the PWM IC area mosfets actively also helps to a certain degree in getting a stable voltage.

2) Using 2x512 instead of 4x256 will put a lot less load on the Northbridge allowing it to OC the ram better. An additional fan for the NB chipset will also help.

3) The board you are using isnt the best board out there to oc such a nice proc. You get get an Abit IC7 or Asus i875p Chipset board. You will notice a nice bump in the performance.

4) Having the tight latency that the ballistix can run oced will help you get a better performance at the same speed than what you did in the past with ur 4 256mb modules ( 1T timings vs 2T , tighter latencies and such )

5) Vagp mod also help some ppl achieve high fsb oc. If you are watercooling ur setup then make sure u get a nice watercooling block for ur nb. It will help alot.

6) Northwoods like a fair amount of voltage to OC nicely. The higher the voltage on a P4 board , the more the droop. So a droop mod will benefit you HIGHLY.

These are the things that I can think of right off the bat. Anything else if I come across , I will let you know here.
Click to expand...

Thanks Bourne for your response, much appreciated:

1) "vcore droop modded" - don't know of anything that exists...?

2) The MSI board comes with a fan standard on the NB

3) maybe not the best, but I'll be keeping it for now (saving up for the 64-bit stuff)

4) but if I'm running 1:1, won't I have to drop the timings anyway? I do with the Kingmax

5) hmm, got a water block for CPU and GPU, but not for NB

6) where can i get one, how much does it cost?

Thanks again for your help!
 
well the ballistix run 1:1 at DDR400 at 2-2-2-5 timings. But once u raise those clocks , you have to loosen the CAS latency. Generally 2.5-2-2-5 timings are the sweet spots for the micron ICs.

If ur keeping the stock fan then take it off and clean all the pink gunk off it and the NB and apply a nice layer of AS Ceramique ( AS5 is conducive and generally a bad idea around the mobo parts ) .

I have been looking for a volt mod for your type of board. Havent found one yet but If i do i will let you know.
 
Thanks again for all your insight! Well, even if i run the Ballistix at 2.5-3-3-6 that's still fine, do you think the memory can hit 250Mhz+ running 1:1? It seems my current memory caps out at 232Mhz, and that is why I think I'm memory constrained right now. Even when I had my 2.8Ghz, the memory would go as high as 232Mhz - I got the new 3.4Ghz, and again the memory wouldn't nudge past 232.

Your tip on the NB AC5 "mod" is a good one, and I'll probably try to tackle that in the next weekend or so. My thanks again.
 
Bourne is the master of all things memory... He's always my first source for any mem questions.

Reps to Bourne, thanks for the help around here man.
 
@swamblast : You prolly wont need to run them that loose. Try 2.5-2-2-5 to begin with and see how high you can take ur memory. Burn a copy of memtest on a cd or floppy and run it at around 245 mhz ( ballistix should be able to do those timings on your board at those speeds) . Whats the max Vdimm available to you on that board ?

@Fragtek : Your compliments and reps are much appreciated my friend. I just try to spread the knowledge I have to others can benefit from it.
 
name='|3ourne' said:
@Fragtek : Your compliments and reps are much appreciated my friend. I just try to spread the knowledge I have to others can benefit from it.
Click to expand...

Its much appreciated |3ourne - It's great to see people with good knowledge spreading it

Repped too :)
 
Do you think it would be worth it to spend an extra $20-$40 to get a higher rated RAM such as a 500? I'll check once home about the VDIMM, it's a pretty good board so I think it can reach high voltages.
 
its not so much aboutt he rating, pc3200 has been known to go above pc4000, and often does. it is all about the quality of the memory chips, and how you treat and tweak them. thats what bourne is for lol
 
well in case of ballistix , No. You are fine with getting PC3200 memory coz they overclock like mad on intel as well as AMD. They are the most underrated performance memory modules out there. They just got overshadowed by the DDR600 performance of TCCD . Ballistix can easily do DDR520 and upto DDR550 in some cases if you get a strong pair. But they will surely do DDR500 without breaking a sweat.

BTW , i see now I have a custom title :D .
 
OK...ordered

OK, today (2-8-06) I've ordered the Crucial Ballistix 1GB PC3200 DDR DIMM Memory Kit from NewEgg. Let's see what these babies can do.... I'll keep you posted right here after install/test... :cool:
 
Next Step?

OK guys, here’s an update for you, quite overdue:

I put in the Crucial Ballistix, and right off the bat was very impressed. It is hanging in there with timings of 2-2-2-8-8 running at 2.65V and 430Mhz (from default 400Mhz of course), FSB at 215 and running 1:1 – awesome. Check my updated signature for further tech info on my system:

OK, now how do I get more out of the overclock? When I pushed up the FSB to 216 and thus the DDR to 432, memtest fails within 5 minutes. How much should I loosen the timings – or what do you suggest the next step is? :o
 
I think with 2 x 512mb modules lowering to 2.5-4-4-8 is about as loose as you want to go. Try 2.5-2-2-8 and work from there :)
 
Hmm, I'm a little frustrated here. I loosened the timings all the way to 3-3-3-8-8, with voltages as follows: VCore=1.5750V, DDR=2.75V, AGP=1.60V pushing the FSB to 220 and memory to 440Mhz giving me a 3.739Mhz CPU but Memtest reports back after 3 hrs 23 mins "unexpected interrupt error" or something similar. Any ideas what to try next...???
 
try 2.5-2-2-5 .

Those timings are golden for ballistix on intel. Did you ever consider that your cpu might be the bottleneck here ?? Try running a divider and see how high you can push the CPU. If it doesnt go any higher then the ram might not be the problem. Also you can safely give around 2.85V to ballistix 1 gb kit.

What cooling are you using ?? Have you tried giving your northwood higher volts than 1.575 ?? Intel boards droop so you might wanna buffer up that vcore droop to get the actual volts that u want.
 
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