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

Latest successful run:

Vcore=1.60V, DDR=2.80V, AGP=1.60V

FSB=218 with mem at 436 = 3.70Ghz CPU

Timings 3-4-4-8 MemTest pass: 3 hrs 35 mins 0 errors

NEXT STEPS YOU WOULD SUGGEST???? Tighten the timings? Push the CPU higher at current timings 3-4-4-8? Drop the voltages? Would it be better to try to push the CPU higher or tighten the memory timings....????

(Note: I tested at 3-3-3-8-8 with CPU VCore=1.575V, DDR=2.75V, AGP=1.60V and memtest failed)

Tech Specs:

ThermalTake Tsunami Dream case

Kingwin Arctic Water-Cooling System in modified Push-Pull Setup

MSI 865PE-NEO2-LS (601-6728-020) w/AMI BIOS version 2.5

P4 3.4Ghz Northwood, Socket 478, 800Mhz FSB HT Enabled

2 DIMMS (512MBx2)=1GB Crucial Ballistix PC3200 DDR400

BFG Tech GeForce 6800 GT OC 256MB GDDR3 AGP

OCZ PowerStream 600 watt PS, +12v@38A

Main: Western Digital Raptor 10K rpm 36GB

2nd: Maxtor ATA133 7200rpm 120GB

CD-RW: Lite-On 52x32
 
try 2.5-2-2-5 at Vdimm 2.85V and processor at 1.6 ~ 1.65 V . I dont think that its your memory thats at fault. No memory holds 2-2-2-6 timings till DDR430 and then needs 3-4-4-8 to do DDR436. I am pretty sure that your cpu is the bottleneck here. Try memtesting at those steppings. Check your Vcore droop in windows , i.e. how low your vcore goes compared to the vcore you set in your bios. Also raise the nb voltage if you can. That will help stabilise the system as well.
 
OK, I am starting to get the feeling from the computer vibes, that I am fast approaching it's threshold. Bourne, I believe you have it right when you say " I am pretty sure that your cpu is the bottleneck here."

I ran the FSB to 222, mem at 444 with 3-4-4-8-8 timings with CPU at 1.70V, DDR 2.85V and AGP at 1.60V, and got the "black screen of death." No bios-post, no-boot - had to reset the CMOS.

After this, I made a smaller adjustment: I ran the FSB to 219, mem at 438 with 3-4-4-8-8 timings with CPU at 1.60V, DDR 2.80V and AGP at 1.60V. I was running out the door for work, so it only received a 30 minute memtest and passed with 0 errors. If you recall from my above post, I previously ran memtest at 218/436 for 3.5 hrs, and was successful, so I suspect this new level 219-438 will be OK as well (it's only a mere 1 Mhz increase). I may test the FSB at 221 - as I think that might be the upper, safe limit here since a FSB of 222 gives me the black screen. I was really hoping to push the 3.4 Northwood to 3.8, but now feel if I can get her stable at 3.70 - 3.75, that would be absolutely fantastic. Correct me if I'm wrong here, but at my current settings, I suspect I must keep the mem timings at 3-4-4-8-8?

By the way, I have NOT tested these any of these settings with a graphically intense game yet, so the stability is solely based on a few hours of memtesting. I will try MS Flight Sim 2004 when I can, as that is a pig of a game that will certainly crash the system within 5-10 minutes if there's any stability problems.

Here is another question I have: at what point does an increase in CPU speed allow for better performance when you need to decrease the performance (timings) of your memory? I am primarily into computer gaming / flight sims - and most of those are CPU hogs. But I wonder what the performance cost is by running a faster CPU but slower memory? I suspect a faster CPU would be more advantageous than the higher speed memory? Anyway to really test this????
 
Soz I meant lower the divider and up the HT

So start it at 6 x 219 (or whatever that is in intel terms) and memtest the RAM in 5Mhz increments
 
matt , the intels dont have downward unlockable multi. In your case swam , try tightening the timings. Try giving ur nb a little higher voltage and try 2.5-2-2-5 at 2.8V .
 
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