anyone know how good the Corsair Value select 2x512 pc3200 dual channel is at overclocking
im running at stock 400mhz speed on an ASUS A7V880 AI series mobo (also stock)

just trying to squeeze as much time i can out of this settup


thanks for any info

From what I have heard the Corsair value series is among the worst overclockers. Another thing is the mobo, did you check if there are overclocking setting in the BIOS?
Not all boards have overclocking settings and without overvolting the memory I doubt if you can overclock it at all.
You would probably have to overvolt the RAM, loosen the timing and keep your fingers crossed

I wouldn't suggest attempting any serious OCing at all with budget or value equipment. You need to get good hardware if you plan on taking overclocking seriously, which also means laying down a fair amount of cash as well.

I put my rig together with "value" ram and other budget equipment... and I can't get 200Mhz over my stock cpu clocks before I start getting corrupted windows files. You have to have equipment that can handle it or you risk damaging components or loosing data.

I don't want to talk you down from OCing... it's fun and you learn a lot... but be prepared to shell out for the right parts if you plan on doing it.

"value" RAM is simply made from memory chips that couldn't handle the higher clocks/tighter timings of it's siblings.

I don't know much about Corsairs' ValueSelect memory...I really don't know what chips they use. I do know that Kingston's ValuRAM used Samsung TCCC chips...while rated at 3-3-3-8 timings they could still clock nicely. I was able to hit DDR470 on them @ 3-3-3-8, and it was perfectly stable (this was on a crappy 3200+ Newcastle of course).

Would you be able to post the chip codes that are printed/etched directly onto the chips of your RAM? We might be better able to tell you what you can do with it, if you can do that for us.

Thanks!

I would suggest you look for some RAM with Samsung TCCD chips (They often will run too 250FSB/DDR500 speeds)

They are not alot more money and can overclock like crazy while keeping decent CAS 2.5 timings. Patriot or PQI turbo comes to mind as good bets.

Just be carefull of the model numbers, they can be tricky and deceiving...read the customer reviews at New Egg and check the rated timings very carefully!

New Egg has a great search engine, you can narrow it down to 2x512MB DDR1, then sort to the kits under 100$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ubCategory=147

There is a rebate sale if you buy quickly on this Corsair, it ends up the same price as value ram!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145576

Or OCZ

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820146896


You can also check out some kits that are open box for good savings!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ubCategory=147

ok that explains a great deal thanks everyone but i refuse to spend a penny on an officially obsolete pc
the fact that its not xp 64 compatable makes it outdated and to go further it only runs agp cards so pcie i can forget about


next year after tax time ill replace board, cpu, ram, and gpu with something sli or crossfire compatable


by the way the ram is running at 400mhz in dual channel mode with timeings of 3,3,3, 6 id prefer to not mess with the voltage because i cant afford to replace anything till tax time

For my first rig (Sempron 64 3300+ and Asus K8N4-E mobo) I picked up some KingMax DDR400. It was £30 for 512mb which I guess falls into budget category.

Anyway, it was rock solid at 2.58ghz (stock = 2ghz) with a 6600GT and an X800GTO. Pretty darn good for budget RAM.

Ive got the Corair Value PC3200 stuff... Ive not had any SERIOUS overclocking experiance - (Yet )

Ator - what you were saying about the Value RAM is very interesting... How it is made of chips that cant handle the higher clock speeds.

Im using a P4 Northy 3.06 on Skt 478. Everything ive read says to keep the RAM on 1:1 ratio for overclocking these chips. The multiplier is locked at x23.

Now... does that mean that in my case having value RAM will make absolutely no difference what so ever? I mean.. its PC3200 so its rated up to 400MHz right? That would require a 200MHz FSB. That would mean my proc. would be running at 4.6GHz... call me pessimistic but i just dont see it being stable at those kind of speeds! lol... even if i do go to W/C hehe.

Is PC3200 RAM for example - Value or not - guaranteed up to 400MHz or to reach 350+ speeds would it be sensible to assume timings and voltages would need to be played with?

Anyway... sorry for thread stealing there jaziel!


Mark

Quote: Originally Posted by markwalker84 Im using a P4 Northy 3.06 on Skt 478. Everything ive read says to keep the RAM on 1:1 ratio for overclocking these chips. The multiplier is locked at x23. Now... does that mean that in my case having value RAM will make absolutely no difference what so ever? I mean.. its PC3200 so its rated up to 400MHz right? That would require a 200MHz FSB. That would mean my proc. would be running at 4.6GHz... call me pessimistic but i just dont see it being stable at those kind of speeds! lol... even if i do go to W/C hehe.

They should have memory dividers that "multiply" the memory speed. I think 3:2 would be for that particular processor (533FSB = 133 quad-pumped), so that at stock clock speeds the RAM is at DDR400. I'm not sure if that ratio is correct, but still the idea remains so.

Yeah - that sounds about right...

From your somewhat more experienced point of view then would you suggest using RAM dividers? Ive read a lot of things about O/Cing the skt 478 P4s and just about everything said that best performance was achieved with a 1:1 ratio no matter what. Something about the way the Proc talks to the RAM blah blah blah...

I guess the best way to find out would be to try but that kind of tinkering should probably wait until after exams


Mark

Yes,1 to 1 is best with P-4, the "Netburst" architecture is very hungry for memory bandwidth.

The faster you clock it the more it wants, once you throw a divider in, it takes a lot more CPU speed to make up the difference and it then becomes a viscous cycle.

One of the best P-4 combos was the 2.4C 800FSB version, they would ramp up to 275~300FSB and 3.4~3.6GHZ with the right motherboard and cooling..runinng at a "Quad Pumped" effective speed of up to 1200FSB, they were MONSTORS back in the day!

Quote: Originally Posted by reflux For my first rig (Sempron 64 3300+ and Asus K8N4-E mobo) I picked up some KingMax DDR400. It was £30 for 512mb which I guess falls into budget category. Anyway, it was rock solid at 2.58ghz (stock = 2ghz) with a 6600GT and an X800GTO. Pretty darn good for budget RAM.

Yeeess, but...

That wasn't running 1:1 with the FSB, no way could that RAM take that overclock.

It did however reach about 220Mhz (DDR440) which is pretty respectable for budget RAM.

EDIT: w00t w00t 2000 posts!

hey its ok

im verry confused my board quotes a 400mhz fsb my processor quotes a 400mhz fsb
my ram quotes a 400mhz fsb and dual channel config and i have my gpu sofmodded
from Radeon 9800se to a pro so i could set the coreclock and memory clock at 400mhz
while the ramdac is 400 anyway

with what ive read here does that mean i may not be running everything at 400mhz afterall

i picked these parts when i built this pc last year for the specific purpose of running everything
synchrously at 400mhz

when i first set everything up i was thrilled with the performance with boot up times just over 30 seconds and ripping a cd in less than 3 min while i play mp3's surf the net on sites like this one or play wow while listening to what i want to.

Everything still runs as fast as it did when i set it up and its still fast and efficient im just dissapointed that it wont make the most of Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion and while ive given up on the idea of upgrading this aging pc to play it (ill just get a 360 and play it on my 52" hdtv at 1080i {i love tax refunds} it would cost me less than it would to get the x800 series gpu and a monitor capable of displaying 1080i or 1960x1080) i still want to get the most out of this pc before i pass it on to my wife so what gives

It won't play Oblivion very good because it's a 9800 Pro...they are geting very long in the tooth, and ATI stopped manufacturing them years ago. They don't even support Pixel Shader 2.0 if i'm not mistaken. They only have 8 pixel pipes, and a low core and memory clock speed. The RAM is only DDR. Should I keep going?

Oblivion brings even my speedy X1800XT to it's knees in high resolutions, and my card blows away a 9800.

Quote: Originally Posted by Ator It won't play Oblivion very good because it's a 9800 Pro...they are geting very long in the tooth, and ATI stopped manufacturing them years ago. They don't even support Pixel Shader 2.0 if i'm not mistaken. They only have 8 pixel pipes, and a low core and memory clock speed. The RAM is only DDR. Should I keep going? Oblivion brings even my speedy X1800XT to it's knees in high resolutions, and my card blows away a 9800.

yeah i know its only got 8pipelines and a 128 bitpath also the x1800xt is about 350-400$ and while they do make an 8xagp version i really feel that that kind of money on a system stuck with agp is a waste but my last quesion was about bus speeds maybe you could help explain that issue. are they using crappy boards that dont support 400mhz fsb or are the specifications in my owners manuels and the numbers printed on the box wrong or what cause i set up this pc specifically to run synchronously at 400mhz
the board cpu ram and gpu are all set at 400 so what gives

Quote: Originally Posted by jaziel im verry confused my board quotes a 400mhz fsb my processor quotes a 400mhz fsb my ram quotes a 400mhz fsb and dual channel config and i have my gpu sofmodded from Radeon 9800se to a pro so i could set the coreclock and memory clock at 400mhz while the ramdac is 400 anyway with what ive read here does that mean i may not be running everything at 400mhz afterall i picked these parts when i built this pc last year for the specific purpose of running everything synchrously at 400mhz when i first set everything up i was thrilled with the performance with boot up times just over 30 seconds and ripping a cd in less than 3 min while i play mp3's surf the net on sites like this one or play wow while listening to what i want to. The best explination to why your system doesn't run your games very well was already stated by Ator... your videocard, sadly, is quite dated. You need a faster card to get better video performance. It's as simple as that. Everything still runs as fast as it did when i set it up and its still fast and efficient im just dissapointed that it wont make the most of Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion and while ive given up on the idea of upgrading this aging pc to play it (ill just get a 360 and play it on my 52" hdtv at 1080i {i love tax refunds} it would cost me less than it would to get the x800 series gpu and a monitor capable of displaying 1080i or 1960x1080) i still want to get the most out of this pc before i pass it on to my wife so what gives

Your motherboard and cpu probably support a max fsb of 400Mhz... which doesn't mean it will run that fast. I believe your FSB depends on your cpu frequency and your multiplier. For example, my computer has a 2Ghz processor, with a 10x multiplier... so my FSB is 200Mhz.

Unfortunately, having everything run at 400Mhz simultaneously won't give you any performance gains... except a 400Mhz FSB I believe is pretty nice. Your video card clocks will not affect the rest of the system speed at all... as it operates nearly entirely as it's own motherboard, ram, and cpu.

The best explination for your slow system has already been stated by Ator. Your videocard, sadly, is quite dated. To get better performance in games, you need to upgrade your videocard. It's as simple as that.

Quote: Originally Posted by Ator It won't play Oblivion very good because it's a 9800 Pro...they are geting very long in the tooth, and ATI stopped manufacturing them years ago. They don't even support Pixel Shader 2.0 if i'm not mistaken. They only have 8 pixel pipes, and a low core and memory clock speed. The RAM is only DDR. Should I keep going? Oblivion brings even my speedy X1800XT to it's knees in high resolutions, and my card blows away a 9800.

They do support pixel shader 2.0...

Quote: Originally Posted by Jobistober Your motherboard and cpu probably support a max fsb of 400Mhz... which doesn't mean it will run that fast. I believe your FSB depends on your cpu frequency and your multiplier. For example, my computer has a 2Ghz processor, with a 10x multiplier... so my FSB is 200Mhz.

To be picky... its your FSB... and then combined with your multiplier that affects and determines your CPU speed. (ie - CPU depends on FSB)

Jobistober is right though - it is very unlikely you are running AT 400MHz unless your CPU is running at something insane like 3-4GHz (I'm assuming its an AMD chip with a multiplier of 9 or 10... that sound about right?) What it means when it says 400MHz FSb isthat in the BIOS options you can change a setting UP TO 400MHz and increase the number of cycles per second you processor deals with. This is the art of Overclocking.

The GPU runs independantly to the rest of the system as far as i know. The frequency option for the AGP cards should always be kept on LOCKED in the BIOS. You can manually overclock your GPU and Mem RAM timings as well using something liek ATI Tool.

I wouldn't bother upgrading AGP at all toi be honest. When you are going to upgrade just make sure you put another bit aside for a new Mobo and go PCIe... Im stuck with AGP and am gutted! lol Gonna cost a fortune to do a worth while upgrade!

Mark

Definitely save up for PCI-express if you're planning an upgrade. You'll only regret it if you stay with AGP. Getting decent cards for AGP is becoming more and more expensive, as it is being phased out.

I was stupid and bought a socket 754 AGP mobo... right before PCI-E and socket 939 boards were available. Now I have to spend considerably more to upgrade This summer, I wanted to build a new rig... but I don't think the timing is right for me monetarily. I'm gonna hafta bite the bullet and upgrade my socket 754 and AGP card.