As if you couldn't tell by the post count, I just registered.

Im building a new PC, as my old Athy 1.2 just ain't cutting the mustard anymore.

So far, I have an Asus K8V SE Deluxe, revision 1.12. I've been reading more and more about how this board is extremely picky about the memory I can cram into it. I'd like to have 1gb, at the lowest latency settings my board is capable of. Can anyone recomend me some rock-stable PC-3200 or PC-4000? Money is an issue, but if I have to spend $400 on memory to have a happy machine, then so be it. I've been eyeballing Corsair's XMS mostly.

Specs thus far:
Complete Danger Den water cooling rig (S-TDX, Maze4 Chipset and GPU)
Antec True 550
WD SATA 74gb Raptor
WD SATA 120gb Caviar
Pioneer DVR-107
IBM 48x CD-Rom (it was free)
I have it all tucked neatly into a Lian-Li V1000B.

Any help would be awesome.

You can read what BigAkita has to say about the memory issues here. I'm using the XMS series, although costly, rest assured it's compatible.
You can check the Asus Qualified Vendors List for the K8V Deluxe here.

don't bother with PC-4000; that board doesn't have AGP and PCI locks so xtreme OCing will fux0r your Graphics card; SATA drives and PCI cards...

I read both of those prior to posting here, thats the reason why I asked about the PC-4000.

Erad, what kind of XMS did you use? Do you happen to know the part number?

Thanks

If you want to go Corsair without overclock, you want TWINX1024-3200XL

I would not worry to much about overclocking the FSB on that board above 400FSB, get a Mobile XP 2500+ and go for max GHZ

It's slightly different than a regular desktop version, it will allow you change the multiplier, the regular desktop CPU that AMD sell these days won't allow you to change it, and since your board is FSB limited, it will hold you back.

They are a few bucks more than the regular version, but every one I have seen so far is capable of 2.3GHZ at near stock voltage (1.7v) and will commonly reach 2.5Ghz with 1.8v. Some people with extreme cooling solutions have reached 3GHZ on water with 2v+

Here is a list of all the different speeds, they all do realy well for overclocking, most of use the 2400-2600 versions, the 2500+ typically being the favorite
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...roperty&DEPA=0

I would go for 1 gig of some decent ram, the low latency premium version (CAS2) memory will have a small effect in overall performance over a midgrade (CAS2.5)
or even low end (CAS 3)
Here are the 1gig kits to look at, you have to decide if a 2-5% gain is worth the extra money.
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...roperty&DEPA=0

I kind of like this PMI kit for 190$, it use timings of CAS 2.5-3-3-7 wich is pretty respectable. They are a newer brand that has done rather well in the reviews I read.
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...209-043&depa=0
Compare that to the 325$ for Corsair memory that will run at the "Ideal" low timings of CAS 2-2-2-5
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...145-523&depa=0

This Corsair XMS (233$) is about the most I would spend on a gig of ram, it has timings of CAS 2-3-3-6, I am sure you would be pleased with the performance while saving 100$.
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...145-450&depa=0

Quote: Originally Posted by H3LL5P4WN I read both of those prior to posting here, thats the reason why I asked about the PC-4000. Erad, what kind of XMS did you use? Do you happen to know the part number? Thanks

CMX512-3200C2

Quote: Originally Posted by $SOLID$ Necro I would not worry to much about overclocking the FSB on that board above 400FSB, get a Mobile XP 2500+ and go for max GHZ It's slightly different than a regular desktop version, it will allow you change the multiplier, the regular desktop CPU that AMD sell these days won't allow you to change it, and since your board is FSB limited, it will hold you back. They are a few bucks more than the regular version, but every one I have seen so far is capable of 2.3GHZ at near stock voltage (1.7v) and will commonly reach 2.5Ghz with 1.8v. Some people with extreme cooling solutions have reached 3GHZ on water with 2v+ Here is a list of all the different speeds, they all do realy well for overclocking, most of use the 2400-2600 versions, the 2500+ typically being the favorite http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...roperty&DEPA=0 I would go for 1 gig of some decent ram, the low latency premium version (CAS2) memory will have a small effect in overall performance over a midgrade (CAS2.5) or even low end (CAS 3) Here are the 1gig kits to look at, you have to decide if a 2-5% gain is worth the extra money. http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...roperty&DEPA=0 I kind of like this PMI kit for 190$, it use timings of CAS 2.5-3-3-7 wich is pretty respectable. They are a newer brand that has done rather well in the reviews I read. http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...209-043&depa=0 Compare that to the 325$ for Corsair memory that will run at the "Ideal" low timings of CAS 2-2-2-5 http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...145-523&depa=0 This Corsair XMS (233$) is about the most I would spend on a gig of ram, it has timings of CAS 2-3-3-6, I am sure you would be pleased with the performance while saving 100$. http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...145-450&depa=0

Hey man, want to share whatever it is you are on?

His mobo is an Athlon 64 board socket 754, he'd have a hard time cramming a 2500+ XP-M in there lol

Erad: Thanks

$Solid$ Necro: Thanks for the memory tips. See next comment...

Andrevas: I think with enough mental lube (re: alchohol) I could make it fit. Thats not to say it wouldn't explode on power-up... ... which by the way is an interesting story if anyone is interested...

Quote: Originally Posted by Andrevas Hey man, want to share whatever it is you are on? His mobo is an Athlon 64 board socket 754, he'd have a hard time cramming a 2500+ XP-M in there lol

Major OOPS!! I was at work, and a bit busy...

One important note then, Athlon 64's don't seem to realy respond to traditional "Fast" memory timings, they actually prefer using CAS2.5 for some odd reason.

The best performing memory on that platform is the OCZ EB PC3200-PC3700, they have optimised the SPD for 2.5-3-2-8 timings for that platform.
(Serial Presence Detect, basically that means what the Bios will read off a small imbedded chip on the memory, and then set it to those timings to by default)

It will outperform even the legendary Mushkin level II PC3500 with the Windbond BH-5 chips running at 2-2-2-5, it probably has to do with the onboard memory controller that the 64 chips use...

Most of my previous post information will not apply to the 64 platform, since Athlon are partially multiplier locked (You can lower it, you cannot raise it) the only way to overclock a 64 is to massively increase the FSB.

OCZ EB PC3200 278$
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...146-974&depa=0
OCZ EB PC3500 299$
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...146-983&depa=0
OCZ EB PC3700 329$
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...146-985&depa=0

I would suggest reading a few articles about this memory, it may help you make you decision as to how much performance you are willing to pay for

OCZ PC 3700 on the Athlon 64 review
http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.aspx?i=2057

Then check out some of the other ram reviews, they are very well detailed
http://www.anandtech.com/memory/

I was reading that Anandtech article on the OCZ memory, and they showed a 3200+ that was 2ghz, but with two different settings.

So you mean to tell me I can take my A64, turn down the multiplier and turn up the FSB, and still have whatever the 'stock' speed is, but it runs faster? Is there any good articles on this?

Also, what kind of effect would single or dual channel memory have on my setup? Would buying a pair of sticks that are labeled Dual Channel work properly as the A64 only has a Single Channel controller?

Yes, we've (as the whole 'clockin community) been dropping multi's and raising FSB's for "stock" speed, but running faster...

Just for local articles... http://forums.pcapex.com/search.php?searchid=21178

And the Google hits I got...

It's all over the place on how it runs faster... if you want a why it runs faster, its because its shuffling more data from memory through per cycle instead of multiplied more w/ a smaller amount of data (or so it goes, I believe)

Hope this helps.

Thanks Outcast. I had no clue. My lack of any math skills probably has something to do with it.

Well.. let me put it another way to see if it helps better.

10x166 = 1660 Mhz
12.5x133 = 1667 Mhz

In the 10x, you're pulling 166 mb/s of data into the processor per cycle, still running roughly the same speed as the 12.5x. The 12.5x's only benefit is the 7Mhz boost, but then it's negated by the FSB bottleneck ... the FSB and the Ram's speed, ideally, should be synchronous to alleviate any bottlenecks... Because, what good is it when the Ram can move 166 (333 DDR) or 200 (400 DDR), but the CPU can only accept 133 mb/s of that?

So Ideally, with that 10x166 system, you'd want some 333Mhz DDR... if you want to push the FSB past that, thats when you buy the higher rated sticks (400, 433, ...etc)

Again, hope this helps

Edit: BTW, welcome to PR since I missed saying it earlier.

That makes sense. It's sort of along the lines of AMD's labeling of the processors, ie '3400+'. While it's not actually clocked that fast, there are other factors that make it run as fast as a P4 3.4ghz.

Does clocking a cpu like this decrease the lifespan like a tradional overclock?

Thanks for the welcome, I've been looking for a hardware site for a while now.

I wouldn't think that swapping for a lower multiplier and a higher FSB would decrease the lifespan any, but I wouldn't know for certain...

..I, personally, haven't OC'd my rig because, despite what my sig says, I haven't yet installed those parts.. currently running a locked AthXP Palomino 2000+ and a A7N8x-deluxe from a year and a half ago.

...But, soon as those parts go in later today, I definetly will be.

I'm not really even looking to oc at this point, because frankly... anything is going to be faster than the beast I'm running now, lol. The lower multiplier/higher fsb setup interests me because I'll still have that overhead a few years down the road for when I need to bump up the speed to keep up, instead of buying a new cpu.

Dragging this up again, just got back from the doc's office (had to ferry my grandma there for a post-op) had time to think about it...

If CPU's are like cars, pushing them harder when they're near the end of their lifespan is a bad thing... or at least, it was for my old van... drove it too hard, popped the cam ... totaled it twice over because of it.

If I remember right, the supposed lifespan on processors is something in the park of 5-10 years... I know they've run for longer, just ask Jonny English... he's got a load of golden oldies at his place

I would say if you push it in the first couple, you'd prolly be okay.. but if its after, say, 5 yrs.. don't bother.

Good stuff. Sorry about your grandma, is she ok?

Yea.. cataract, is all.. nothin *too* major.. had to ferry her around 'cause her eyes get dialated when she goes in... and so she's kinda blinded by *any* light.. so I had to drive.. *shrug* It's all good, though.