I have a Soyo KT-400 Ultra Platinum Board. Sounds pretty impressive. What do you think the 400 stands for? It is supposed to stand for the 400Mhz FSB speed you can achieve with the proper configuration.

That leads us to what is the proper configuration. I would imagine that Corsair XMS3500 CAS2 RAM that is rated at 433 would qualify. With divider's, nothing else should matter. I have an XP2200+ that has proven to have good overhead, and the rest of my equipment is pretty up to date.

I got a wild hair up my ass after reading some threads on different forums about how the KT400 board will not run at a 200Mhz FSB speed. I thought, "Can't run at that speed, but that is what is advertised from the company! A KT400!".

I was extremely happy with my Soyo board performance up till now, I could run a 340+ FSB with a 200Mhz OC going on, and could even get beyond that in some cases. So it is a good, stable, overclocking board. Unless you try to hit the rated speed. I thought that since my board had been so stable running some pretty good overclocks, I should be able to hit the FSB level that the board is advertised for.

I set my FSB at 200, brought the clock down to 9, set the divider at 6, and backed my RAM settings back down to "Normal". This should have given me my 1800Mhz with a 200Mhz FSB. But HELL no. System wouldn't post.

I thought "no problem, I'll clear the CMOS and try again". CMOS wouldn't clear. I fought with it, pulled the battery, tried again, cleared again, tried again, you get the picture. Finally, the system posted again. I went through the bios, set everything back to normal, rebooted, no post.

Messed with the bios again, finally after an hour got the system to post, set most safe settings, rebooted, no post. To make a long story short, I have done this for two days straight now. I have been fighting this system like a madman.

For some reason today, after hundreds of attempts, the system decided to accept my settings and boot back into XP. I had already priced motherboards to replace this one, but at about the same time it decided to boot. At this point I had already pulled and changed all peripheral's, and it booted almost naked. I added every piece back in one by one and there has been no problem since.

Why whould a board advertise as a 400 when it can't run at that level? I am already looking at replacing it with an nForceII board, if anyone needs a Soyo KT400 at a good price, let me know.

I've read many reviews where they couldn't get the divider of 6 working in any way shape or form.

Correct me if I'm wrong, (and I very well could be), but the 400 part of KT400 I believe referrs to the fact that it is using VIAs KT400 chipset, and that is in reference to the fact that it is supposed to run DDR400 RAM (PC3200 I believe). Now that does not mean that the FSB runs at 400 (or even 200 x 2). I am running a KT333 Mobo (Gigabyte 7VRXP), but the FSB is not 333 (166x2) it just means that I can run DDR333 Ram in it. I can set the RAM to a 166Mhz clock (and being DDR - run at an effective speed of 333Mhz), but the FSB for the rest of the system is only 133Mhz (or 266Mhz if you consider how the AMD chips work). Anyhow, as far as I know, the 400 means you can use DDR400 ram in it, not run the FSB up at 400 (or 200x2). If you still want to get rid of it though, let me know. I can always use a nice, cheap MOBO.

Ever since this DDR crap has come about I've noticed a lot of shifty advertising with Hz's, my guess is with BrokenArrow's.

hmm, I thot it was that too but was to scared to sayanything, never thot I could achieve FSB that hi, althou it would be great.
I like my mobo just the way u left it BA.

When it says DDR 400 compatibility, like it does on the box, that should mean it will RUN at DDR 400. I know the KT333 boards can easily run at 333, hence, the KT400 boards should run at 400.

I have the board back to 333 right now, I am going to attempt to bring it back up to 340 later on. I am going to hang on to the board for a few more days and play with it. I'm just ticked off at all the time I lost bringing it back to life.

If you look at AMDMB.com, you will find a few guys who were successful at running the board at 400.

I had similiar problems with my Dragon 333 BA. No matter what I did I couldn't get it to post in sync at 333. I hit a wall at about 290 that didn't change no matter the setting I used. I know it wasn't the processor or ram. Unlocked 1900+ and XMS3000. I had used both in my Iwill XP-333r (AliMagick chipset) and ran in sync at 333 normally. And I had pused it to the limit of the ram, just under 400 with slow timings. It may be a function of how the dividers work on the Via boards. I was very disappointed in how the KT333 Dragon overclocked. I'd be interested to know if it's all Via boards or just the Soyo's.

BA, what are all the Clock options for your DDR RAM Clocking ?
SPD and what else ?

And which are you using ?

A Bump for my bro BA

Sorry lc, I was working on my new reservoir. I have SPD, 100, 133, 166, and 200. I am running at 166 now. I also have the option to incrementally up the FSB. The system doesn't like SPD, 166 works fine.

I am not even going to attempt to hit a 400Mhz FSB with this board again, I am going to attempt to get it back up to 340 or better later this evening. If you don't hear from me for a couple of days you will know what happened.

can I know what your settings are for max highest , bazilliest ; as you know I have a 2200 OC'd to 2.08, kt400 and XMS 3500, Thx.

Ok, I was thinking like this;

Quote: I have SPD, 100, 133, 166, and 200. I am running at 166 now

What if what the BIOS is doing works like this.
Assuming no OC, to set the FSB at stock 133 and the DRAM to 200, maybe it doesn't set the DRAM to 200, maybe it assumes a stock 133 and adds a +66.

So when you OC'd it to 200 FSB you might have been attempting 200+66 = 266 * 2(DDR) = 532mhz DDR.

This would explain a no-post result.

If so, the the same logic would apply for trying your 200mhz FSB with a 133mhz DDR setting which would look like;
200+0 = 200 * 2(DDR) = 400mhz DDR.

Maybe it's worth a shot to see what you get ?

I re-read this and what I am trying to say may be confusing, or maybe I am confusing myself. SO to say it another way.

Maybe the DRAM settings work like this;
DRAM Setting----Affect
SPD----------------Reads the DRAM Module
100-----------------FSB -33mhz
133-----------------FSB
166-----------------FSB +33mhz
200-----------------FSB +66mhz

Better?

But there is an setting within the bios for 200Mhz at the 1/6 divider setting. When I run the 200Mhz mem setting, timing at 9, FSB at 200, I should have 1800Mhz. The rig won't boot.

The Divider is supposed to be only for the PCI / AGP Buses.

If it doesn't effect the DRAM clock, then maybe what I said above offers a chance, if not, well, if not then I have to re-think this.

The only thing I am really trying to say is that the settings are just names for options in the BIOS. But how the code actually implements them, and what they really do could be a little different then what would look obvious.

But I can't think of anyone in a better position then you BA to figure it out, you have the gear and the knowledge. And a few other smart bros to lend a hand

Honestly lc, I am not going to attempt it again, it was VERY hard to bring the board back to life. I am looking at an Abit or Asus nForce2 board to replace this one.

You know how it goes, you try to go all the way, don't achieve success, so you look for another bitch that may go all the way.

That's cool, all the info is here for someone else if they need it.

Quote: You know how it goes, you try to go all the way, don't achieve success, so you look for another bitch that may go all the way.

You are Animal ****ing Kingdom all the way BA.

I love ya Bro

I never really had that much faith in the KT400 chipset from VIA, as it was really just a re-tooled KT333 with support for DDR400 memory...and not a 400 MHz system bus...but dude, 340 MHz bus is pretty damn good, if you ask me! The most I can push my KG7 with AMD 761 chipset to, reliably, is about 280 to 290 MHz (only air-cooled, though). That's why I'm digging the SiS645DX chipset for P4, I was finally able to break the 150 MHz barrier...with only air-cooling!