2x512MB on nforce3 250 motherboards

[dimasukr]

I cannot run 2 sticks of OCZ PC4400 EL past 166MHz on my Gigabyte K8NS PRO.
With one it runs fine all the way to 225 at CL2.5 but when I insert the second one I hear beeps on boot and mobo resets memory to run at 166MHz.
Is it motherboard or memory?
Was anybody succesfull with any nforce3 250 (VNF3 or anything other) that is available?

 

[travanx]

I also have the gigabyte board. I decided to try one stick of my corsair xms pc4000 512mb. And it recognized the 3-4-4-8 timings. I was able to go FSB setting of 215 before it crashed. I was running the bus speed at 200mhz (I think thats the 1:1 divider) in the bios and the HTT was set at 5. I didn't get a chance to try the cl2.5 yet though. I read something about the Nforce3 board not liking the cl3.0.

So if I use 2x512mb it will only give I think 3-3-3-7 timings. Or something close to that. This is really annoying and I just noticed newegg won't return this particular board. And I talked to Gigabyte tech support and they had no clue how to use a bios.

And I even tried the beta f2 bios given in another thread. No luck either. I hope someone has a clue on how to set the timings with 2 sticks of ram. I am really regretting building an AMD system now. But I figured I would give it a chance since I heard good stuff about the Athlon64's.

I also asked about this in the corsair house of help board and pcperspective.

 

[travanx]

Here is my great response from gigabyte tech support.

Unfortunately, there is no refund policy as I know of. Please contact our customer service department for more information at rmausa@giga-byte.com

When you press "Ctrl+F1" in the BIOS, you should be able to set the "memory frequency" to either "auto" (default) or "manaul", under the "advanced chipset features". Once you set it to "manual", you can change the ram to 200 MHz.

The M/B can only support the DDR memory up to PC3200. Some higher speed memory modules might be backward compatible with it, but it's not guarantee to work.
For the Corsair memory, some reports say OK but some are not.

Please try to use the Kingston, Crucial or the Samsung memory on this M/B. Please check their web site for the M/B memory list.

www.kingston.com
www.crucial.com

Thank you for using Gigabyte products.
Gigabyte technical support team.

 

[dimasukr]

Here is what Gigabyt tech support told me:
"
According the last BIOS Guide for AMD socket 754 from AMD,
When two DDR400 Double sided memory are installed, the memory speed should be set as DDR333. The table is attached for your reference.
"

Is this true? For all AMD 745 mobos?
Then how come anand tested MSI Neo and put 2,3 sticks and it worked on 200MHg

 

[travanx]

looks like we are slowly making the FAQ for this MB. So tonight I was reading how you set the HTT and dividers. Also I am going to borrow 2x512mb Mushkin PC-3200 2-2-2 ram from work and mess around with it. So I will see if Gigabyte is telling the truth about the pc-3200 speed.

 

[BlindBartimaeus]

I have two sticks of 4200 humming along at a mere 243 fsb...without reducing the speed. 3600's on Sandra

 

[travanx]

more information. what ram? on the gigabyte board? what ram timings? if it is the k8ns pro how in the world did you do that?

 

[BlindBartimaeus]

I am on a chaintech

 

[FunkierThanU]

Just put 2 x 512mb of OCZ 3700 EB in my VNF3-250. Cribbing off the review, not overclocked, but solid as a rock @ 400MHz, 2.5-2-3-10. Waiting for my SLK-948U to show before pushing it.

 

[djm68]

I am running 512mbx2 of OCZ 3700EB in my vnf3-250 with absolutely no problems; totally solid @400. Will try some OCing this week and post some results...

Cheers,
DJM

 

[dimasukr]

I tried putting my OCZ PC4400 EL Gold in VNF3-250 and it works at 225 ( 450Mhz) no problems.
So I guess there is a problem in K8NS BIOS that resets 2 double sided sticks to 166Mhz (333MHz).

 

[travanx]

Yes a big problem. I wonder if Gigabyte will fix it in a new bios??

Originally posted by: dimasukr
I tried putting my OCZ PC4400 EL Gold in VNF3-250 and it works at 225 ( 450Mhz) no problems.
So I guess there is a problem in K8NS BIOS that resets 2 double sided sticks to 166Mhz (333MHz).