Asus P4B533 with 3:4 Memory Settings

[hmsrolst]

I have a P4B533 with a C-1 stepping 2.0A that I'm running at 150Mhz FSB. If I use 3:4 memory settings and 3200 DDR will I have any stability problems running the memory at 200Mhz? (I assume that the 3:4 ratio runs the memory faster and not slower. Right?)

 

[oldfart]

Yes, the 3:4 (not 4:3) will be faster. At 150 FSB, 3:4 will be running DDR400. As long as you have good quality PC3200, it should work fine. You will have to play around with the cas settings a bit to find the best performance/stability settings. To run 3:4 on that board, you have to do the SW6 trick.

Are you dug out yet?

 

[hmsrolst]

Thanks, Scott. Although my manual lists 3:4, my bios only lists 4:3, so what's the SW6 trick?

It took me over 4 hours to dig out my sidewalk, one car and the path to the front door. Living on a small, Arlington lot, I have little room to move the snow. Car #2 is for today. How are you doing out your way? It sounds like you got even more snow than we did. Howard

 

[oldfart]

Heh, we got buried! Spent A LOT of time shoveling! :Q Still have some more to do.

To get the 3:4 working be in 1:1 mode above 133 FSB. Power down and set DS6 to ON. Power back up. Now 4:3 = 1:1 and 1:1 = 3:4. To be sure it is working, run a Sandra memory bench. You should be above 3000.

 

[hmsrolst]

Thanks. Now I have to decide whether it's worth the investment in the PC3200.

 

[oldfart]

What do you have now?

 

[hmsrolst]

2 X 256MB Crucial PC2100 running fine at 150Mhz

 

[oldfart]

That would not make it to DDR400.

 

[hmsrolst]

Agreed!

 

[oldfart]

I just sold a stick of Samsung PC2700 that ran just fine @ DDR400. We could have met in a snowstorm again!

 

[hmsrolst]

Only if we weren't planning on getting home.

 

[AdamK47]

Multiple DIMMs running with the 3:4 memory timings at 150MHz FSB is near impossible with the P4B533. One DIMM being populated at this speed is fine. Running multiple is when I see rounding errors in Prime 95, or 3DMark2K1 locking or quiting randomly. I've tried all sorts of memory. I've also been to Asusboards.com forums and the consensus there is the same when using multiple DIMMs with this board.

 

[oldfart]

That is true with pretty much any 845/D/E/G. The 845PE boards are the first 845x with official support for DDR333. They can run multiple sticks with stability @ high DDR speeds. DC DDR boards of course will also work.

 

[RalfHutter]

Originally posted by: AdamK47 - 3DS
Multiple DIMMs running with the 3:4 memory timings at 150MHz FSB is near impossible with the P4B533.

I don't know how much difference there is betweent the P4B533 and the P4B533-E (which I've been using since last May) but I can (and have been) run two 512MB sticks of XMS3200c2 at DDR400 just fine. I've passed numerous 24hrs loops of Memtest86 with zero errors. As far as I know these two boards are virtually the same except that my "-E" board has RAID.

Originally posted by: oldfart
That is true with pretty much any 845/D/E/G. The 845PE boards are the first 845x with official support for DDR333.

Official support maybe, but I ran two sticks of Corsair XMS2700 on my P4B266 (845D) at DDR354 just fine. Passed 24hr loops of Memtest86 with zero errors.

My RAM situation doesn't seen abnormal either. Plenty of people can run two sticks of RAM on 845 boards at higher than default speeds. Yeah, there's some trouble with the 845Gs and multiple sticks, and some people do have trouble with 845D/E/PEs but I think that's in the minority. Yes, it's harder to run two sticks as fast as you can just run one stick, but that's how the RAM game works.

Remember, you see people post in the forums when they have trouble and need advice. How many posts do you see where someone says "I just posted to say that I'm running "X" and it's working just fine and I'm so happy" Not very often, right?

 

[oldfart]

Yes, some people can run 2 sticks well in 845D/E/G, but I've seen many that can't especially when running higher DDR speeds (Thugsrook could not on his P4B533). 845PE seems to always work. I'm conservative when I recommend settings for other people. I'm quite familiar with the 3:4 on 845D boards. I've been doing it for almost a year. I'm running 512 meg @ DDR400 2-2-2-6 on my Epox 4BDA2+ 845D board just fine. Dont need some goofy BIOS hack to do it either I'm thinking of getting another 512 Meg stick to see how it does (darn Corsair is still kind of $$). Hope it drops some more. This way I'll have a set for Springdale/Canterwood when they come out.

 

[slag]

I'm running 2 256 mb sticks of corsair pc3200 in my box and with the 3:4 memory divider @ 170 mhz, the memory is clocked at 454 mhz.

Running very stable so far..

 

[Budman]

That board really is amazing.

When the 800fsb p4's come out all you have to do is set your ram to 1:1 and put that 800fsb HT enabled cpu in there & go nuts.