Best Memory for K8N Neo2 Platinum

[nealh]

lower htt to 3x...my 3200 week 44 seems to hit a wall at 2550

 

[DCypher]

thanks, any opinions on the RAM voltage?

 

[JP215]

I recently built a new rig with pretty much the exact same stuff in the recent Anandtech articles rating the Neo2, AMD 3000 Winchester, and RAM.

My rig:
1 gig OCZ Platinum Rev 2 - 2.5 4 4 10 1T
AMD 64 3000 Winchester
K8n Neo2 Platinum
ATI X800 XL

I bought the OCZ Platinum Rev 2 and have had nothing but problems with it. I have been able to overclock my chip to 260x9 but experienced lots of RAM problems. I am fairly new to overclocking but followed the settings illustrated in many articles on that RAM. My ram was at 2.85v and fried last night! I only had my fsb at 250x9 too. With 2.5 4 4 10 1T timings.

Any idea why this could have caused my RAM to fry when all of these tests on it have rated it being able to handle near 300x9 FSB with those exact same timings and voltage? Any tips on what to look out for with overclocking RAM woudl be appreciated. I just don't know how to tell when I'm approaching the threshhold of when the RAM is getting close to the danger zone.

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[WA261]

I run OCZ Gold EL 4400
Sweet ram.

 

[Dadofamunky]

Well, I've just finished building a system very similar to what a lot of you are talking about, and I can't OC it or tweak it AT ALL. Even setting the FSB to 210, **or** Cell optimization settings to Optimize from Manual (the default) WITH NO OTHER CHANGES causes it to lock up and I have to reset the CMOS to clear it. I'm kind of a veteran OCer, I ran a P3-650 at 800 MHz like a tank for four years on an ASUS CUBX mobo (which I loved) and never had this kind of problem before. But this is next-generation hardware so the challenges are different....

My rig:

MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum Bios 1.3
Winchester A64 3500+
2 GB Mushkin Blue DDR400 (4x512MB)
Sound Blaster Audigy 2zs Platinum
BFG 6800GT 128 MB
500 GB EIDE
120 GB SATA
20.1" Dell LCD

I'm very happy with it; I bought the Neo2 based on research in Anandtech but try as I might I cannot run this at anything but the stock settings (memory at 200 MHz, CPU stock, AGP stock, everything). Anything past that locks up on reboot. Frankly, I don't care that much, I bought this board instead of a 754 because I wanted an upgrade path. I sure don't want to fry my RAM or my CPU like that poor guy did (quoted below). I'm also really nervous about tweaking voltages on this system although I did it successfully on my old system....

But what I am curious about is: since Anandtech's OC'ing guide seems to be a bit out of date, there must be a very specific sequence you can go through to squeeze out a little more performance from the Neo2 mobo. Any veterans out there care to turn us on to a step-by-step process for the Neo2 so we can benefit from your experience?

Originally posted by: JP215
I recently built a new rig with pretty much the exact same stuff in the recent Anandtech articles rating the Neo2, AMD 3000 Winchester, and RAM.

My rig:
1 gig OCZ Platinum Rev 2 - 2.5 4 4 10 1T
AMD 64 3000 Winchester
K8n Neo2 Platinum
ATI X800 XL

I bought the OCZ Platinum Rev 2 and have had nothing but problems with it. I have been able to overclock my chip to 260x9 but experienced lots of RAM problems. I am fairly new to overclocking but followed the settings illustrated in many articles on that RAM. My ram was at 2.85v and fried last night! I only had my fsb at 250x9 too. With 2.5 4 4 10 1T timings.

Any idea why this could have caused my RAM to fry when all of these tests on it have rated it being able to handle near 300x9 FSB with those exact same timings and voltage? Any tips on what to look out for with overclocking RAM woudl be appreciated. I just don't know how to tell when I'm approaching the threshhold of when the RAM is getting close to the danger zone.

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[nealh]

Dadofamunky
one thing is probably the mobo does not like 4 ram slots filled when overclocking..I saw in the manual that it will default to pc2700 dc in this setup..so this may limit you some

You have a couple of options to test o/c..remove 2 stiks of ram..use slot 1&2..set ram to 133..loose timings...3-3-3-10 2t and then try and o/c the cpu to test its limit...

increase the vcore..start at 1.5v with over vid of 3.3%
speed spectrum off
dynamic overcloking off
agp voltage 1.6
make sure agp 67
also turn fast writes off.... my BFG 6800 OC had huge stuttering issues
also make sure htt is set at 4x up to about 250 and 3x 250- 300

Hidden Bios settings:
make sure in BIOS has CELL highlighted
then hit ALT + F2 then Shift + F3(always takes me a few times before it works)...go into cell and you will see some more options
make sure ati/nv speed is off..this will o/c your agp card

I am running a A64 3200 at 10x255..best my chip will do

my settings
ram 133 2.5-3-3-10 2t( I have some cheap valuram but you want to start loose to test cpu)
ddr voltage 2.7v
speed spectrum off
dynamic o/cing is off
cooln quiet off
nv/ati speed up off
pci auto lock(or whatever) leave it at default
dram strength normal(I have no idea what this does)
htt 3x
cpu 10
fsb 255
vcore..1.5v with 8.3% over vid( I need this vcore to get 2550 prime 95 stable)
agp 67(locks pci bus at 33 and agp 67)


side banding is auto and fast writes off

also the SATA 1&2 are not locked so make sure you SATA HDD is on SATA 3 or 4

 

[nealh]

jut an FYI..I tried a modded bios and fa nprime9 was crashing..I was using the 1.41mod..went back to 1.36b and prime95 went 10hrs with no crashes at 2550 ..I stopped it

So for me no more bios mods...just official or beta from msi

 

[Dadofamunky]

Cool Neal, thanks for the info! Man, slowing down the RAM to 133? Shades of P3-land! But at least keeping dual-channel seems to work for you.

I forgot that I have a $45 heatsink the size of a friggin' softball on my CPU, so my guess is cooling is probably fine

I'd forgotten about all four RAM slots being populated.... Hmmm. Maybe I'll just leave well enough alone. I bet others have a different group of settings.

 

[nealh]

Dadofamunky..I am not suggesting to keep the ram at those low settings although with the A64 you will see a big performanc change with tighter timings..see Zebo post in this forum...but this will give you a shot to get a bit for free..you can try it with all 4 dimms populated too

good luck

 

[Dadofamunky]

Couple interesting things:

The HTT feature in the BIOS does not work on my system. It seems to be locked at 5x and when I Enter it, it displays no options, locks up the system and I have to reboot. Wondering if I need to flash to a newer BIOs - I'll check MSI's web site to see if they have a newer official GA release. I've done that before on older systems so that's not a big deal

I'm now running 2.5-3-3-10 with the RAM set at 200 MHz and CPU at stock settings. All four sticks in.

The CPU will not overclock. Setting the FSB higher just puts the board into Safe mode at 2 Ghz. But the system isn't locking up either. With the memory timings above, the system does seem to be a bit snappier. Not that it wasn't snappy to begin with....

 

[nealh]

when changing HTT hit + or _ ..not enter(although I never had a problem) many people reports it causes lock up and crashes

 

[DCypher]

Wow, this was a hell of a thread crap...geez...anyways, can anyone read my last few posts and help me?

 

[nealh]

Jeez sorry did mean to hijack your thread I was just helping someone out...

have you tried corsair website?/ Trying email their tech support for the max voltage...what was the recommended voltage on the package...

I run my Kingston valuram pc2700(which was 2.5v) at 2.7v.....

 

[DCypher]

I see some people using the OCZ DDR Booster running there Ram over 3 volts, I'm just wondering if 2.85 is to high.

 

[DCypher]

bump

 

[DCypher]

b, b, b, bump