>>> Corsair XMS 7 stick shootout! <<<

[THUGSROOK]

 

[THUGSROOK]

Since i sold my stick of 512mb i am now forced to deal with 2 sticks of 256mb :Q

currently running 1:1 334ddr cas2226.
ill get on with the 3:4 testing later today.

 

[Mikki]

I can't believe the difference between those two sticks! :Q And stick 2 did better at faster timings and worse at slower timings?!!!

 

[THUGSROOK]

thats exactly why im running these tests Mikki
altho the results do vary quite a bit ~ all of these sticks are excellent OCers

i also noticed this motherboard does not like 2 sticks beyond 334ddr even in 1:1 mode ~ again im pretty sure this board has a 167fsb chipset limit on stability in any ratio.

 

[Mikki]

Do you think doing anything to try to cool the memory down would produce a different/better result?

 

[THUGSROOK]

nope ~ i think its a moboard chipset limitaion.

 

[Mikki]

That's what I thought....great work Thugs...

 

[THUGSROOK]

more proof on the 167fsb limitation pudding....

2 sticks 1:1
167fsb 334 ddr cas 2.5 3 3 7 = passed 3 loops (all 11 tests)
167fsb 334 ddr cas 2 2 2 7 = passed 10 loops
168fsb 336 ddr cas 2.5 3 3 7 = failed 1st loop :Q
retry = failed 1st loop

1 stick 3:4
167fsb 445 ddr cas 2.5 3 3 7 = passed 10 loops
168fsb 448 ddr cas 2.5 3 3 7 = failed 1st loop
retry = failed 1st loop

 

[Mikki]

That's pudding proof all right, so here's my next question...why 167fsb?

 

[THUGSROOK]

if you can remember back the days when we were hacking the p4b266-c boards~

we were tryin to figure out how these ratios really work, and why there are 2 ratio generators (1 enabled, 1 disabled)
were arent exactly motherboard engineers, but we found that something happens @ 133fsb ~ we called it the "133fsb flip" ~ im pretty sure that the same thing is happening at 167fsb. (166fsb should be 166.66fsb but its not, so my guess is that 167fsb is the "next level" for Asus)

dont forget that this board has other unexplained oddities too~
100fsb = 101fsb

133fsb = 135fsb

for quite some time now we've been saying that Asus boards are different then others when it comes to voltage and temp readings. this is just another oddity to add to the list.
its getting to the point were i think Asus may have "jury rigged" their boards in some way that is responsable for all these oddities.

<EDIT> if granite bay wasnt so close id pick up an Abit board to compare.

 

[SupermanCK]

i think one of us rich people here should do a direct comparasion of the two...
Abit vs Asus, maybe Epox and Gigabytes as well...

 

[AkumaX]

question: why are you still using the 30.82 drivers? i think 40.72 is out or something

 

[THUGSROOK]

Originally posted by: AkumaX
question: why are you still using the 30.82 drivers? i think 40.72 is out or something

the 40.72s werent out when i started this~
i did test the 40.72s and the 40.51s ~ only 3dmark2k1 and UT2k3 flyby benched better ~ which leads me to believe those drivers were "tweaked" for those benchmarks.

i even went as far as mixing driver sets to get the best of all worlds ~ benchmarks were great, but gameplay still sucked
in real life i think both of those driver sets suck and i like the 30.82s way better

ill even go as far to say that becouse of all this, 3dmark2k1 has become a useless tool

 

[oldfart]

nope ~ i think its a moboard chipset limitaion

Interesting....Did you have the same issue on your 845D? 845D is supposedly the same NB as 845E. Duvie runs 171 FSB on his Epox 845D board without problems.

 

[THUGSROOK]

i didnt run memtest86 on my i845D, so i dont know.

i will continue to investigate this and see what i come with.

i sent SCK my stick of 512 3000c2 ~ we'll see how well it runs for him.
he will also be able to help verify/deny this limitation.

 

[THUGSROOK]

oh yea ~
final results are in for 2 sticks of 256mb ...360ddr max.

im gonna be doing alot more testing on this and ill start a new thread with my info.

 

[Toymaker]

Originally posted by: THUGSROOK
if you can remember back the days when we were hacking the p4b266-c boards~

we were tryin to figure out how these ratios really work, and why there are 2 ratio generators (1 enabled, 1 disabled)
were arent exactly motherboard engineers, but we found that something happens @ 133fsb ~ we called it the "133fsb flip" ~ im pretty sure that the same thing is happening at 167fsb. (166fsb should be 166.66fsb but its not, so my guess is that 167fsb is the "next level" for Asus)

dont forget that this board has other unexplained oddities too~
100fsb = 101fsb

133fsb = 135fsb

for quite some time now we've been saying that Asus boards are different then others when it comes to voltage and temp readings. this is just another oddity to add to the list.
its getting to the point were i think Asus may have "jury rigged" their boards in some way that is responsable for all these oddities.



<EDIT> if granite bay wasnt so close id pick up an Abit board to compare.

Interesting...I'd planned on waiting for Abit's Dual channel DDR boards anyway unless Asus's DC DDR boards prove to be very stable, reliable, etc. in the reviews. I've had too many problems with most of the Asus boards that I've purchased lately. This P4S-533 is the only relatively trouble free Asus board that I've had in the last five(P4S8X, A7V333, P4T533, A7V133). Fortunately all except the A7V333 were returnable.

 

[Mikki]

System:
P4 1.6a
Asus P4B533-E bios 1007.006
GF Ti4400
MemTest86: all 11 tests, 1 loop @ 2.6v

XMS3200 512mb
CAS 2.5-3-3-7 > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > 434ddr
3DMark 11605
Sandra 3047/3053
CAS 2-2-2-7 > > > > > > >333ddr
3DMark 10149
Sandra 2391/2391

 

[THUGSROOK]

thats very "on par" Mikki

unfortunately i wont be able to run anymore "2 stick" tests as my system now refuses to OC at all with 2 sticks of ram

 

[oldfart]

Looks like it will be a painful few weeks waiting for a GB board eh?

 

[THUGSROOK]

yea ~ im gonna have to suffer with only 256mb of ram til then

 

[Mikki]

I'm fairly satisfied, even tho I won't be using this stick when I go GB. I think any shortcomings I found thus far is due to the board-->not the memory. I'm gonna test my 256 sticks next...

 

[SupermanCK]

so no one has USB problems???
i am still having USB problem...scanner doesn't work correctly...and digi cam won't work either...

edit: sorry to take this off topic...

 

[Mikki]

Sorry SCK, meant to post earlier but got distracted...I lost two mices (meeses? mouses? hehe) due to some freaky usb thing. I never figured out if it was an over or under power problem, but I picked up a powered usb hub and I haven't had a problem since. I have a LOT of usb devices...

 

[THUGSROOK]

since my system "freaked out" with 2 sticks of ram~
im retesting it with 1 stick again to make sure everything is OK.
im already upto 166fsb 443ddr so everything is looking good

BTW: what program alerted me to this problem?
was it Prime95? no
was it Memtest86? no
was it Sandra? no
was it 3Dmark2001? no

IT WAS 3DMark2000! :Q
(its a great program ~ all you ppl should still be using it)