DDR 600 Failure to Recognize HDD

[B Lo]

Let me begin by stating that I am not familiar with all of the terms (particularly acronyms) that I see floating around some of these enthusiast sites. So please, try not to use anything too in depth for someone just starting out to understand. Thanks!

My current setup is as follows:

P4 520 (2.8Ghz Prescott) running at 3.155Ghz
Abit DuraMax AA8 Mobo with latest BIOS revision (17, I believe)
2 x 256 Kingston HyperX PC2-5400
P.O.S. (Piece of Turd) PowerColor X300Se Radeon (slightly OC?ed from time to time)
500W Ultra Modular PSU
250GB Maxtor (DiamondMax Plus 9) HDD
Etc, etc, etc
ALL RUNNING ON STOCK VOLTAGES
Kingwin Case (426 if memory <no pun intended> serves me correctly)


Please guys, don?t turn this into an Intel bashing session. I got a really good deal on my CPU on ebay and (price/performance) it happened to be a better value than AMD.

As far as cooling, I have many, many 80 mm fans (mostly Vantec Stealth and some Antec) and a 92mm. Basically, I have two 80s in the front sucking air in, two in the back pushing it out, a 92 on the bottom sucking, an 80 at the top blowing? and on the left side panel, a pipe with an 80mm on the outside going straight down to the HSF (along with the stock fan on the Intel, which is about 90mm ish)? and last but not least, I have 2 80mm fans back to back (blowing air out of the case) towards the top of the left side panel above the area that houses the memory?

Oh, also stock HSF with AS5 (not sure I made a perfect connection, but I?m scared to remove the HSF as the 4 connectors seem flimsy)?

So basically, cooling is not the issue. Depending on room temp, I?ve been running in the upper 30s, lower 40s for CPU at idle? Sys temp in the mid 30s? PWM1 and PWM 2 both in upper 20s, lower 30s (ALL AT IDLE)?

So, here?s the problem (a few questions to follow)?

I tried setting my RAM to DDR600 (from 533) in the BIOS and the system fails to recognize my HDD afterwards. I didn?t know if this was a problem with the Silicon Image controller, Maxtor HDD, or what else it might be.

That?s my primary issue.

A few side questions though. (1) What does PWM stand for? (2) When overclocking, WITHOUT increasing voltages, does component life expectancy decrease? (3) When running my RAM at 1.9 instead of 1.8volts, am I hurting the life expectancy of the RAM significantly? I have a bunch more questions, however, I will cut it at this, so that I get an answer to my DDR600 question. Oh, I should mention, that my FSB is 225 (900 quad-pumped).

Thanks so much for your help everyone and happy (belated) holidays to everyone!

Finally, I?d like to apologize for the disjointed nature of this post. It?s 2AM local time and I?ve not gotten much sleep lately, as I?ve been messing around with this computer system.

 

[B Lo]

Bump bump

 

[B Lo]

Bump bump

 

[imported_Phil]

Why, in the name of all that is holy, do you need that many fans?

 

[B Lo]

As far as that goes, the case came stock with 5 of em. 2 in the front, 2 in the rear, and the blowhole fan were all stock. I swapped those out for Vantec Stealth's, as the drone was killing me. But after I got the Prescott, the whole setup ran hot as hell. So I cut a hole out of the bottom and plopped an old 92mm Datech/JMC fan in there and cut the space over the ram on the left panel for the back to back 80s to blow the air being sucked by the 92mm out (and cool that area a little better). As far as the pipe to the CPU with that 80, it was added after all this was done and my CPU temps were over 20 degrees higher than the system temps AT IDLE.

So, that's why.

 

[imported_Phil]

Originally posted by: B Lo
As far as that goes, the case came stock with 5 of em. 2 in the front, 2 in the rear, and the blowhole fan were all stock. I swapped those out for Vantec Stealth's, as the drone was killing me. But after I got the Prescott, the whole setup ran hot as hell. So I cut a hole out of the bottom and plopped an old 92mm Datech/JMC fan in there and cut the space over the ram on the left panel for the back to back 80s to blow the air being sucked by the 92mm out (and cool that area a little better). As far as the pipe to the CPU with that 80, it was added after all this was done and my CPU temps were over 20 degrees higher than the system temps AT IDLE.

So, that's why.

If you need ten fans to cool a Prescott then you're doing something very wrong.
I work for a manufacturer that produces, amongst other things, Prescott-core P4 machines using one exhaust and one intake fan. Idle temps are 40-45C.

 

[B Lo]

If you noticed, I have one extra fan dedicated to cooling the processor. The others simply cool the rest of the case. That's why my system temp idles as low as 24 degrees in Florida (even while overclocking on the stock HSF). I was unaware that going overkill on cooling is a bad thing.

I'd really appreciate if criticism could be kept somewhat positive, as nobody on this forum benefits from reading exclamations regarding how many fans a user does or does not have.

As far as the crux of the post is concerned, do either of you "fan haters" have any idea as to how to fix the HDD recognition when I switch memory frequencies? This is really what I'm after. Anyone that would like to show how smart they are, I welcome you to do so.

 

[imported_Phil]

Originally posted by: B Lo
If you noticed, I have one extra fan dedicated to cooling the processor. The others simply cool the rest of the case. That's why my system temp idles as low as 24 degrees in Florida (even while overclocking on the stock HSF). I was unaware that going overkill on cooling is a bad thing.

Actually, with mis-placed fans and too many of them, you create a large number of air vortexes in the case, which means that the air just swirls around pointlessly, it doesn't actually aid cooling.

I wouldn't mind betting that if you switched to a CPU fan, one exhaust and one intake, that your temperatures will barely rise, and the decrease in noise will be worth it.

I'd really appreciate if criticism could be kept somewhat positive, as nobody on this forum benefits from reading exclamations regarding how many fans a user does or does not have.

Criticism is, by default, both positive and negative. I wasn't bashing you for having that many fans, simply that you can get the same job done with less fans and less noise.

As far as the crux of the post is concerned, do either of you "fan haters"

If, by "fan hater" you mean someone who belives in efficiency over unnecessary and noisy cooling solutions, then yes, I suppose I am a "fan hater".

have any idea as to how to fix the HDD recognition when I switch memory frequencies? This is really what I'm after. Anyone that would like to show how smart they are, I welcome you to do so.

It's more than likely that raising the DRAM frequency is possibly raising the PCI frequency at the same time, and SATA drives don't behave well with raised PCI frequencies.

See if the BIOS shows your PCI bus speed, 33Mhz is what it should be.