Epox 9NDA3J / 9NDA3+ with Patriot XBLK TCCD ram

[Kogan]

Alright, I'm on my 2nd set of Patriot XBLK ram and now believe the problem I have is with MB/CPU/RAM compatability.

MB: Epox 9nda3j (stable up to 355htt)
CPU: Venice 3000+ (stable up to 2800mhz)

I've got some tcc5 ram that runs dual-channel at 285mhz 3-4-4-10 1t which is 100% stable, either in dual-channel or single dimms.

Looking to get a bit more FSB/HTT out of this, I got some Patriot XBLK TCCD ram from newegg. As you can see by nearly every review of this ram, it runs up to and above 300mhz in many cases. This ram is rated to run at 200mhz 2-2-2-5 and 263mhz at 3-4-4-8.

While in dual-channel mode on my epox motherboard, I can't get it to run stable at its pc4200 speeds - 263mhz. When I run the modules individually, they're stable up to 310mhz.

About the highest I can boot into windows with these is 255mhz with any memory timings. This however is not stable in prime95 blend.

So does anyone have similar memory on one of these nforce3 epox motherboards? I've tried the latest stable bios and latest beta bios (which has extra memory timing settings), but can not get this ram stable. I had the exact same problems with the 1st set of patriot XBLK I had.

Will do extensive testing at 200mhz 2-2-2-5 now to see if it's at least stable at that speed..

 

[arswihart]

I have this exact memory in my 9nda3+. Just noticed this old post. I'm running mine @ 245mhz 1t 2.5-3-3-6, and it's actually Memtest test #5/8 stable even at 250mhz. I throttled down to 245mhz because I think when I'm using my computer for a long time the heat builds up and I can get instability which I think is related to my rather unremarkable A64 3200+'s OC abilities.

So obviously I'm not even close to the 263-285mhz you are trying to get. May I ask why you aren't just using the tcc5 RAM?

I assume you've tried RAM slots 3/4 and 1/2 separately, and tried swapping the RAM sticks back and forth in both of these configurations. Voltage should be 2.8 for the speeds you are going for. BTW, that tcc5 RAM you have is pretty awesome to be giving you that kind of performance.

I'm also betting that going to 2t will seriously help you out. I think I've heard with the newer BIOS's people are finding they can only do 2t whereas they used to be doing 1t at the same settings. I don't know anything about the performance difference going from old BIOS @ 1t vs. new BIOS @ 2t, maybe there is none!