How far can I go with PC2100 RAM ?

[VTrider]

FWIW: I have a stick of 256 Kingston Value Ram 2100 (CAS 2.5) running at 146.6FSB (CAS 2) - It's been rock solid stable for months. It's pretty much nothing to write home about RAM, but this particular stuff can hold it's stuff when pushed a little. It craps out though at any FSB faster.

- VTrider

 

[SpeedyGonzales]

@NuLLxXx,

I was considering to upgrade to a better HSF combo together with the new case, PSU and the other stuff. However on the last minute I decided not to order one of these high-end pieces from Alpha, Thermalright etc., because I first wanted to see, how far I could get with the better case cooling, good thermal compound and the standard HSF.

To cut a long story short, I am still running the stock HSF.

Small update: It seems, that the 1.65Vcore is really required to run this CPU at 2.4Ghz, when lowering it to 1.6, some graphic intensive applications crashed from time to time (simply returning to the desktop).

@All

Again thanks everybody for your valuable input, comments and of course the congratulations. The Anandtech community is very professional.

Cheers
Speedy

 

[NuLLxXx]

To: SpeedyGonzales

Please get an Alpha PAL 8942 soon..... Its money very well spent for an OC'er
I would go as far as to not trust the stock HSF unit in OC'd operation as a 2.4...

But as you put it if the case was a bigger issue good job get the alpha soon ! The
2.53 uses around the same size HSF unit only it has a different fin design and fan
that moves more air.

and no more vCore till you have better cooling. What temps are you getting stock HSF
with 1.65v? With the alpha stock vCore and up to 1.725 look the same to me only a few
degrees difference.

 

[SpeedyGonzales]

Hi NuLLxXx,

My CPU temperatur @2.4Ghz is idle around 40C and at full load 50C. These temperatures have been taken with the Hardwaredoctor from Winbond. A lot of people here in the forum say, that the readings for Abit boards (and I am using the BD-7) are always too high. So all in all I believe I am still in the green area.

However, I do not want to try my luck. I am not going to overclock any further or to increase the Vcore beyond 1.65. It is rock-solid in this config, no crashes at all.

The Alpha Pal seems to be a very good cooler, the only thing, that I do not like with all those high-end coolers is, that they do not use the Intel retention mechanism, so they force me to remove my mobo, and that is a pain in the a... I hate fooling around with all those cables.

On the other side, having such a nice cooler would be really...cool, wouldn't it ?

Cheers
Speedy