PC150 worth it?

[Avatar26]

Ok, I'm overclocking my 1.2 T-bird, and I would like to get some fast SDRAM to keep up with the bus. Is it worth paying for "PC150" and how reliable is that rating? If anyone has product suggestions (i.e. brand or type), feel free to let me know!

 

[Poof]

I've got a stick of Kingmax PC150 TinyBGA CAS 3. It runs @CAS 2 up to at least ~140Mhz FSB! Was cheap too! 😀

A stick of that for you T-bird (which with a KT133a mobo may or may not POST past 133FSB) would give you a good bet for CAS 2 functionality up that high.

 

[Avatar26]

Yeah, sorry, it's an Iwill KK266 board. I had my stock RAM up to 147 Mhz, but I think it's causing the errors I'm getting. 140 Mhz at CAS2? Pretty sweet stuff.

 

[lifeguard1999]

Kingmax PC150 TinyBGA CAS 3 is a misnomer. Most people have it running at CAS2 @ 150 MHz. Be sure that it is your memory, and not something on your PCI bus or hardrive, that is causing the problem.

Personally, my computer only goes to 144 MHz, and Crucial memory is good enough for that at CAS2. After that, stuff on the PCI bus starts getting flaky.

 

[Avatar26]

The only PCI CARD I have is a NIC card. I have a Voodoo5 5500 AGP, which could most definitely be a problem, but my RAM is inexpensive and regardless of whether or not the lockups are due to the RAM, I will be getting new stuff. My main concern is that I get the best value for the money. I am not planning on pushing the bus over 150 Mhz.

 

[lifeguard1999]

It is simple to test then. Since your video card is probably not the problem, take the NIC out. Run at 150 MHz with different CPU burn in programs (Quake3, CPUburn, etc.) for several hours. I tend to do this overnight while I sleep. 8 hours later, if it is still working I call it stable.

If the computer is stable, then it was probably your NIC. If not, then you know it is probably your RAM.