Quick Lesson on RAMBUS RAM Please

[PhoenixOfWater]

Can someone give me some basic information on RAMBUS RAM and overclocking it. What is the best brand to use? What speeds do they run at? Is it like DDR? If the front line bus runs at 133 the RAM runs at 266. On older RAMBUS chipsets that use a maximum of PC800 can you put in a PC1600 chip?

Thank you for all your help

 

[SSXeon5]

Originally posted by: PhoenixOfWater
Can someone give me some basic information on RAMBUS RAM and overclocking it. What is the best brand to use? What speeds do they run at? Is it like DDR? If the front line bus runs at 133 the RAM runs at 266. On older RAMBUS chipsets that use a maximum of PC800 can you put in a PC1600 chip?

Thank you for all your help

Samsung or Kingston both make good RDRAM. RDRAM 16bit comes in 4 flavors:

RDRAM PC-800 45ns 1.6gb/s bandwidth @ 800Mhz with duel channel channel = 3.2gb/s
RDRAM PC-800 40ns 1.6gb/s bandwidth @ 800Mhz with duel channel channel = 3.2gb/s
RDRAM PC-1066 35ns 2.1gb/s bandwidth @ 1066Mhz with duel channel channel = 4.2gb/s
RDRAM PC-1066 32ns 2.1gb/s bandwidth @ 1066Mhz with duel channel channel = 4.2gb/s

The Lower the ns the higher it can overclock, Like:

RDRAM PC-800 40ns (Can overclock to 1066Mhz with duel channel channel = 4.2gb/s
RDRAM PC-1066 32ns (Can overclock to 1200Mhz with duel channel channel = 4.8gb/s



RDRAM is not like DDR, DDR is 64bit there for has alot lower latency, wile RDRAM is 16bit and in duel config is 32-bit total. Right now the i845G paired with DDR333 cas2 is about 5% faster then a i850 paired with PC-800. As for the SiS648 motherboard paired with DDR400 cas2.5 is 5% slower then i850E paired with PC1066. DDR is alot cheaper and runs cooler. Yes PC-1066 is backwards compadible with PC-800 boards, like the i850 and i850E. When VIA's P4X600, SiS655, and Intels Granite bay come they will impliment duel channel DDR! With a total of 128-bit DDR ram that will give the P4 both full bandwidth, and alot cheaper price for the ram. With Duel channel DDR it is equal in bandwidth with PC-1066 RDRAM with the i850E, but with DDRs cheaper price and super low latency it will give RDRAM platforms a run for there money. Hope that helps

SSXeon

 

[AndyHui]

Please read the FAQ: What is RDRAM?

 

[PhoenixOfWater]

thank you for your help...My plans are to use rambus in a asus p3c-e Link with a celeron 1.1A chip and a powerleap and overclock the FSB from 100 to 133 or highter.. so what type of rambus should i get?

 

[AndyHui]

Any will do. 16-bit PC800 is fine. Don't buy lower speeds (PC600, PC700), and don't buy the new 32-bit RDRAM.

You might want to get PC1066 if you plan to shift it to a Pentium 4 system later.

 

[PhoenixOfWater]

why not 32-bit? will the mobo not take that?... and i only have to buy one stick of ram right?..if i buy two stick will it run faster? and how do you overclock rambus ram...do you up the FSB?

 

[KGB1]

I have a Asus P3C-L (L is for Integrated LAN chip) its the same as the "E" version. I got the Powerleap Adapter Rev 2.0 and a 1.3 Celeron its great, CPUiD sees it as 1.3 (BIOS sees it as a PII 1200 MHZ, but it isn't a problem) But a good investment overall, but I would really suggest you get a P4/Celeron instead, since I had this Asus board for a while, I decided to upgrade, you might be better off if you got a P4 since it can really utilize PC800/1066 Rambus RAM since the P3 arhitecture really doesnt use it, (or be an OL' timer like me)

 

[PhoenixOfWater]

KGB- What kind of ram did you use...there a so many diff types of rambus ram out there...look at its link..i want to be able to overclock and not be held back by the ram...when overclocking the FSB you also overclock the rambus right?

 

[SSXeon5]

Originally posted by: PhoenixOfWater
KGB- What kind of ram did you use...there a so many diff types of rambus ram out there...look at its link..i want to be able to overclock and not be held back by the ram...when overclocking the FSB you also overclock the rambus right?

Yeah I wouldnt really want to recomend RDRAM, with the price of RDRAM you could get a new setup. I really recomend a P4/DDR setup, in the long run it will be 2-3x faster then the celeron and be alot better choice. RDRAM on that motherboard looks like singlechannel, so all you need is one RDRAM stick. What I recomend:

- Pentium 4 2.0a Retail $180 (Googlegear.com
- SoltekSL-85MR2 i845G $92 (Newegg.com)
- 256MB Samsung PC2700 DDR333 $63 (Googlegear.com)

$335

That will rape the Celeron in anything possible

SSXeon

 

[PhoenixOfWater]

Look here...link...if you read it it said that a celeron 1.0A overclocked to 1.5 will be faster then AMD 1600+ and a P4 1.5...but the the sdram is very slower VS. the DDR..so i was hopeing if i use rambus i could get the mem as fast as DDR...thank you very much for try to save me money but i really do not want a P4 mobo right now, i am just playing with older hardware...its just something i want to try...but i need help...

To overclock rambus do you just up the FSB?
Can i get rambus to ran as fast as DDR on the ASUS mobo?
What kind should i buy?
If i buy 2 stick will it be faster then one on the ASUS mobo?
Any other thing that I should know?

That will rape the Celeron in anything possible

Yeah that would rape it but not to hard....
What about a P3 Ti 1.2 512K(I should have one comeing soon)

 

[SSXeon5]

Originally posted by: PhoenixOfWater
Look here...link...if you read it it said that a celeron 1.0A overclocked to 1.5 will be faster then AMD 1600+ and a P4 1.5...but the the sdram is very slower VS. the DDR..so i was hopeing if i use rambus i could get the mem as fast as DDR...thank you very much for try to save me money but i really do not want a P4 mobo right now, i am just playing with older hardware...its just something i want to try...but i need help...

OK

To overclock rambus do you just up the FSB? Yes pretty much and you can run it at 3x/4x he speed of the ram, like 100x4= 800Mhz RDRAM 100x3 = 600Mhz RDRAM

Can i get rambus to ran as fast as DDR on the ASUS mobo? Well not really, its a bit slower, but then again the P3/Celerons only have a total of 1.0gb/s bandwidth so the 3.2gb/s bandwidth of PC800 should help only a bit.

What kind should i buy? kind of ram? Get samsung 16-bit PC800 45/40ns ram.

If i buy 2 stick will it be faster then one on the ASUS mobo? No, all you need is one, it is singlechannel so no need to install in pairs. just get one

Any other thing that I should know? RDRAM isnt really that much faster then PC133, because of the slow 1.0gb/s P3 bandwidth, there is no need for another 2.2gb/s really, but if you want the fastest ram for the P3 I would say go with it then

Yeah that would rape it but not to hard....
What about a P3 Ti 1.2 512K(I should have one comeing soon)

Those tualatins might not work in that motherboard, you will need a motherboard that says it does "support tualatin P3"

SSXeon

 

[dexvx]

If your motherboard supports the 3X Rambus multiplier and you can get your computer to run at 166FSB, than you can use your RDRam at 3x166 = 500Mhz = PC1000. That should yield 2GB/sec bandwidth, which pretty much saturates the p3 bandwidth. PC800 Rambus is 1.6GB/sec bandwidth, 3.2GB/sec is the dual channel PC800 like in P4 systems. In general, I doubt RDRam will be much improvement if any over PC133 SDRam on a p3.

The interesting note is that if you go DUAL p3's, than RDRam can be pretty useful in saturating both processor's bandwidth since its a shared bus.

Tualatins work in any motherboard that a Tualatin based celeron can. So I wouldnt worry too much. Clock for clock, a Tualatin is probably the best processor available (it can stand toe to toe with lower Mhz XP's at speed).

 

[KGB1]

My RDRAM is a cheap product I guess anyhow I have 1 pair of Systek 128MB modules (256 together), I really dont overclock my system. Its at default 400 mhz. If you really want to overclock, (i dont see the point) get 2 256MB Corsair/Samsung RDRAM PC800 (1066 is really unnecessary, but its upgradeable), its very stable, and SiSandra proved it to be much faster than my run of the mill RDRAM, the memory bandwitdh was noticeably higher (alas it wasnt mine, my friend let me borrow it) This should do you fine.

If you can also get a 1.2 P3 512K, go for it, I could only afford a Celery T. Once you overclock, you go out of specification and the Corsair/Samsung 40ns or below can really help things stay stable, DONT use BIOS to set FSB or anything else, use the Blue jumper switches to set the FSB at 166, or 150 like I tried, but due to my "chassis" limitation I set it to 133. Be warned if the BIOS sees the FSB incorrectly, it will not boot and only go in BIOS automatically for you to change everything back to default, takes some time (20 minutes) to set things at optimal level and stability. Be patient and follow directions on the Power Leap adapter. Good luck

 

[jna]

Originally posted by: SSXeon5

Originally posted by: PhoenixOfWater
800 boards, like the i850 and i850E. When VIA's P4X600, SiS655, and Intels Granite bay come they will impliment duel channel DDR!
SSXeon

It should really be the P4X666 :/

 

[rogue1979]

I just read the link, and while the Celeron 1.0a did very well, in most of the benchmarks the Athlon XP 1500 and XP 1600 were faster. I would suggest a DDR board with the AMD 1600. The cpu is listed on pricewatch right now for $52. A 256MB stick of PC2700 goes for $52 also. The XP 1600 is clocked at 1400MHz stock and should make 1600MHz easily. It just so happens that I have two MSI 745 Ultras for sale for $49 each plus shipping. This board has all the overclocking goodies, 1MHz fsb adjustment, multiplier, DDR and core voltage adjustments. I have the core voltage mod on both of then which allows up to 2.05v. The 745 Ultra also has a 1/5 pci divider, and I have no problems running an easy 171MHz fsb. A nice upgrade for about $150 total, that's hard to beat, and future upgrades can include the XP 2600+ or more. I am going to upgrade to a 400MHz DDR board and a 2400+. If all goes well I plan to unlock the thoroughbred "B" and try for 2300-2400MHz on a 200MHz fsb. I wanna see how it does compared to those 2.8GHz P4s on a 533MHz fsb.