Ram Divider?

[QurazyQuisp]

What exactly is a ram divider? I see people typing about them, but have yet to figure out exactly what it is?

 

[GuitarDaddy]

It runs your ram at a slower speed than HTT/FSB. Example a 6:5 divider (labeled as 166 on most boards) runs your ram at 5/6 of HTT, so if your HTT/FSB is at 240mhz your ram would be at 200mhz(DDR400). Dividers are very useful in overclocking, especially if you have low end ram.

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
It runs your ram at a slower speed than HTT/FSB. Example a 3:2 divider (labeled as 166 on most boards) runs your ram at 2/3 of HTT, so if your HTT/FSB is at 250mhz your ram would be at 200mhz(DDR400). Dividers are very useful in overclocking, especially if you have low end ram.

I notice your board is the same as mine (A8N-SLI Deluxe). Could you tell me how to set it? Is it that 'max fsb' setting?

Last night my hard disk got corrupted (interestingly just the whole WinXP \Windows dir) by too much overclocking...what do you guys do to make sure Windows doesn't crap out after you set your BIOS? Is there some kind of program that will stress 100% CPU but not go in to Windows? Maybe a Linux bootable CD version? Memtest would only stress my memory, not my CPU, so I could still crash and corrupt my hard disk when I go in to Windows, correct?

Thanks, much appreciated.

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
It runs your ram at a slower speed than HTT/FSB. Example a 3:2 divider (labeled as 166 on most boards) runs your ram at 2/3 of HTT, so if your HTT/FSB is at 250mhz your ram would be at 200mhz(DDR400). Dividers are very useful in overclocking, especially if you have low end ram.

Pardon me for these corrections, but just in case someone reads your statement & gets confused:

A 3:2 RAM divider is known as 133 in the bios, not 166.
166 is a 6:5 divider 😉

And if your HTT was at 250 MHz, your RAM would be @ 166ish if using the 133 divider, & 207ish if using a 166 divider.

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: xtknight

Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
It runs your ram at a slower speed than HTT/FSB. Example a 3:2 divider (labeled as 166 on most boards) runs your ram at 2/3 of HTT, so if your HTT/FSB is at 250mhz your ram would be at 200mhz(DDR400). Dividers are very useful in overclocking, especially if you have low end ram.

I notice your board is the same as mine (A8N-SLI Deluxe). Could you tell me how to set it? Is it that 'max fsb' setting?

Last night my hard disk got corrupted (interestingly just the whole WinXP \Windows dir) by too much overclocking...what do you guys do to make sure Windows doesn't crap out after you set your BIOS? Is there some kind of program that will stress 100% CPU but not go in to Windows? Maybe a Linux bootable CD version? Memtest would only stress my memory, not my CPU, so I could still crash and corrupt my hard disk when I go in to Windows, correct?

Thanks, much appreciated.

If your Windows install was corrupted, that's likely due to the SATA port your HDD is on not being locked.

Check in the mobo sub-forum or on Xtremesystems to see if you can find out which SATA ports are locked, & which are not.

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: n7

Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
It runs your ram at a slower speed than HTT/FSB. Example a 3:2 divider (labeled as 166 on most boards) runs your ram at 2/3 of HTT, so if your HTT/FSB is at 250mhz your ram would be at 200mhz(DDR400). Dividers are very useful in overclocking, especially if you have low end ram.

Pardon me for these corrections, but just in case someone reads your statement & gets confused:

A 3:2 RAM divider is known as 133 in the bios, not 166.
166 is a 6:5 divider 😉

And if your HTT was at 250 MHz, your RAM would be @ 166ish if using the 133 divider, & 207ish if using a 166 divider.

I'm really confused...how do you get 133 out of 3:2? Either that or I need to re-take Algebra 1. 🙂

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Doh😱 you are correct, I will fix it

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: n7

Originally posted by: xtknight

Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
It runs your ram at a slower speed than HTT/FSB. Example a 3:2 divider (labeled as 166 on most boards) runs your ram at 2/3 of HTT, so if your HTT/FSB is at 250mhz your ram would be at 200mhz(DDR400). Dividers are very useful in overclocking, especially if you have low end ram.

I notice your board is the same as mine (A8N-SLI Deluxe). Could you tell me how to set it? Is it that 'max fsb' setting?

Last night my hard disk got corrupted (interestingly just the whole WinXP \Windows dir) by too much overclocking...what do you guys do to make sure Windows doesn't crap out after you set your BIOS? Is there some kind of program that will stress 100% CPU but not go in to Windows? Maybe a Linux bootable CD version? Memtest would only stress my memory, not my CPU, so I could still crash and corrupt my hard disk when I go in to Windows, correct?

Thanks, much appreciated.

If your Windows install was corrupted, that's likely due to the SATA port your HDD is on not being locked.

Check in the mobo sub-forum or on Xtremesystems to see if you can find out which SATA ports are locked, & which are not.

Really? Well it makes sense that when something in the memory is corrupted and a program takes that corrupted data from memory it could screw up the file or I assume some part of the MBR is also stored in memory before it's written. You must be talking about something else...

It seems to good to be true to have a method of preventing that.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Originally posted by: xtknight

I notice your board is the same as mine (A8N-SLI Deluxe). Could you tell me how to set it? Is it that 'max fsb' setting?

Last night my hard disk got corrupted (interestingly just the whole WinXP \Windows dir) by too much overclocking...what do you guys do to make sure Windows doesn't crap out after you set your BIOS? Is there some kind of program that will stress 100% CPU but not go in to Windows? Maybe a Linux bootable CD version? Memtest would only stress my memory, not my CPU, so I could still crash and corrupt my hard disk when I go in to Windows, correct?

Thanks, much appreciated.

The dividers on the A8N are on the DDR settings page along with the ram timings and they are labeled as follows

DDR400 = 1:1 = 200 on most boards
DDR333 = 6:5 = 166
DDR266 = 3:2 = 133
DDR200 = 2:1 = 100

And most of the time hard disk corruption occurs when ram craps out causing blue screen errors. You can run memtest86 from a bootable DOS floppy to test your ram settings.

 

[n7]

xtknight:
133/200 = .66
.66 = 2/3
2/3 of 200 MHz = 133 😉

With regards to SATA & OCing:
I don't recall what bus speed the SATA operates on, but when you raise the HTT, you are also raising the SATA bus speed, unless the port is locked (same concept as PCI/AGP locks).
Simply put, you are overclocking the port the HDD is on...which doesn't go over well with the HDD.
If someone can explain this better, or i am wrong, pls. correct me.

 

[xtknight]

GuitarDaddy:

Awesome...thanks. Does your system freeze when setting a timing option in A64 Tweaker?

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Originally posted by: n7


If your Windows install was corrupted, that's likely due to the SATA port your HDD is on not being locked.

Check in the mobo sub-forum or on Xtremesystems to see if you can find out which SATA ports are locked, & which are not.

They are all locked ( all 8 of them) as long as you set HTT to 201 or higher in bios.

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: n7
xtknight:
133/200 = .66
.66 = 2/3
2/3 of 200 MHz = 133 😉

With regards to SATA & OCing:
I don't recall what bus speed the SATA operates on, but when you raise the HTT, you are also raising the SATA bus speed, unless the port is locked (same concept as PCI/AGP locks).
Simply put, you are overclocking the port the HDD is on...which doesn't go over well with the HDD.

oh duh lol..I was thinking of DDR400 and 400 MHz...i forgot it's really only 200..
ohh...so is there some option in the BIOS to lock it? i noticed this one weird option it's like...synchronize to 33MHz (one of the settings of that option) or something...maybe GuitarDaddy has an idea of what that was...that could be it.

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy

Originally posted by: n7


If your Windows install was corrupted, that's likely due to the SATA port your HDD is on not being locked.

Check in the mobo sub-forum or on Xtremesystems to see if you can find out which SATA ports are locked, & which are not.

They are all locked ( all 8 of them) as long as you set HTT to 201 or higher in bios.

Ah i see. So then he has other issues...

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Originally posted by: xtknight
GuitarDaddy:

Awesome...thanks. Does your system freeze when setting a timing option in A64 Tweaker?

Sometimes, sometimes not


I,ve gotten to where I only make multi, timing, and voltage changes in bios. The only thing I change in windows is the HTT

 

[xtknight]

My PC crashed when my multi was 9.5 and HTT was 232 MHz. My RAM timings I thought were quite conservative at 3-3-4-7 (pretty sure that was it). gee i've seen this PQI TCCD RAM go to to like 290 at lower timings than that. i had no idea that was going to kill my Windows. Also I need someone to explain the LDT HyperTransport Bus speed (3x, 4x, 5x) to me. 🙁 Then I'm all set (I think). 😉 What does it do when voltage is set to auto? The lowest voltage? That's what I had it set at, maybe that's why my RAM crapped out at what seemed like prematurely. Also this A8N-SLI Deluxe board has a problem with the command rate setting doesn't it? I tried setting to 1T and it wouldn't even POST at the default settings. Sorry for going a little off topic.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Originally posted by: n7

Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy

Originally posted by: n7


If your Windows install was corrupted, that's likely due to the SATA port your HDD is on not being locked.

Check in the mobo sub-forum or on Xtremesystems to see if you can find out which SATA ports are locked, & which are not.

They are all locked ( all 8 of them) as long as you set HTT to 201 or higher in bios.

Ah i see. So then he has other issues...

Yeah, this board is wierd when it comes to the PCI/PCIe locks. And by the way the SATA drives run on the PCI bus. There are settings on the jumperfree page of the bios to lock the PCI/PCIe at 33.33mhz and 100mhz respectively, but they don,t work if you boot up at stock 200mhz. If you boot up with stock settings and overclock in windows the buses aren't locked and you will have problems above about 220mhz. But if you up the HTT to 201 in bios, then you can overclock in windows no problem

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Originally posted by: xtknight
My PC crashed when my multi was 9.5 and HTT was 232 MHz. My RAM timings I thought were quite conservative at 3-3-4-7 (pretty sure that was it). gee i've seen this PQI TCCD RAM go to to like 290 at lower timings than that. i had no idea that was going to kill my Windows. Also I need someone to explain the LDT HyperTransport Bus speed (3x, 4x, 5x) to me. 🙁 Then I'm all set (I think). 😉 What does it do when voltage is set to auto? The lowest voltage? That's what I had it set at, maybe that's why my RAM crapped out at what seemed like prematurely. Also this A8N-SLI Deluxe board has a problem with the command rate setting doesn't it? I tried setting to 1T and it wouldn't even POST at the default settings. Sorry for going a little off topic.

Did you boot up at stock and O/C in windows? (see my previous post)

HTT x LDT = Hypertransport speed (stock) 200x5=1000
When overclocking you should always lower the LDT to keep your HT speed <=1000
for HTT 201-250mhz use 4x, for HTT 250-325mhz use 3x

The 1T problem only comes into effect between 240-250mhz depending on your particular board and ram, my 1T limit with OCZ TCCD is 244mhz. You should'nt have any problems running 1T at stock speeds.

If your ram won't run 1T at stock speeds, youv'e got a problem with your ram.

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy

Originally posted by: xtknight
My PC crashed when my multi was 9.5 and HTT was 232 MHz. My RAM timings I thought were quite conservative at 3-3-4-7 (pretty sure that was it). gee i've seen this PQI TCCD RAM go to to like 290 at lower timings than that. i had no idea that was going to kill my Windows. Also I need someone to explain the LDT HyperTransport Bus speed (3x, 4x, 5x) to me. 🙁 Then I'm all set (I think). 😉 What does it do when voltage is set to auto? The lowest voltage? That's what I had it set at, maybe that's why my RAM crapped out at what seemed like prematurely. Also this A8N-SLI Deluxe board has a problem with the command rate setting doesn't it? I tried setting to 1T and it wouldn't even POST at the default settings. Sorry for going a little off topic.

Did you boot up at stock and O/C in windows? (see my previous post)

HTT x LDT = Hypertransport speed (stock) 200x5=1000
When overclocking you should always lower the LDT to keep your HT speed <=1000
for HTT 201-250mhz use 4x, for HTT 250-325mhz use 3x

The 1T problem only comes into effect between 240-250mhz depending on your particular board and ram, my 1T limit with OCZ TCCD is 244mhz. You should'nt have any problems running 1T at stock speeds.

If your ram won't run 1T at stock speeds, youv'e got a problem with your ram.

No, I set everything in the BIOS. OK maybe I tried 1T with overclocked settings. I can't remember... Some day I'll download a Linux bootable CD for stress testing. Hopefully the Linux kernel will just boot itself in to memory and nothing will even be written to disk. That way I won't have this Windows dying trouble. I do NOT want to deal with that again. I hate reinstalling Windows and more so all my programs and games. Any idea why my Windows BSOD'd when it got to desktop, then died at next boot with such conservative RAM settings? Could it have been the RAM voltage or LDT? I think the LDT was set at 5x. From my understanding it should have been 4x? My HTT was 232 MHz. What if LDTxHTT>1000? And what does the 1000 signify specifically? Thanks for the help.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Yes it could very well be that your LDT was set at 5x, 232x5=1160 that can definately cause BSOD. The 1000mhz, I believe is the speed that the CPU comunicates with the memory controller ?, all I know is that if you get it too high it causes BSOD, and you can run it as low as 600-700 and it has little negative effect on performance