RAM ratios, CAS latency, and puppies omy!

[SkuLLyRT]

..ok so maybe nothing about puppies, although mine just finished pee'ing on the carpet.. again. :\

But I do have a few questions about all this crazy overclocking stuff. First up, here's what I'm running..

P4 2.4C @ 3.2 w/ 1.625vcore
Abit IC7
512MB Corsair XMS PC3200 w/ 2.8vdimm

Now I've gotten my machine to run through dual Prime95 sessions for 24 hours on the 267MHz FSB with a RAM ratio of 1:1. Memory timings were 3-8-3-3.

I've also gotten the same to pass with a RAM ratio of 5:4 with memory timings of 2.5-8-3-3.

For whatever reason, if I try to bump the CAS latency down to 2 at either of those ratios, I got memory dump after memory dump. Same with playing with RAS -> CAS, RAS Precharge, and the cycle times.

Now my questions to all you overclocking gurus is this; given those two situations, which would you rather run in for pure performance? Should I try for tighter memory timings? Do any of you guys OC'ing on the same motherboard have any secrets to get more performance outta it?

Thanks for any help and advice you can give me.

- SkuLLy

 

[CraigRT]

well not sure if this helps you any, but I think running a higher CAS latency and more CPU speed is by far the better way to go.
if your CPU will not overclock any farther, but the memory still will, then by all means use CAS2.. but more importantly here is the FSB speed... IMO anyways.
run at the highest possible FSB speed with the tightest possible timings..if that's CAS2.5 then so be it

 

[SkuLLyRT]

would you happen to know off the top of your head what kind of performance difference we're looking at between CAS 3 - 2.5 - 2?

also, nice RT at the end of your name, what's that all about?

 

[canadianpsycho]

Thugsrook did some testing a while back that shows tighter timings can be better.

Personally, I'd say just benchmark the two and go with whatever is faster, since you can reach both speeds.

 

[charloscarlies]

Since you have an IC7...have you tried the turbo/speedracer settings? I'm pretty sure the speedracer setting requires a 1:1 ratio though. I fiddled with the same kind of thing a little while back, and I got marginally better peformance from the 1:1 with looser timings. 2.5-3-3-8 isn't much tighter than 3-3-3-8 and CAS isn't as important as RAS to CAS, etc.....so I'd just stick with the 1:1.

But like somebody else suggested...benchmark the two and stick with what's faster.

 

[SkuLLyRT]

what would you gentlemen recommend for benchmarking? best of 5 on 3dmark or something along those lines?