sis 655 ddr 400 confusion on no-frills boards

[acemcmac]

I am looking at the SIS 655 <$110 boards (MSI and the Gigabyte) because I have no interest in raid, HT or even integrated audio. However, I constantly hear conflicting reports about overclockability and the status of ddr400 and cas 2 support on these boards.

I plan to equip the board with a
Radeon 9700aiw
2x512 cas2 pc3200 corsairs
Pentium 4 between 2.4 and 2.8ghz and a socket 478 swiftech

My sole intention is to overclock to the 150-155 range to get the edge out over competing xp2400?s and 2500?s on nforce2 boards in both games and 3dmark.

I have two serious concerns:

What is the official deal with ddr400 and cas2 on these boards?
Will my ram function at these modes in any of these boards?
If there are any major discrepancies, which board is better?

Thanks for your help, as this is my first technical post ever and I really feel that I have exhausted all other avenues of advice.

 

[S4M33R]

screw p4 go amd, for your price range the overclockability of an amd proc + the performance and features of the nforce2 mobos will vastly superceed a pentium system after a mild overclock. escuse the poor grammatical struture please

 

[MistaTastyCakes]

I'm guessing those boards are very similar to mine, since they all use the same chipset. I'm using the Asus flavor, though.

I'm running at cas 2, but the rest of my settings are relaxed. I have basically the same setup CPU/mobo wise that you're looking for and it works great. I have a 2.4b running at 150mhz (2.7ghz) with some OCZ PC3200 running at 450mhz. I don't think these boards like REAL aggressive timings over 400mhz, but cas 2 is definately doable with good RAM.

If your Corsair memory is the LL type, put one stick in the first time you boot up, and then relax your memory timings. Then, put the other in to go into dual channel mode. The Corsair PC3200LL series has very aggressive timings, and since the boards default to the RAM's timings the first time you boot, you may experience some problems. This may not be nessecary, but I've read at asusboards.com that a few people have had this problem and that's how it was resolved. It'll work, but dual channel mode won't support super aggressive memory timings.. if you're big on benchmarks (I noticed you have 3DMark in mind) Sandra will not disappoint you, even if you're a bit relaxed.

I'd suggest the Gigabyte board myself, since I ordered an MSI before my Asus and the MSI came DOA.. second MSI mobo I've had that did that

So, to make a long post short (too late!) the answers to your questions are..

DDR400 works!
Your RAM will function fine, but don't push the timings too hard.
It's a toss up, but I think most people prefer the Gigabyte.

Hope this helps....welcome to anandtech

 

[nwfsnake]

My MSI board is running the dual Corsair pair at 400 and 2T. Rock solid stable. BUT.... it will not overclock at all. Best go with the Gigabyte or Asus board if you want overclocking ability.

 

[acemcmac]

I've got two 512MB 32MX8 PC-3200C2 sticks for it and as long as i can get dual ddr 400 with cas 2 and mild timings, I'll be a happy camper. I'm only really looking for fsb overclocking anyway.

thanks for the info all, you've been a big help

Gigabyte GA-8SQ800, 600mhz fsb and dual ddr 400: here i come

props to MistaTastyCakes!!!

 

[MistaTastyCakes]

You oughta be pleased with that setup