So I spend 300 bucks and...

[bushwickbill]

I went down and purchased 3 1gb sticks of ddr2 Kingston KVR667D2N5/1g And a Zalman CNPS 9500 LED. So now I have 4gb of 667 Ram and a cooler CPU. So the problem is, Before these parts I had only 2gb of ddr2, 1gb of 533, 1gb of 667. I was able to overclock the Ram to 710Mhz. So the 533 stick was maxed at 710 mhz at 2.1 volts(which is good for a 533 stick,right?), CPU speed of 2.84Ghz. So why is it now with 4 gb of 667 I can't even hit 2.7 Ghz?? I haven't tried too many different speeds but right now it is running at 2.6Ghz, Ram is at 650Mhz 4,4,4,12 at 1.9 volts. What could have happened?? I was hoping to be able to overclock my ram to at least 720-730Mhz and more if possible. I know before my 533 stick was limiting my overclock to 2.8Ghz, But there is no way 667 Ram can't run at 676Mhz for a CPU speed of 2.7Ghz. Something else is going on. I need the expert advice from the forums to help me through this. I know the first question on your mind probably is"Why did he buy 3 sticks of 667 when he could've bought DDR2 800Mhz for probably the same price." Well funds are tight and I already had a stick of 667, so three more makes four. I would have had to buy 4 gb of DDR 2 800Mhz which is just out of my budget range. I want the four GB for when I install Vista for Cysis, I am sure two GB would not run that game smooth with Vista being a hog already. So Does anybody have some suggestions I could try to get My rig over this "Hump" that all of a sudden appeared when I put in some faster Ram and a Zalman Cooler Thanx everybody

 

[dflynchimp]

It seems that overclocking with 4 sticks of RAM never yields as good results as with two sticks. you could try for memory ratios that give you 667 for ram...

 

[trOver]

2x2gb > 4x1gb

 

[TC91]

yah i am in a similar situation. my kvr 5300 can do 800mhz+ easily on 2 sticks @ 2.0-2.2v but 4 sticks can only do ~750mhz at most even @ 2.2v. anymore voltage doesnt help whatsoever. running 4 sticks does stress ur motherboard and ram sticks quite a bit more as well. however the difference in the ram speeds will not give you a great deal of performance so dont worry about it too much. more ram imo is better than faster ram and for gaming ram speeds are not as important as the vid card or cpu.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

DO NOT mix the 3 N5 Kingston with your other "unknown" 1GB module. Use two or four N5 Kingston modules for best performance. Clear CMOS and reset BIOS. Manually set your ram voltage to 2.0 and timing to 4-4-4-12-2T. These N5 modules should be stable up to 400MHz or better with two sticks. Expect to see at least 385MHz with four N5 DDR2 667 modules. Test will two N5 sticks to confirm that you could run @ 355MHz/2.0V/4-4-4-12-2T. If okay, then remove one of the N5 stick and replace it with the 3rd stick. Retest. You should also run memtest86 test#5 for 50 loops to check the memory. If there is no problem, then bump FSB up by 5MHz. Adjust Vcore as needed to achieve stability. Always use Memtest86 to check RAM stability. At some point, you will run out of CPU voltage or exceed the capability of the RAMs.

The other variable could be the BIOS or the inability of the MB to run four sticks of memory. Update to the latest and retest. Kingston's N5 is a very high quality RAM and should work well with many boards. P5B is just an okay board.

 

[bushwickbill]

all four sticks are the same DDR 2 667 n5. Sorry I wasn't clear on that

 

[Rhoxed]

4 sticks gave me horrible overclocks when compared to 2 sticks. see how far you get with just 2 of the sticks then retest with 4.

 

[clarkey01]

Originally posted by: Rhoxed
4 sticks gave me horrible overclocks when compared to 2 sticks. see how far you get with just 2 of the sticks then retest with 4.

I am going to go to 4gb myself

Crucial Ballistix 4GB (4x1GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C4 800MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT12864AA804)

Will this damage my overclock?

 

[myocardia]

Wait, why did you think that you'd magically be able to use less vdimm, just because you were using matched sticks? You're still overclocking your RAM. You're also going to have to raise your northbridge voltage by at least .1v. I think it's called vmch, on your motherboard, but I'm not sure about that. Check with someone who has your board, to be sure.

 

[stevty2889]

Your ram is rated at cas 5 at 1.8v, you are trying to run at cas 4 at 1.9v with 4 sticks, when you were using 2.1v for 3 sticks. 4 sticks also puts more strain on your memory controller..you should at least try running it at it's stock timings before you complain that it won't run where you want it to. You dropped the voltage, increased the number of modules, and you kept the timings that you had set before..

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Originally posted by: bushwickbill
all four sticks are the same DDR 2 667 n5. Sorry I wasn't clear on that

Raise Vcore to 2.1V/4-4-4-12-2T and retest with two N5 sticks. See how far you can overclock. Use memtest86 to test RAM at higher FSB. Four modules will lower your overclock speed by about 10 to 20MHz FSB (more stress on chipset and RAMs). I didn't have any problem pushing four N5 667s on Abit IP35-E up to 408MHz @ 2.0V/4-4-4-12-2T.

 

[ginfest]

As has been suggested I would defintely try to go 2.1 vdimm even 2.2 if you need it but keep it cool. and the NB/chipset voltages can be increased a notch or 2, again depending on the temps
I'm surprised folks are having so much trouble with 4x1Gb sticks?
I have 4x1GB GSkill "HZ" (Micron D9 chips) on my P5K at 4-4-4-12 2.0 vdimm and they are working fine at 450 Mhz
I also ran them on my P5B but only at 400 FSB before I had my quad. I originally had 2x1GB on the P5B and added the second pair but saw no problems when I did.

 

[bushwickbill]

Hey ginfest, Since you had a P5B before. Could you please help me with raising the North bridge volts. I have been looking in the Bios and can't seem to find them. And Thank you to everybody else who helped with some advice:}

 

[SerpentRoyal]

N5s generally don't need additional voltage at NB, but you should definitely try the higher voltage so you can rule out that failure mode. OCZ stuffs are more dependent on high NB voltage.

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: trOver
2x2gb > 4x1gb

Not that ive seen, most resonably priced 2GB modules OC like crap.