Abit NF7 and PC3200

[lukewarmdog]

I've never been able to get DDR 400 on this machine. It's no big deal to be honest, it runs happily at 333 but as I bought certified PC3200 I was wondering if anyone had actually got it working and what BIOS settings worked for anyone else.

The BIOS doesn't scare me so I've done my damndest in the past to get it up to 400 but to no avail.
My CPU is running at 166*12.5 as it's an XP2800 and setting the FSB / DRAM to 5/6 produces a figure of 400 - the speed I'd like my RAM to run at.. obviously.

I didn't buy the cheapest RAM, it's a pair of matched Corsairs and as I got (wooo...) free memory spreaders I slapped them on so I'm not thinking it's a case of them running hot, more likely a combination of BIOS settings to just get it right.

But I've not stumbled across them so far so was wondering if anyone had the magic setting..

Doesn't interfere with ANYTHING I might add so this isn't an issue, just a niggle that I've had as long as I've had the board.

Oh and the board does support PC3200, i checked that before I bought the memory and it is confirmed in the manual and I'm running the latest BIOS - v23 (rev 2.0 board). Nothing is overclocked (bit of a waste I know, I'll get round to it at some point..) so it's not that I've got something that might be expected to conflict anywhere else..

[Starfury_2260]

what do you put the multiplier to when you try to go to 400mhz?

[lukewarmdog]

Standard Settings to get 333Mhz

Soft Menu III Setup
==============
CPU = 2800+
166Mhz * 12.5
AGP = 66Mhz
CPU FSB/DRAM = Auto
CPU Interface = Enabled

Advance Chipset Features
===================
Memory Timing = Optimal
Row-active delay = 7
Ras-2-Cas delay = 3
Row Precharge Delay = 3
Cas Latency Time = 2.5

I can change CPU FSB/DRAM to "by SPD" or "5/6 (400 Mhz)"
If I change to by SPD then in the Advanced Chipset Features select by SPD the timings change from 7332.5 to 8333.0

I can of course choose "expert" at this point which I may need to do, once I've selected by SPD or 5/6 to get 400Mhz I may need to tweak the memory timings but not sure what I'd change them actually to hence asking if anyone else had come up with a magical combination.

Alternatively if there's a program to determine my memorys optimal timings, I'd have a play with that.

[Starfury_2260]

What do you put the multiplier to when you try to go to 400mhz? If you leave it on 12.5 when you increase to 400mhz this is making your cpu 2.5ghz. This is probably out of it's stable range, which is why your system wont run. If you lower the multiplier to 11 when you go to 400 mhz then you will have 2.2ghz which is the 3200+.

[lukewarmdog]

The way I'm looking at it is that I should be able to set the fsb for the cpu and memory seperately.
That is what I thought setting CPU FSB/DRAM was doing.
If the CPU is running at 166mhz and you divide by 5 and times by 6 you get 400mhz which seems like the answer to me, set this in SoftMenu III.

I didn't think I was affecting the CPU FSB by doing this.
Anyway it didn't do me any good, I ended up lowering the multiplier to about 10 and the system still doesn't like it but on the plus side I've decided it's time to see if I can run the CPU any higher and it's running at 166*13 at the moment (2158Mhz 2800+ default is 2083).

Sure it's not a massive improvement but if I can't ramp the memory up to 400Mhz I might as well compensate (and probably improve any gains the faster memory would give me) by running the CPU faster. Just need to keep an eye on the temperature now.