DDR500..which is the best?

[Tony]

In this thread im going to show 3 different brands of ram all at ddr500.If i can get Geil 3700 I will try and show 4.
To start with i have volt modded the P4P800 to give over 3Vdimm at 2.85V setting in bios..some may think this unfair! Im going to use it as i want to show all the modules stable and at the best timings i could achieve.CPU is 2.6C at 1.6V 250fsb ram 1:1.

For starters we have Twinmos PC3700 bought from Komplett UK (http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?action=info&p=32933&t=1014&l=2&AvdID=1&CatID=17&GrpID=9&s=pl) This ram is cheap and readily avaialble.
To acheive ddr500 and 2.5-7-3-3 timings it needed the full force of the voltmod.This shows 3.2V on my multimeter..3.1V was not stable.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/ad.leach/ram%20comparison/twinmos3700a.JPG

While the ram only showed 2600MB/s in memtest 86 it has a good showing in sandra.Running on CAT 3.4 and stock clocks here is the best of 3 3dMark runs i made.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/ad.leach/ram%20comparison/TwiMOSddr500.JPG

As you see pretty respectable..all 3 runs were within 25 marks of each other, so pretty consistent results.
Next up super pi 8M test.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/ad.leach/ram%20comparison/TwinMOSsuperpi.JPG

Again a respectable time and a good baseline to compare the other modules against.

Next up OCZ3700Gold

[Duvie]

Wow 3.1v!! Is that a lot Bigtoe or are the manufacturers stating the dimms can handle more vdimm??? That takes a special board for that much vdimm adjustment...

I am mainly surprised that there are that many ddr chips now capable of ddr500 to begin with....

Looking forward to see the rest.....

[Tony]

As promised now we have OCZ 3700 Gold.These are samples supplied by OCZ but do show consistent results with what full retail modules are doing.Vdimm this time is 3.05V which is right on the warranty limit offered by OCZ.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/ad.leach/ram%20comparison/OCZ3700a.JPG

As you see with lower voltage I was able to achieve faster timings.While the Buffered scores are very close the unbuffered tells a diferent story ;) Memtest 86 showed 3098MB/s..lets see the effect on 3dmark.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/ad.leach/ram%20comparison/OCZ37003d.JPG

Again the best of 3 runs is posted..here we see the OCZ having a 200 point lead over the TwinMOS..all setting are still identical, just diferent ram and better timings/bandwidth.

Finally super pi.Again the 8M test.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/ad.leach/ram%20comparison/OCZ3700superpi.JPG

A full 8 sec's are gained with the OCZ3700, im VERY sure over an 8hr mpeg2 encode the gains would be a lot higher..

I have been promised Corsair 3700 and as soon as it arrives i will post results.

[Tony]

Originally posted by Duvie
Wow 3.1v!! Is that a lot Bigtoe or are the manufacturers stating the dimms can handle more vdimm??? That takes a special board for that much vdimm adjustment...

I am mainly surprised that there are that many ddr chips now capable of ddr500 to begin with....

Looking forward to see the rest.....

Its well above the warranty limit for most dimms.I have vdimm modded the board and will be posting the mod in the mods forum.

Its VERY easy to do..as long as you have a steady hand and are good with a soldering iron....me..I just get PiLsY to do it for me...LOL

[LastRide]

Nice testing bigtoe.:)

[Tony]

I was going to use Aida32 but for the comparison sandra will do ok, plus this beta i have shows timings etc.

Im going to do a fuller version as a review showing modules without heatspreaders and the max they will do at 2.85V which is the boards true bios max.

[ThugsRook]

:eek2: 3.1v? :eek2:

what motherboards can run 3.1v?

aida32 shows cas settings under motherboard/chipset.

[Tony]

aparantly the p4c800 has a hidden vdimm option in bios for 2.95V...the board can do upto 3.3v easy btw.

[Hawk]

Originally posted by bigtoe
aparantly the p4c800 has a hidden vdimm option in bios for 2.95V...the board can do upto 3.3v easy btw.




2.95V, how do you get it to show. . . . .:wave:

[eva2000]

Originally posted by bigtoe
aparantly the p4c800 has a hidden vdimm option in bios for 2.95V...the board can do upto 3.3v easy btw. yup.. i should have a P4C800 to evaluate today or early next week it comes with a premodded bios with more voltage options. The vendor sending it to me uses this board to test xtremeddr pc3700 dual channel memory he stocks (I'm going to test 256mb and 512mb xtremeddr pc3700 dual channel pairs with this board that the vendor is supplying)

i'll stick my other memory on the board too at 2.95v to see how they go

2x 512MB Corsair XMS3500C2
4x 256MB OCZ PC3500 Premier
2x 256MB GEIL PC3500 Ultra Dual
2x 256MB OCZ PC3700 Gold

vbhard from OCAU, OC and Asusboards said i can save this modded bios using windows Asus flash utility right ? :)

[Tony]

you can do it with fudos also, but from what i remember the windows utility can save as well as flash the files

[Duvie]

But what is the limit most of these chips may be able to take...I guess one that hits ddr500 and stays under 3.0v or at it may be the winner based on safety for the chip even if the numbers are a hair lower...

[Tony]

Im going to do more tests at lower voltages also.With slacker timings the OCZ can still hit ddr500 at 2.75V.

[Duvie]

Can you list warranty speeds so I know when I am taking them way out of manufacturer specs??? Much appreciated!!!

[eva2000]

Originally posted by bigtoe
Im going to do more tests at lower voltages also.With slacker timings the OCZ can still hit ddr500 at 2.75V. 2.75 - 2.85v would be interesting to see

[eva2000]

Originally posted by bigtoe
you can do it with fudos also, but from what i remember the windows utility can save as well as flash the files fudos ? what's that ?

[vbhard]

Originally posted by eva2000
fudos ? what's that ?

I think he meant afudos command.....but windows utility would be much easier :cool:

wouldn't mind knowing the afudos command line as well :yummy:

[PiLsY]

Tolerance for the vdimm circuitry on both the P4C and P4P800 is fine to 3.8v. Going that high is pointless though.

You have to remember than some memory likes low volts, others high. A good example is the earlier OCZ sticks that got worse going much over 3v, whereas the likes of the Twinmos sticks just get better and better the higher you go. In general winbond BH6 chips will benefit from up to 3.6v, BH5 chips up to 3.4v, Samsung CTL up to 3.3v, Samsung DTL up to 3.1v. They are the only ones ive tested personally, so I cant comment on others. Just be aware that more is not always better.

And dont go thinking youll kill the memory stuffing volts through it. If your FSB is increasing with the extra voltage then youre safe. If your FSB isnt increasing, why bother going using higher volts? If FSB decreases then STOP as you are damaging the ram.

The above comments are true at ANY voltage. You may find a stick out there that loses some FSB going from 2.5 to 2.6v. If that is the case and you run it at 2.6v the stick will pop its clogs. The voltage youre adding doesnt matter, the individual sticks relationship with that voltage does. DO NOT ASSUME that because the board supplies up to 2.85v or whatever that that wont damage your ram. Go slowly, increase voltage a bit at a time (no more than 0.1v) checking for increases of FSB/stability/tighter timings along the way and you WILL be fine. When you stop gaining, stop adding voltage. I'll say it again, carry on adding voltage after youve stopped gaining speed from it and you WILL kill the memory, and ONLY then will you kill the memory.

I have vmodded practically everything thats worth vmodding (and quite a lot that isnt :p) and this holds true for every piece of hardware. You are always warned if its going to break, unless you get impatient and go too fast. Slow and steady is the name of the game with adjusting voltages. You will always get instability well before youll get flames.

PiLsY.