Winchester64 core and LowLat ram. Abit-AV8

[eric_c_mi]

Not too long ango I decided to build a system from scratch. I been out of the hardware loop for quite some time, as I've been unable to afford components. well, now i'm back, and im not scared to do a little research to make sure I have a fast and flexable system.

I recently bought a Abit AV8-3rd Eye Mobo. I decided against buying a SLI or PCIE mobo for the simple fact that i'm sure I will be just fine with 1 AGP slot. Plus I like having lots of pci slots onhand.

According to the latest THG Motherboard & Ram Guide, corsair is the only manufacturer who's ram could do 2.0ns at 200mhz. For this reason i'm planning on buying 2 Dual Channel 512MB LowLat chips, these are the same ones used in the most recent THG 989mobo article.

http://www20.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20040602/memory_modules-07.html

The RAM compatability tests that were done were with a AMD Athlon64 3400+ with the NewCastle Core. I found a few posts on other random overclockers sites saying they've had difficulty running LL ram at 2.0 with the Winchester Core. Causes instability, this however was not verified or measured.

So, my question is, will I get the same performance from my RAM using all the same equipment, but with a Winchester 3200+ vs. the Newcastle 3400+ used in the bench tests? And has anyone had any problems with this setup?

thanks in advance. Any input is greatly appreciated.
If winchester cannot support Corsair CRX512-LL's at 2.0 200Mhz dependably, I'll save my money and buy cheaper ram and run slower buz speeds to get 2.0ns or 2.5.

much love from flint michigan

Purchased: A-bit AV8-3rd Eye
Waiting to purchase if worth it: Corsair CMX512-3200
Purchase when funds avail.: AMD Athlon64 3200+ 989 512KB

 

[Robc1880]

You could also check out the Patriot Memory, they use the Samsung TCCD chips on theirs and the memory runs 2.0CL at 200Mhz. <A HREF="http://www.pdpsys.com/products/index.jsp?source=ep" target="_new">Patriot memory listings</A> The lowest latency they have is on the XBL memory.

Xaser 3 case with 420W TT PSU
AXP2500 (11*200 at 1.85v)
9800 Pro 128MB (418/372)
NF7-S v2.0
PDP DDR400 1GB(2-3-2-5)2.6v
Lite-On SOHW-832S
WD 80GB 8mb buffer caviar edition.

 

[eric_c_mi]

According to the THG guide from my following post (URL), you cannot always trust the manufacturer's speed and compatability claims. There were 3 or 4 manufacturers whose ram did not work at all at their recomended speeds with my chipset VIA K8T800.

 

[endyen]

Toms tested on rather new chips. With the odmc, a workin period is usually required, before optimal timings can be used. The numbers can also be squed by placing the ram further away from the chip. I'm not saying that that ram isn't great, with A64s, only that the testing may have been hasty. The results do suggest that the corsair memory might be able to hold those timings through a decent OC.
To be honest though, I have always felt that those "tests" were a shoddy attempt to justify the questionably ram, with lousy timings, that was used in the first A64 review. I am using generic pc3200 samsung ram (cas3 by spd) @ 222/444 and 2.5, 3, 3, 8.

 

[eric_c_mi]

222/444, are these your RAM speeds in Mhz ? 222 up from 200? I wouldn't mind running 2.5ns generic if I could speed my chips up.

 

[Crashman]

Don't confuse cycle time with...cycle time! 2.0ns is a basic cycle time for 500MHz SDRAM, ie DDR1000! DDR400 uses 5ns. Nanosecond are inversly proportional to MHz, divide 1 by the ns and move the decimal over, you get the rated frequency.

The 2.0 you refered to isn't nanoseconds, it's clock cycles. CAS 2.0 means the memory takes 2 cycles to initiate a transfer. That's why it's called CAS LATENCY.

There are several modules that can do CAS2.0 at 200MHz. For example, my Crucial Ballistix PC4000 (DDR500) can do CAS2.0 at 216MHz (DDR433).

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