Asus P4T533-C & 1066 rdram

[Terrapin]

I have been planning on getting the P4T533-c, 1066 rdram and a Visiontek Ti4600 as well.

Is anyone else using the Geoforce 4, Visiontek Ti4600 with this setup and "NOT" having problems?

This is driving me crazy.

Terrapin

 

[Mantis01]

Here are the basics of the system I just completed:

P4 2.53GHZ
Asus P4T533-C FSB @ 533
BIOS Ver. 1003
OCZ 512MB PC1066 RDRAM
Chaintech GF4 Ti 4600

How can I find out what speed my 1066 RDRAM is running at? I ran WCPUID and it shows my memory at 400.92MHz. Does this mean 400MHz x multiplier, or would 400MHz be the total speed?
Is there anouther utility for getting information on memory that would be better?

I can only successfully boot to Win98se when the memory multiplier is set to Auto or 3X. What is the correct setting? I see everyone refering to Kingston and Samsung, has anyone else tried OCZ and have you had any problems?

Lots of questions. Can anyone help?

 

[AlexKN1]

best option to auto, auto is ticks on to turn on 3x when the fsb goes to may be like 150FSB for 133FSB p4 so the memory wouldn't be a limiting factor to overclocking.

Auto is same as 4x

 

[Bozo Galora]

MEM times FSB

3X = 3 times 133.33 = 400MHZ
4X = 4 times 133.33 = 533MHZ
FSB at say 158..........
4X = 632MHZ RDRAM
3X = 464MHZ RDRAM
normal is quad pumped for 133 bus CPU
this with 133 bus PCU
at 3X you are in effect underclocking your mem. for its rated latency.

 

[VSEKH]

I put a call into Asus support regarding the AGP Warning LED and the Visiontek TI4600. They believe this video card is not rated to run at 1.5 volts. I asked them if their 8460 TI4600 would work. They said that it is rated for 1.5 volts and would work with this video card. I tried to call Visiontek tech support for an answer on why this video card is not running at 1.5 volts, but I was waiting in their queue forever and hung up. Tried throughout the day, but no one ever picked up. I'm going to email them and wait 2 to 5 days for a response. It does not seem like anyone has gotten a Visiontek TI4600 to work in this motherboard yet.

 

[Terrapin]

VSEKH:

Thank you. You have just saved me a royal headache.

I have been very happy with my Visiontek Geoforce 3, and was hoping to stick with that company for my new system using a Geoforce 4. I also understood from some reviews that it ran cooler then most.

Anyone hear anything, good or bad, about the Asus Geo 4? I'm not interested in overclocking the Geoforce 4; just want a stable and cool Vid. Card.

Thanks guys. This information is awesome.

Terrapin

 

[Den]

I am running the following...

Pentium 4 2.53 GHz
ASUS P4T533-C Mobo
Kingston PC1066 Rdram non-ECC 256MB (two of them for a total of 512MB)
ASUS V8460 Ultra (gforce 4 TI4600)

Note, in my discussion below, I have 3 different sets of RAM. Some PC800-45 ram (also from Kingston) and two sets of Kingston PC1066 ram.

It is finally all working well. I had to RMA the MB AND!! the first set of RDRAM. The old motherboard was flaky at x4 (533/1066) speed, and after a few days started having problems with PC800 ram at x3 (400/800). So, I RMA'ed it and had previously RMA'ed the RAM, but I got to keep the old ram temporarily (Kingston was very helpful and agreed to ship out the new ram first and let me ship back the old ram later).

So, got the new mb in, it works fine at x3 with PC800 ram. It does not run stable with my first set of Kingston at x4 (PC1066/533 MHZ), but, it does finally run stable with the second set of Kingston PC1066.

Now, some overclocking info. This system ran very stable with a 140 FSB when I was using the PC800 ram at 3x (at PC840/420), but with the x4 PC1066 (running at PC1120/560) it would have problems in 5-10 min in Prime 95. So I lowered the FSB to 138 and prime 95 ran through the torture test for about 20 hours with no problems. But, after another 15 hours or so (running real prime95 not torture test) it got an error. So, I lowered the FSB to 136 memory still at 4x (PC1088/544) and it has been stable that way.

The ASUS V8460 Ultra video card is working well, no problems whatsoever through all my different configurations. Seems to be fast and stable. I ran 3DMark 2001 SE and got 12081 so I am very happy. Have been playing some Aquanox since it came with the card, and it is getting very good frame rates at 1024x768 with all details on max. So far the ASUS video card has been very good and stable for me.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

Den

 

[jbond04]

Den, I'm wondering if perhaps the RAM is holding back my system as well. My 2.53Ghz can get to 2.75GHz stable (145FSB) w/ the RAM running at PC1160 speeds, but will go not a MHz higher, no matter what the CPU voltage is... I'm thinking about cooling my RAM somehow, but I'm not quite sure. Any ideas?

 

[Den]

Not sure how best to cool it, I bet there is some kind of heatsink available though. Also, consider cooling the Northbridge (thinks that the right name, the main chipset chip near the cpu with it's own little passive heatsink) mine gets pretty darn hot at PC1066 speeds....
I had a prime95 error earlier today with the FSB only at 136! I am starting to wonder if I still have a bad component...

 

[jbond04]

For sure, something else besides the CPU is holding back my system (and possibly yours). Whether the bottleneck lies in the RAM, CPU, or PLL is going to be pretty tough to determine. I guess I could try to lower my RAM multiplier to 3x and then boot the system to see if that's the problem. From there, the only thing left to be the bottleneck would be the stability of the motherboard at high FSB speeds. Maybe I'll try it out later to see exactly what is holding back the overclock.

 

[Den]

Well, I know it is not the CPU for me, I ran rock solid at 140FSB with PC800 at x3 speed, prime 95 for 5 days with no errors.
Just curious, how do you know at 145 FSB your CPU is not the limiting factor?

 

[Den]

Update: System is stable at 136 FSB with ram at x4 (PC1066) for 4 days staraight of Prime 95 now. Yeah!!!

 

[SpaceShot]

Well I just ordered my p42.26 and 512MB of pc1066 (Kingston's KVR1066 stuff) along with of course a p4t533-c (the point of the thread).

wish me luck! I hope the parts work out!

I've read through the tips and it seems the first order of business is get it to POST once and then go in and change the ram multiplier to x4? Man I'm so used to letting the bios just do its thing but this time I am out for performance so I will let you all know my results.

For the first few weeks I will be running on a measly gef2 mx but my goal is to get a gef4 ti4400 soon.

I've never been an overclocker, but the results people are having with stock cooling might give me the encouragement to try it later.

 

[Den]

Good Luck. You are correct, the main thing is get it to POST, go into bios and set the RDRAM multiplier to 4x. (It is on the advanced tab).
You may find it helpful to change the jumper that makes POST voice report come out the beeper (pc speaker), that way you can hear it say "System Failed Memory Test" and know it's time to reset and try again. Do be sure to have the system speaker hooked up when you first power on so you can hear beeps and such, it is hard to know what is going on if you just have a black screen and can't hear the beeps.

Also, as far as overclocking goes, my system is supposed to run at 133 FSB, the fastest I could go and still have it completely stable (with the PC1066) is 136FSB, so if you do try overclocking be aware that you may not get very far. Also, I highly recomend running the Prime 95 torture test for at least 24 hours to see if the computer is really stable or not.

Break a leg

 

[VC15]

I got the P4T533-C and my RDram and it worked right from the start, no problems what so ever. (knock on wood)

I got the antec case, 350PS, new drive, new GF4-4200 vid card, etc.. i put it all together, with a 2.26 P4. and it
worked on the very first boot. when it booted, i set the mem/cpu and other goodies in the Bios, and it is super stable
ever since, oh by the way, i set the CPU speed manually and did not rely on the Auto feature.

I think the better the components (including memory) the better your odds of getting this motherboard to work with your memory.. and other equipment...

 

[Den]

What kind of RDRAM are you using?

 

[SpaceShot]

thanks for the update! my stuff comes in tuesday (i thought friday but ugh now have to wait three more days). i havent ordered a video card. going to use my gef2 in the interim. but i have been bouncing back and forth between saving some cash and getting a ti4200 or going for it with a ti4400. i think the 4600 is just too much to pay even though i'd love to get it.

 

[Den]

I would recomend the 4400 since it is not that much more than the 4200. And when you get the 4200 you have to choose between either 128MB of very low clocked ram, or 64MB of faster ram. With the 4400 you get 128MB of fast ram and a faster GPU to boot...

 

[Terrapin]

Finally got around to ordering my gear today, and the tech at the Comp. Store told me they were getting a lot of varying results using Kingston 1066. You do remember Asus first posting on its board that the P4T533-C officially only supported Samsung. Perhaps there was actually something to that. From what I've read, Kingston is using Toshiba parts. This tech guy was saying that even systems he was able to get running with the Kingston, were experiencing wierd stuff like corrupted files when running windows.

While Samsung won't be shipping for a week or two, it appears that the Corsair rdram uses the Samsung parts. This tech put together a few systems today using Corsaire and is gonna run some tests. If all looks good, I'm gonna go that route instead of using Kingston.

Also, the Tech was aware of the issue with Visionteks Geo4 not running at the 1.5 volts the Asus board requires; and interestingly, he didn't think the Asus board ran at 1.5 either. That doesn't make sense; so maybe he was wrong there. Think I'll go with Gainwood anyway.

Terrapin

 

[Bozo Galora]

theres a new beta bios up.......... 1005 -02

 

[VC15]

I got the Kingston RDram, but i'm not OC' it... i will wait for some Samsung mem-sticks... i have to do work, so i can't mess with my system for 3 months making it work

 

[Den]

Great info Terapin, please follow up when you hear back about the Mushkin. I got another error in Prime 95 running at 136 FSB, so I am back down to 133. Hopefully I will not get errors at this speed or I will be really mad! You may sugest to your tech friend that the prime 95 torture test is the easiest way to see if the RAM is stable or not...

 

[Den]

Originally posted by: Bozo Galora
theres a new beta bios up.......... 1005 -02

As usual the ASUS website for BIOS is down (at least the one the US site directs you to), but here is a Link to a directory with 1005-02 in it.

 

[Terrapin]

Originally posted by: Terrapin
Also, the Tech was aware of the issue with Visionteks Geo4 not running at the 1.5 volts the Asus board requires; and interestingly, he didn't think the Asus board ran at 1.5 either. That doesn't make sense; so maybe he was wrong there. Think I'll go with Gainwood anyway.

FYI: The Tech was wrong. He was thinking of a different Asus Vid. Card. The Asus Geo 4 does run at 1.5 volts.

Just wanted to set the record straight on that one.

Terrapin

 

[jbond04]

Originally posted by: Den

Just curious, how do you know at 145 FSB your CPU is not the limiting factor?

Because I don't have to increase the voltage to get it to 2.75GHz.