GigaByte 8PE667 ULTRA - TOP PERFORMANCE SETTINGS?

[xpeter]

I have a very specific question and hope someone can help me. I bought me the GigaByte 8PE667 ULTRA mainboard
a month ago and installed 2 x 256 MB DDR-SDRAM TwinMOS (CAS 2.5). I set the TOP PERFORMANCE in BIOS to
ENABLE and everything was running perfect without problems. Yesterday I bought one more 256 MB RAM module the
same as the other two installed it into the mainboard and the system stopped booting. If I replaced the new RAM with
one of the others so there was only 2 x 256 MB DDR-SDRAM everything was running if there were 3 x 256 MB DDR-SDRAM
the system stoped booting but the BIOS initial memory check always completed OK.

Then I set the TOP PERFORMANCE to DISABLE and the system started booting.

Can anyone give me an idea what's wrong here and what does the TOP PERFORMANCE setting in GigaByte BIOS exactly
mean? I don't thing the memory module can be fault but with 2 x 256 MB DDR-SDRAM the TOP PERFORMANCE is running
with 3 x 256 MB DDR-SDRAM it's not possible any more. Where can be the problem?

 

[xpeter]

bump!

 

[nealh]

it maybe too aggressive memory timings with TOP Performance for 3 sticks of ram....just manually setting the ram timings to figure out which one is a problem

BTW how do you like this mobo...it has RAID which allows ATA connections right...your version has everything but Firewire right??

any cold boot problems ..are you overclocking??

 

[xpeter]

OK I try something with the timings, but do you thing that the problem is only because of 3 sticks of RAM?
When I use only 2 sticks in any combination everything is running fine with TOP PERFORMANCE ENABLED.

I like the MB very much I actually don't overclock but the board is perfect stable and has many features
like 10 x USB 2.0, RAID controller (simple and easy to use also for common devices eg CDRW, DVD etc),
integrated LAN etc. GigaByte is my favourite MB manufacturer and I like their products also the graphic
cards based on the ATI chips are great.

 

[nealh]

While I can not speak regarding this board specifically but I have read the populating all 3 memory slots has caused problems on ther boards whether o/cing or using same or even different ram modules..I suspect it taxes some setting that causes the ram not work at peak performance...I would bet if you use any combination of 2 sticks of your ram it will run at Top perfromance but 3 hits a wall so to speak...

One way to check the 3 module is place it alone on the mobo and try Top performance then add a second stick and see what happens

your board does not have FW does it?

 

[xpeter]

Fine I'll check that and try what can be the fault.

You are right the board does not have a FireWire that's the only negative on it. I would also appriciate
a Bluetooth but you can replace it with a small USB adapter so I never mind this. If you need FW I
would buy an SOundBlaster Audigy that has one external connector on the back of the card and
one internal which you can connect to a front FW in your case if it is possible. I have an 3R SYSTEM
AUDI XP casem - you'll also find it at www.ahanix.com and use the
2 front USB connectors which is really great. And there you have also 1 FW connector.

 

[gbird]

A FAQ on the Gigabyte website says:

"Q. 8PE667 series - Why cannot my DDR 333 be recognized correctly as 333Mhz but 266Mhz in 8PE667(8GE667) series mother board?

A. Based on Intel 845PE/GE chipset specifications, whether DDR333 can be supported appropriately depends on the CPU type you use. DDR 333 can be recognized correctly only when you use a FSB533 CPU. If you use a FSB400 CPU, then it's very possible that it can be recognized as 266Mhz. "

While this FAQ doesn't directly address the question of running more than one stick of DDR333, I haven't seen any comments which indicated whether or not a FSB533 CPU was used when this problem was reported. The AnandTech review did not state what the FSB of the CPU used in their evaluation was(correct me if I am wrong on this). Has anyone tried running more than 1 stick of DDR 333 with a FSB533 CPU on the 8PE667? If so were you successful?

 

[xpeter]

I am running the following configuration right now:

Intel Celeron 2.0 GHz
FSB: 400 MHz
Memory Clock: 266 MHz
3x 256 MB DDR-SDRAM, PC-333, TwinMOS, CAS 2.5 - same memory sticks

BIOS SETTING: TOP PERFORMANCE - DISABLED


I was running before:

Intel Celeron 2.0 GHz
FSB: 400 MHz
Memory Clock: 266 MHz
2x 256 MB DDR-SDRAM, PC-333, TwinMOS, CAS 2.5 - same memory sticks

BIOS SETTING: TOP PERFORMANCE - ENABLED


I don't know why it is not possible to run with 3 sticks of RAM with the TOP PERFORMANCE set to ENABLED. If I use any combination of the 3 sticks and use only 2 of them everything is running without any problems in TOP PERFORMANCE set to ENABLED.

 

[phamtastik]

Check the ram to see if its double sided or single sided.
Then go check the manual only certain combinations can be used if one stick is double sided or two sticks are double sided.
Page 12.

 

[xpeter]

I checked alredy this feature and I found out that until there are only 3 banks than it's working with
TOP PERFORMANCE set to ENABLED but if there are more than it's not wrking any more. I also found
out that TOP PERFORMANCE means very slight overclock in my case it's

Intel Celeron 2.0 GHz @ 2.04 GHz
L1 cache throughput + app. 5%
RAM throughput + app. 5%

that's it all the TOP PERFORMANCE wonder

 

[mcr700]

taken from the Manual

Top Performance
If you wish to maximize the performance of your system, set "Top Performance" as "Enabled".

Figure 9: Top Performance
"Top Performance" will increase H/W working speed. Different system configuration (both H/W component and OS) will effect the result. For ex ample, the same H/W configuration might not run properly with Windows XP, but works smoothly with Windows NT. Therefore, if y our sy stem is not perform enough, the reliability or stability problem will appear sometimes,

Here's a manual with it:

http://download.gigabyte.us/FileList/Manual/motherboard_manual_sata_raid_os_sil3112_e.pdf