Originally posted by: OCZ John
Originally posted by: Matt2
That Plat Rev.2 should be able to do 238mhz 2-2-2-5 (2-2-2-7 I have found yields identical performance and better stability vs. 2-2-2-5). My VX will do 238mhz 2-2-2-7 and TCCD should OC 260+mhz, leaving you plenty of room to play with timings. Every RAM module is different though.
No, the PC3200 Plat Rev 2 will not do 238 at 2-2-2-5. You'll probably have to loosen to 2.5-3-2-7 or 2.5-3-3-7 at 238 MHz. The Plat Rev 2 does not behave like the VX series, so pumping voltage into them won't help you reach 2-2-2-5 timings at higher clocks.
QFT
I have these memory modules, and although i am not able to achieve good memory timings (due to the crapy on die mem controllers I have with a week 51 Winchester). you should be looking at the following parameters for memory timings.
This applies to the OCZ 3200 plat Rev2 (2x 512) @ 2-2-2-5
NOTE: this is just a guideline to what your memory should be able to achieve.
The following timings are layed out as follows:- CAS: x, TRCD: x, TRP: x, TRAS: x .. so at default in your case 2-2-2-5
1T 200Mhz - 215Mhz @ 2-2-2-x
1T 215Mhz - 235Mhz @ 2.5-3-
2/3-x (YMMV with the Trp timings)
1T 235Mhz - 250/260Mhz @ 2.5-3-3-x (260Mhz if you are lucky)
1T 250Mhz - 270/280Mhz @ 2.5-4-
3/4-x (most likely Trp 4 with the higher clock nearing 275Mhz range, and you might have to change to a CAS of 3 depending on quality of the TCCD chips)
2T 280Mhz+ will be @ 3-4-4-x @
2T CMD rate
(Remember to increase the voltage if need be, if you experience stability issues)
Your memory should be able to reach 290/300mhz or maybe higher at
2T 3-4-4-x, but you will have to find out what it can top out at by just raising the speed in small increments until it is not stable and can not pass memtest. You must keep in mind that with the higher frequency, some motherboards are just unable to handle the high frequency unlike DFI .. I think this is usually to do with the layout of the memory tracers (for signal integrity), and the quality of the clock crystal as well as the PLL chip being used, basically down to the quality and design of the mother board and its components.
I think the Asus A8N SLI has problems with high frequency and also the ability to sustain a 1T CMD rate above 240Mhz, or so i have heard. But this is due to the BIOS that is being used, im not sure on that one, that question is best asked in the motherboard forum, if you indeed have that problem.
In the above notice the x which symbolises
any number, this being that for the nforce 3 chipset a Tras 10 is favoured, and the nforce 4 chipset a Tras of 7 is favoured (over the stock settings of Tras 5), as these timings have been proven to be optimum for performance on these chipsets.
the memory modules are rated at up to 3v (volts) under warranty, although as "OCZ john" has stated, these memory modules are not built around high voltage consumption/usage, therefore will not respond as OCZ VX does to high voltage (and that is the beauty of these chips the low voltage, and also a lot of motherboards can supply its max voltage rating :thumbsup: ).
You can range the voltage from 2.75 to 2.9/3.0 which should be sufficient for your DIMM's, obviously voltage = stability, so if you experience stability issues when using memtest etc to test for stability, upping the voltage is the key .. but only up to 2.9 as any higher will not help these DIMM's with stability. If at 2.9 volts and with the given timings/speed you find stability issues, either you CPU's memory controllers are not up to par for the tight timings @ the given speed, or your DIMM's just can not sustain stability with the tight timings @ the given speed, and therefore you will have to relax the timings. As if you wish to run unstable memory you will find that you comp will crash more often, and it will become even less stable over time as corrupted data is written to your hard drive.
The main reason i bought these DIMM's is because they are able to keep a 1T command rate on average up to 275/280Mhz, and also the DIMM's ability to sustain a CAS of 2.5 up to around 260/280Mhz YMMV (You Mileage May Vary), and not to mention the low voltage needed to do the job (aka no need for voltage booster/Mod).
One thing to keep in mind, is that you may have an under performing stick (DIMM) of memory, which would mean that it undermines the ability of the other stick when running in dual channel, or single channel. This being that the sticks need to be equally capable so they can run in tandem at the given timings. If you have a faulty stick you will get corrupt data flow, even though one stick is capable and one is not. Although OCZ actually tests the ability of the DIMM's working together, (hence buying a dual channel matched pair) before they go on sale, this is to ensure this does not occur for the consumer, but sometimes this might be the case, i dont know what OCZ's view would be on a possible returning of the sticks in this case.
i know when i started out OCing, the hardest thing to get my head around was the configuration (timings) of the RAM. I find that best way to find the optimum RAM timings is to, raise the timings as high as possible, so in your case 3-4-4-x, then find you maximum speed 240Mhz, 270Mhz etc at a command rate of 1T, and if not high enough find the highest speed on a 2T command rate, then when you find the most desired speed, tighten up the timings as much as you can whilst testing their stability (usually using
Memtest x86). The guide i given above is exactly it a
GUIDE, you will find that depending on the quality of your PCB, Chips (TCCD), the ability of the DIMM's will differ in their ability to perform under tight timings , and not to mention in AMD's case, the quality of the on-die memory controllers also factors in. So it might not always be down to poor memory, although you have a San Diego core which has the uprated memory controllers over the previous 90nm core revision the Winchester, which i have. So you should be able to achieve the full potential from the memory you have without worry form poor memory controllers.
Anyways i hope this helps