What the heck is going on here?

[NIUBurned]

Hey guys. Maybe you can help me out here. Ok, I just bought a Shuttle AN35N Ultra board. My first DDR board, so maybe im just a noob as far as ddr boards go. Heres the problem. I have a Athlon 1.4. A single stick of DDR400 crucial ram. I CANNOT run it at 1.4. The only way i can get it to run is to run it at "optimised defaults" which runs it at a 100mhz fsb. Ends up being a little over 1ghz.

This is basically the bios setup, as far as i can remember.
System Performance: Optimal
FSB Frequency: 133
CPU interface: optimal
Memory frequency: By SPD
Resulting frequency: 200mhz
Memory timings: optimal

Now, i guess i dont really know what memory frequency is. i have fiddled with it, wiht no luck. It will boot at 1.4 (using FSB of 133, but when it hits windows it locks up. Thought maybe it was power supply ( Sparkle 350 watts) so all i have installed is my graphics card. I have only one stick of ram. Just doesnt seem to make any sence to me. Thanks guys.

 

[Buz2b]

It's getting late so I'll give things a quick shot here. Number one, it's not your Power Supply. That Sparkle PS can handle more than you're trying to do here. If I understand what you are saying, it will run at 100 FSB but not 133. It's difficult to tell from your post because you mention both. Anyway, assuming that your RAM is OK (for now anyway), then you should look at the CPU installation and HSF install. Possibley the HS not seated properly on the CPU. Why not try removing and reinstalling the CPU and HSF. After that, go back to the basics on the MB install and make sure of any applicable jumper settings. I know you're not a noob but we all make mistakes from time to time.

 

[pspada]

I'll bet there's a jumper on the mobo that sets the fsb to 100 or 133, and it overrides the bios settings.

 

[shimsham]

check out the amdmb.com forums. youll probably have better luck there, as they have a whole area dedicated to each mobo manuf.

good luck!

 

[carpenter]

I agree with pspada, the giga 400 mobo's have a switch. It's probably either a switch or jumper on the mobo. Check the manual.

 

[NIUBurned]

Thanks guys. Ya, im an idiot. It was the heatsink, I put it on backwords (doh) Damn that puppy warmed up, but its working now.... Thanks gentlemen.

 

[Buz2b]

Glad to hear you got it going. Not too bad a guess for late night posting. Lucky you didn't do any damage to the cpu. Almost did the same about a year ago. Just happened to go back over the jumpers before first boot and saw the HS was off a bit.

 

[will889]

Go into expert settings, that's how you sync your ram to your fsb, you;ll see the % value in there, and as you change it, you'll see the resulting freq, change with it. If you have an XP1700 T_Bred you could run it at the very least @ 166/166 in sync. You'll get far better scores. actually if you have a good 1700, you ca.n get way past that If you do not see, and are not able to use the multiplers, you need to flash to the latest bios for your board, as it fixed that issue, and gives you multiplers.

 

[NIUBurned]

You know, i chanted the % so it says 400mhz fsb when i boot, but no software recognizes my ram running at 400mhz, and no benchmark scores suggest that it is. I guess im confused by those ram speed settings.

 

[will889]

Play around in there, until you see your resulting freq @ 166, or...133 if you want. I would shoot for 166/166 to start.

 

[Peter]

NIUBurned, the secret is that it isn't. DDR400 RAM does _not_ run at 400 MHz, it runs at a maximum clock of 200 MHz. Same for the CPU front side bus; marketing numbers are doubled from real clock frequencies too.

Now, Athlon 1400 draws as much power as an XP3000+. This means you need a good power supply and the finest in CPU cooling solutions.

 

[will889]

Originally posted by: Peter
NIUBurned, the secret is that it isn't. DDR400 RAM does _not_ run at 400 MHz, it runs at a maximum clock of 200 MHz. Same for the CPU front side bus; marketing numbers are doubled from real clock frequencies too.

Now, Athlon 1400 draws as much power as an XP3000+. This means you need a good power supply and the finest in CPU cooling solutions.

200 Mhz = 400 DDR



* On DDR capable motherboards , they are not marketing numbers. It means you are getting your frequency doubled. There are only two Athlon 1400 Models. The 100 fsb- B Type- (200 DDR), and the 133 FSB- C Type- (266 DDR), they run at 1.75 Vcore@53.8W, the Barton 3000 XP runs at 1.65 Vcore @ 58.4W (there are also two versions of the Barton 3000). So as you can see, the power draw is not the same, but close enough. If he were to overclock from 133 to 166, he is indeed running @ 166 (333 DDR). I agree with your power supply recommendations, and a good CPU HSF, but the stock AMD heat sink willl keep temps very cool @ 166/166. If he were to go above that - then yeah, I would recommend A Zalhman, or Vantec for 200 FSB (400 DDR). 420-500 rated PSU by Enlight, Antec, Allied, are great for overclockers imo. But what overclockers need more than anything else is true - dead on voltage for accurate rails. Antec True 480 and Raidmax 550 tested very well for this.