K8V Deluxe - Memory Advise Please

[dimize]

I presently have 1 (twin 512's) GB of PC3200 in my system.

When I purchased this memory in March of this year, I saved a few
dollars by purchasing some generic memory which apperntly was O/C'd to
the 3200 speed from the vendor. Live and learn and always read the
fine print has been my lesson.

So, while it runs at the faster clock speed, I think it's actually
running a slower bus speed.

I've stuck it out and for several months and only notice occasional
issues while playing games. That is the ONLY time I ever get a memory
error.

I'm wanting to upgrade my memory and I'm a bit n00b to the choices.

I'm debating strongly on whether or not to go with 1 GB (twin 512's)
of true PC3700 or to go with 2 GB (twin 1GB DIMMs) of true PC3200.

I really enjoy my PC for gaming. Many of the upcoming games I will be
playing seem to be able to take advantage of 2 GB of memory. Games
like Doom3, HL2 and possibly Tribes: Vengeance.

So, does the faster memory allow some headroom for O/C'ng and does it
cause timing issues?

Which choice would you recommend for a gamer? The faster memory or the
larger memory?

The ASUS K8V Deluxe supports up to 3 DIMMs of 1 GB each of PC3200.
But, if you use more than two DIMMs the bus speed drops from 400MHz to
200 according to the manual.

In either scenario I'm planning on unbuffered DDR Kingston or OCZ.

Thanks for all your help.

Dim-Ize

 

[Paul]

I presently have 1 (twin 512's) GB of PC3200 in my system.

When I purchased this memory in March of this year, I saved a few
dollars by purchasing some generic memory which apperntly was O/C'd to
the 3200 speed from the vendor. Live and learn and always read the
fine print has been my lesson.

So, while it runs at the faster clock speed, I think it's actually
running a slower bus speed.

I've stuck it out and for several months and only notice occasional
issues while playing games. That is the ONLY time I ever get a memory
error.

I'm wanting to upgrade my memory and I'm a bit n00b to the choices.

I'm debating strongly on whether or not to go with 1 GB (twin 512's)
of true PC3700 or to go with 2 GB (twin 1GB DIMMs) of true PC3200.

I really enjoy my PC for gaming. Many of the upcoming games I will be
playing seem to be able to take advantage of 2 GB of memory. Games
like Doom3, HL2 and possibly Tribes: Vengeance.

So, does the faster memory allow some headroom for O/C'ng and does it
cause timing issues?

Which choice would you recommend for a gamer? The faster memory or the
larger memory?

The ASUS K8V Deluxe supports up to 3 DIMMs of 1 GB each of PC3200.
But, if you use more than two DIMMs the bus speed drops from 400MHz to
200 according to the manual.

In either scenario I'm planning on unbuffered DDR Kingston or OCZ.

Thanks for all your help.

Dim-Ize

Well, first of all, you should investigate how it is possible to
overclock the K8V and find out what the limits are. There are two
things that can possibly change - the multiplier and the FSB.
I don't know what your multiplier options are on that platform -
they might be locked for example. For the FSB, the limits tend
to be determined by what FSB:AGPCI ratios are supported, and
a desirable feature is an "AGP/PCI" lock, where the AGP bus
is clocked independently of the FSB.

Currently, the A8V is the closest Via has come to a working AGP
lock, and it is unclear whether Asus has got it working or not.
The K8N-E might have a working lock, but I haven't read any posts
from end users (overclockers), to see if that is true.

Without an AGP/PCI lock feature, the overclock limit will be
determined by the video card. On a 9800 or 5900, this is 75MHz. So,
a reasonable limit is 200FSB*(75/66) = 227MHz FSB. The PCI bus is
similarly limited to about 37.5MHz (really enforces the same limit).
At a 1:1 ratio with memory, this is about DDR440 or so, so PC3500 or
PC3700 might be good enough (the PC3500 being slightly overclocked
at the very limit).

As for the 1GB modules, be careful with those, because many of
them have "stacked" memory chip construction, and with the drive
limits of the Athlon64 processors, I wouldn't advise overloading
the bus with stacked memory. Consult crucial.com or kingston.com,
and see how expensive real 1GB non-stacked memory modules are.
There are many "bargain" 1GB modules for sale, but you would
regret buying most of them.

So, your 2x512MB PC3700 should be OK.

Be aware that the timing set in the SPD, may be defined for the
PC3700 level, or it may be defined for PC3200 level, for better
initial install compatibility. If the PC3700 has PC3200 numbers
stored in the SPD, you'll have to set the parameters for PC3700
performance, via manual timing settings. If you've looked at
the Memory Configuration section in the BIOS, it is pretty
complicated. So, while overclocking is fun, the fact the Athlon64
exposes so many timing parameters, can make setup a challenge.
If a memory product has a claim like "plug and frag", that means
the PC3700 memory will have the SPD programmed for PC3700. In that
case, the BIOS may or may not like it.

There aren't too many postings about ram timings over here.
Notice how the first poster is using a slightly higher than
expected Trcd. If your memory doesn't work well, try bumping
up Trcd.

http://abxzone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67475&highlight=k8v
http://abxzone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=58123&highlight=k8v

This is a multi-thread group of posts on K8V, with some
interesting info. I didn't read the whole thing, but it
mentions there may be a PCI lock, but not an AGP lock.
An older video card may allow a higher FSB overclock, if
AGP is the only limit.

http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=269891&page=1&pp=15

Paul