P4i65G with P4 3.0GHZ HHT and DDR 400 Memory Question

[RD]

I have posted my system info from CPU-Z here:

http://tinyurl.com/33wy6k

I am very perplexed about the speed the RAM is running at. The memory is
Corsair PC3200 DDR 400. Can anyone explain why the motherboard automatically
sets the memory speed to 160.0 MHZ? Is my CPU running as fast as it should?

 

[Paul]

I have posted my system info from CPU-Z here:

http://tinyurl.com/33wy6k

I am very perplexed about the speed the RAM is running at. The memory is
Corsair PC3200 DDR 400. Can anyone explain why the motherboard automatically
sets the memory speed to 160.0 MHZ? Is my CPU running as fast as it should?

http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=P4i65G&s=478

See caution #4 on the page just before section 1.3 "Motherboard Layout",
in your user manual. That chipset has a quirk, where requesting DDR333,
results in DDR320. So that is where the weird number comes from.

In section 3.3.2 "Chipset Configuration", the "DRAM Frequency" option
should be set to DDR400. If "Configure DRAM Timing by SPD" is [Enabled],
the BIOS will automatically work out the correct values for the other
fields. After you boot into Windows, you can use CPUZ again, to verify
everything is correct.

Your core speed is 15 x 200MHz = 3000Mhz and is correct. The RAM speed
is just a little low, and you'll soon have that corrected.

HTH,
Paul

 

[RD]

I have posted my system info from CPU-Z here:

http://tinyurl.com/33wy6k

I am very perplexed about the speed the RAM is running at. The memory is
Corsair PC3200 DDR 400. Can anyone explain why the motherboard
automatically sets the memory speed to 160.0 MHZ? Is my CPU running as
fast as it should?

http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=P4i65G&s=478

See caution #4 on the page just before section 1.3 "Motherboard Layout",
in your user manual. That chipset has a quirk, where requesting DDR333,
results in DDR320. So that is where the weird number comes from.

In section 3.3.2 "Chipset Configuration", the "DRAM Frequency" option
should be set to DDR400. If "Configure DRAM Timing by SPD" is [Enabled],
the BIOS will automatically work out the correct values for the other
fields. After you boot into Windows, you can use CPUZ again, to verify
everything is correct.

Your core speed is 15 x 200MHz = 3000Mhz and is correct. The RAM speed
is just a little low, and you'll soon have that corrected.

HTH,
Paul

Thank you for supplying sanity to my suspicion! Here is what I saw in my
manual:
* When you use an FSB800-CPU on this motherboard, it will run at DDR320 if
you adopt a DDR333 memory module.

I thought I was using a DDR400 memory module, not a DDR333 so I didn't think
that asterisk applied. But, I did as you suggested and now things make alot
more sense. Here is the updated CPU-Z report:

http://tinyurl.com/ysbmgj

And you were correct about the SPD configuration setting--the report shows
the correct timings for the RAM now. I am going to buy another RAM module
and try to get this thing up to dual-channel 800MHZ. It looks a bit tricky
though as it would appear I might need to purchase a matched set of RAM
sticks. We'll see..thanks for the help!