Overclocking and Stability Testing
Since we're using a 200FSB (800MHz) ABIT IC7-MAX3 motherboard, the first thing I wanted to try was what are the tightest timings I could run the TWINX at at 200FSB. We left the Game Accelerator at Auto to start. The default SPD timings were 3-4-4-7, but after a bit of tweaking, it appears that 2-3-3-5 is about as low as we can go.
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200FSB (400MHz) @ SPD
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200FSB (400MHz) @ Tweaked
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As with our last TWINX kit, the ProSeries is officially spec'd at 3-4-4-8, but in our IC7 BIOS, the SPD speeds were 3-4-4-7. So, in case you never get around to tweaking your ram, Corsair does a little for you at the factory. We did have to increase our voltage to 2.7v though, as per specifications.
The ProSeries was also able to handle Street Racer settings at 2-3-3-5, which was something I wasn't able to do previously with the original TWINX kit (2-4-3-6 worked).
Next thing we did was to adjust the timings and to see what the TWINX would allow us to tweak to. At 250FSB, the best we managed was…
250FSB (500MHz) @ Tweaked
The ram was completely stable, and passed MemTest without any problems at 2.5-3-3-6. Memory voltage did need a boost to 2.75v though. At these timings, the highest we were able to get to, at 2.9v, was 256FSB. I did the "do not do" and jacked the voltage up to 3.2v, but no change. I should mention that the Game Accelerator needed to be at Auto at this point, as any other setting caused a system hang.
So, I guess that's enough with the foreplay, so let's get serious now. Staying at 1:1 CPU and Memory, we went out to find out our maximum overclock. Just a reminder... the reason for staying at 1:1 was to figure out the maximum memory OC. The ABIT doesn't offer asynchronous adjustments above 1:1; i.e., 3:4, 5:6, etc... but seeing how we managed to get our CPU as high as 301FSB (running at 5:4), I knew the processor wasn't going to be the bottleneck.
So, what was our maximum overclock?
290FSB Max OC
To be able to run your ram 1:1 at 290FSB is simply unbelievable. Now, it'd be a lie to say we were stable at this point. I was running the ram at 3.0v at this point, which isn't something I'd suggest doing for any extended period of time. Even with a Delta 68CFM blowing on the ram in an open case environment, the system would crash randomly after a few minutes. I managed to grab the CPU-Z screenshot, but had to use MS Paint to save it as Adobe Photoshop wouldn't start. In fact, almost every benchmark program was unresponsive at this speed.
Moving down to 288FSB brought some stability back (we're still at 3.0v), but the system still periodically rebooted itself, at totally random intervals. Moving to 3.2v didn't help matters, so we had to lower our speed a little more. At 285FSB, everything was golden. I lowered the voltages back down to a safer 2.9v, and the ram remained stable.
Test Setup
ABIT IC7-MAX3: Pentium 4 2.4C, 2 x 512MB Corsair TWINX1024-4000 ProSeries, ATI AIW Radeon 9800 Pro, 120GB Seagate, Windows XP SP1, ATI Catalyst 3.6.
Benchmarks will be presented at 200FSB, 250FSB and maximum OC. Keep in mind that the numbers at maximum OC will be skewed since we're running 1:1 and the CPU's speeds will be different when showing each memory's OC speed. There isn't anything I can do with this since it's impossible to set the memory speeds independently with the CPU FSB unless we go with a lower memory divider.
Test Software for both platforms will be:
AVI-to-MPG Encoding
Unreal Tournament 2003
Game Accelerator will be configured at Street Racer for 200FSB, and Auto for the rest. Competing sticks will be OCZ's 1GB PC4000 EL Gold, and the original Corsair TWINX1024-4000. At 200FSB, all the ram kits will be running at 2-3-3-5. At 250FSB, the ProSeries will be running at 2.5-3-3-6, whereas the other two kits will be at 2.5-4-3-6, since neither could do 2.5-3-3-6.
