Topic: AMD 3200 Barton (400) & Question about ram.

[MaraudingDemon]

I will be getting a  3200B (400) processor Friday. I mean for $115 I could not pass it up. Also getting Artic Silver 5 I have used 3 and liked so 5 should be better, least I hope.  A friends company bought 150 to get a bulk rate and are sell whats left to employees.

Now on to my question I currently I have Corsair XMS PC2700 2-2-2-5. Do you think I can push it to 3200 speeds? Bios will let me no problem but never seen the need untill now.

[Zeus]

You might get PC3200 speeds out if it, but you may have to relax the timings a bit.  A lot of Corsair's PC3200 and PC3500 is just overclocked PC2700.  I'd give it a shot.  You EPoX board should allow you to select different RAM / CPU ratio's so you can find out even before you get the Barton 3200+.

[MaraudingDemon]

Well either the MB just wont let me anymore or ram wont go that far.  After pushing it up to 200 it actaully would not boot anymore had to clear CMOS before it would restart.  But at least now I wont have to worry about messing with it friday.

Whats really odd when I 1st got setup I was able to overclock my 2500B but now it wont let me.  Does that mean if you run at one speed long enough it is stuck there?  Or is it just a MB problem, I have considered going up to the EP-8RDA3+ but would a newer MB give me any kind of real boost?  I havent actaully built enough high performance computer to get the feel for them yet.

[GOLIATH]

Sounds like you're builing a sweet set-up. Where did u find a 3200 for $115?

[MaraudingDemon]

The company my buddy works for is selling extras to employees and he already has better so offered it to me.

[Zeus]

Well either the MB just wont let me anymore or ram wont go that far.  After pushing it up to 200 it actaully would not boot anymore had to clear CMOS before it would restart.  But at least now I wont have to worry about messing with it friday.

Whats really odd when I 1st got setup I was able to overclock my 2500B but now it wont let me.  Does that mean if you run at one speed long enough it is stuck there?  Or is it just a MB problem, I have considered going up to the EP-8RDA3+ but would a newer MB give me any kind of real boost?  I havent actaully built enough high performance computer to get the feel for them yet.

What did you set your RAM timings at when you tried to run at 200FSB?  I'd try to lower them to CAS 2.5-3-3-7 at the very least and maybe even try CAS 3 just to see if it's your RAM.

If the chip was damaged or overheated it's possible that it won't overclock like it used to.  It could be a board issue as you say.  The only way to tell is to try your chip in a different board.  Upgrading to the 8RDA3+ over the 8RDA+ won't give you a real boost.  They are both based on the exact same chipset.  I believe the 3+ has four channels of IDE RAID. . . but don't quote me.

I hope this helps answer some of your questions.

[LobbDogg]

Did you boost the voltage to the ram when you tried to up the speeds of the RAM?  Althougth, if if it wouldn't even boot, and you'd have to clear CMOS to get it to boot again, I doubt upping the voltage would give you a stable enough OC to maximize the chip.

[MaraudingDemon]

No real big deal anymore I have worked out a deal to sell of old chips and buy new ones but thanks for the replys.