M
mcdruid
Guest
Hi all.
I got burgled over X-mas which was a pain in the you-know-what. However, it has meant that I could put together a new PC - 'every cloud..'
I'm new to DDR, and I'm not convinced that I've got everything set up properly.
The main bits of the PC are:
AMD Athlon XP 2000+
Asus A7V333 (VIA KT333 chipset)
512MB PC2700 DDR
(and a GeForce 2 MX400 64MB)
The thing is, I'm not at all sure as to what's the best way of setting up the timings for the memory etc..
I read somewhere in a review of the Asus A7V333 that setting the memory to run asynchronous with the CPU actually slows down the performance, as the mobo's chipset has to devote a lot of resources to 'bridging the gap' between the memory & the CPU running at different speeds.
As far as I understand it (without any overclocking):
the athlon runs at a FSB of 266mhz
the system bus runs at 133mhz
the memory can run at 333mhz
The options for CPU/RAM timing in the BIOS are 'auto', '1:1', and '4:5'
There's also an option to run the system as 'Optimal' or 'Turbo' - I think this has to do with the CAS latency/timings etc.. on the memory.
I've tried changing the settings once or twice and running 3D Mark to see if the system was running faster or slower - but the score doesn't seem to change much.
The thing is, the score seems really low to me - around 1306!
I know my GeForce2 MX400 is not going to compete with a GeForce 4ti or anything like that - but I'm sure my system can do better than this!
I'm not really a gamer - I'm only using the 3D score as an example. I do audio/video encoding quite a lot, and want the system nicely tuned for that.
Can anyone unravel the mystery of all these timings & set-up options for me? or point me to a good guide etc.. on asynchronous timing and all that? (The Asus manual sort of tells you what the different settings are, but doesn't really explain beyond telling you what the abbreviations stand for etc..)
Thanks very much!
cheers,
mcdruid.
I got burgled over X-mas which was a pain in the you-know-what. However, it has meant that I could put together a new PC - 'every cloud..'
I'm new to DDR, and I'm not convinced that I've got everything set up properly.
The main bits of the PC are:
AMD Athlon XP 2000+
Asus A7V333 (VIA KT333 chipset)
512MB PC2700 DDR
(and a GeForce 2 MX400 64MB)
The thing is, I'm not at all sure as to what's the best way of setting up the timings for the memory etc..
I read somewhere in a review of the Asus A7V333 that setting the memory to run asynchronous with the CPU actually slows down the performance, as the mobo's chipset has to devote a lot of resources to 'bridging the gap' between the memory & the CPU running at different speeds.
As far as I understand it (without any overclocking):
the athlon runs at a FSB of 266mhz
the system bus runs at 133mhz
the memory can run at 333mhz
The options for CPU/RAM timing in the BIOS are 'auto', '1:1', and '4:5'
There's also an option to run the system as 'Optimal' or 'Turbo' - I think this has to do with the CAS latency/timings etc.. on the memory.
I've tried changing the settings once or twice and running 3D Mark to see if the system was running faster or slower - but the score doesn't seem to change much.
The thing is, the score seems really low to me - around 1306!
I know my GeForce2 MX400 is not going to compete with a GeForce 4ti or anything like that - but I'm sure my system can do better than this!
I'm not really a gamer - I'm only using the 3D score as an example. I do audio/video encoding quite a lot, and want the system nicely tuned for that.
Can anyone unravel the mystery of all these timings & set-up options for me? or point me to a good guide etc.. on asynchronous timing and all that? (The Asus manual sort of tells you what the different settings are, but doesn't really explain beyond telling you what the abbreviations stand for etc..)
Thanks very much!
cheers,
mcdruid.