Ballistix Z503 not stable above 260MHz ???

[rick_fx]

Well, I've spent many hours testing out my Ballistix.

The 1gb stick I'm testing is dual SPI 32m stable @ 260Mhz ; only 2.5V (bios).

http://i1.tinypic.com/nc05tt.jpg

Now, the problem is that I've tried just about everything and cant even get this 1gb stick stable @ 265Mhz. I've tried, LDT and chipset voltage, various DRAM voltages from 2.5V, 2.6, 2.7, 2.8, even 2.9V, and almost all of the memory related settings available.

Here is an A64 tweaker screenshot for my settings @260Mhz

http://i1.tinypic.com/nc0b9y.jpg

Data/drive: 3/1
Response time: Slow
The 1gb Ballistix stick is in slot #3 (orange)

System specs are in sig, bios 12/07

Please help me out, I'm out of ideas :(

Eric

[shuRe]

hmm, they are usually spuer pi 32m stable with 2.9vdimm at at least 280. Could it be your mem controller or max cpu clock?

[Repoman]

Your drive/data are much too low, try 7/3 and move down from there (7/2 7/1 5/3 etc)

[rick_fx]

hmm, they are usually spuer pi 32m stable with 2.9vdimm at at least 280. Could it be your mem controller or max cpu clock?

My Cpu (opteron 170) is dual prime stable @ 2.71Ghz ; 1.328V and dual prime stable @ 2.82Ghz ; 1.376V. I'm only at 260 x 10 ; 1.328V, so it isn't the CPU.

It's not the mem controller either because I've run dual prime @ 400HTT many times.

[Vapor]

Or, maybe (just thinking outside of the box here), they don't work above 260MHz.

[rick_fx]

Or, maybe (just thinking outside of the box here), they don't work above 260MHz.

Lol, they better go higher than 260. If not, to ebay they go :D

@ Repoman: I'll try all the drive/data strength possibilities, I must have missed one in there somewhere ;)

[Repoman]

Of course they go higher than 260, if they do 260 with 2.5v but not 265 with 2.9 :stick: it has to be something else..

[Vapor]

I had a stick that stuck at 263 regardless of volts. And it was a single stick...popped in the other one (from the set) and it scaled with volts, same exact settings. Nothing I did could get it to run faster.....then it quickly went downhill and wouldnt work at 225 after a few days. I RMA'd the set for obvious reasons.

[Supertim0r]

aren't ballistix 2gig dying after a few weeks/months ?

[rick_fx]

All little OT, but why does CPU-z show "Manufacturer" and "Manufacturing date" as follows?

http://i1.tinypic.com/ncbl8w.jpg

[rick_fx]

aren't ballistix 2gig dying after a few weeks/months ?

Yes, but I hope mine dont die too soon :p:

[Supertim0r]

you should get a set of OCZ 4000 XTC or 4000EB if you have the $$$

[rick_fx]

you should get a set of OCZ 4000 XTC or 4000EB if you have the $$$

They dont seem to overclock very good, nothing much past 26x Mhz ;)

[Repoman]

Make sure to try all the 1.95us TREF's (bottom 8 in dfi BIOS). They can make a big difference

Let us know what you find

[Vapor]

The XTCs are UCCC, so they'll go past 260, but past there, YMMV. Mine don't do much more than 267 for 24/7 stable, but I know Perry_78's do a good 8MHz more. I still have yet to play with the slots (seems to matter *A LOT* on my board!), though.

And yeah, try trefs, it may do the trick.

[rick_fx]

Make sure to try all the 1.95us TREF's (bottom 8 in dfi BIOS). They can make a big difference

Let us know what you find

Ok, I've tried all the drive/data strength combinations.

The best one by far for me is 7/2. The Ballistix is stable about 10-11 minutes at this setting.

5/1, 3/1, 3/2 and 3/3 are stable for 5-6 minutes and the others crap out between 2-3 minutes

I'll play around with the TREF's now with my drive/data set to 7/2.

[napass]

i move the 2 banks of ballistix in the yellow slots and i arrived at 300mhz..

in the orange slots i arrived max at 260mhz...

test in the yellow slots....

bye bye

[stone_cold_Jimi]

Try trfc at 24, max async latency 11 and read preamble 9.5, it may steady it up at high clocks. It did for me, anyway.

[rick_fx]

Thanks for the tips. I'll try them tomorrow evening, Tuesday's and Wednesday's are my "no free time" days.

[rick_fx]

test in the yellow slots....


I put the Baillistix in slot#1 (yellow) and the computer kept rebooting. :shrug:

[jsriolo]

I am hitting a wall with my memory at 260 also so I thought I'd try the yellow slots and something pretty wierd was happening.

Apon clearing the cmos it would post and get all the way to the point where it tried to read the HD but my boot disk isn't the first one it went to so I hit restart and then it wouldn't post. I just got 3 beeps.

So I cleared the cmos again and booted into bios and changed the first boot device. I saved, exited, and then it tried to restart but I got beeps.

Seems nomatter what I do with ballistix in the yellow slots it won't post the 2nd time. Never heard of anything like that in my experience.

[rick_fx]

Ok, I've managed to get this Ballistix stable @ 270, but it takes about 2.9V.

In other words, this Ballistix just scales horribly with voltage. (260@2.5V --- 270@ 2.9V)

Before I try higher voltage (3.0V), I want to know if it's safe for Balistix. During dual SPI 32m, the Ballistix wasn't even hot :)

[Supertim0r]

Ok, I've managed to get this Ballistix stable @ 270, but it takes about 2.9V.

In other words, this Ballistix just scales horribly with voltage. (260@2.5V --- 270@ 2.9V)

Before I try higher voltage (3.0V), I want to know if it's safe for Balistix. During dual SPI 32m, the Ballistix wasn't even hot :)

hmmm 2.9v c'est prendre un risque avec cette mémoire la...ca vaut pas les 10mhz de gain

[rick_fx]

Just a quick question:

Is 2.92V safe for 24/7 on Ballistix?

[irev210]

Lol, they better go higher than 260. If not, to ebay they go :D

@ Repoman: I'll try all the drive/data strength possibilities, I must have missed one in there somewhere ;)


I was using 3/1 or 4/1 myself when I was playing with balistix on a DFI expert.


Got them rocking at 300mhz, but stability wasnt there.

Needless to say, I returned them and went back to my trusty winbond memory.

[Repoman]

Just a quick question:

Is 2.92V safe for 24/7 on Ballistix?

No

10 char

[rick_fx]

No

10 char

10 char???

[Repoman]

10 characters, just the message "no" is too short.

I'd try to keep it at 2.7 or below

[bestmancajun]

I've had mine running at 3,3,3,8 280 2.8V 24/7 for 6 months now. They are still 24hour prime stable @ 2.6V 3,3,3,8 DDR500. They don't work for :banana::banana::banana::banana: in my expert... I freeze at DDR500 3,4,4,8. I couldn't be in Window's 10 min without crashing unless I had drive/data 7/1.

[INFRNL]

I've had mine running at 3,3,3,8 280 2.8V 24/7 for 6 months now. They are still 24hour prime stable @ 2.6V 3,3,3,8 DDR500. They don't work for :banana::banana::banana::banana: in my expert... I freeze at DDR500 3,4,4,8. I couldn't be in Window's 10 min without crashing unless I had drive/data 7/1.


Thats weird; I have My Z503's running at 2.7v stable @ 289*10; 1:1 on my expert. Could probably run @300mhz easy. I am currently running 3-4-4-8-1T had running at 3-3-3-7 but I was messing around with my oc and loosened the timing more. According to the review @ Anandtech they needed 2.8v and 3-4-4-8 to run above 280mhz I believe.

INFRNL

[rick_fx]

I'd try to keep it at 2.7 or below

Well, I've decided to keep them running 290 @2.9V daily. My decision is based on the fact that Ballistix die from manufacturing problem, not voltage (some people had them die at 2.5-2.6V) and that my Ballistix are barely warm while dual priming.

I'm hoping mine will last but, come to worst, they die and I get them rma'ed (or buy other ram) :p:

I'll keep you updated :)

[bestmancajun]

Mine just died :brick: Last night I was running prime 2.7V 3,3,3,8 @270, ran for 3 hours then simultaneously failed. Now I cant even get 2.8V 3,3,3,8 @ DDR500 stable. :brick:. The day prior I had them 24 prime stable DDR500 @2.6V 3,3,3,8. It was fun while it lasted.

[[XC] Aerosupra]

Just a quick question:

Is 2.92V safe for 24/7 on Ballistix?

hell not!!! you shouldnt go above 2,8V 24/7 , tref is important and mine seemed to work best with 1,95us.
try to give them 2,9V and cool them with a fan blowing on them, you will see a huge difference, ballistix are ver temp-sensitive so you shold always keep them cool

[bestmancajun]

We all got to die sometime... Better to burn out then to fade away. I purchased them in early November and they still gave me a refund. I'm pleased. Its nothing but stress owning 2GB ballistix. It's like having a slut girl friend. You know she'll eventually cheat, the question is when. OCZ baby.