MSI KT3 Ultra

[I0's]

hello, this question goes out ppl who have MSI KT3 Ultra with Raid mobo.
Especially to u BipolarBill caz u have this mobo and u seem to help alot, ur post says it all.
I have problem setting the ram to run at 333, in bios where u set ram speed it only gives opion SPD, H*** + 33 and H*** (sorry i forget what comes after H)

and which BIOS u on AMI BIOS or Award caz ver 1.0 has AMI BIOS and ver 1.1 has Award, and ver 1.1 has jumpers to set clock speed.

and oh, did u install Pc Alert III, if u did what does ur battery volts say, this is for the Time resetting of BIOS

THx

[BipolarBill]

I have ver 1.0 - AMI.

Set your FSB to 133. Double that is 266 which is the best that an Athlon XP can do safely. The DDR333 is for a future AMD with a 166 FSB.

I've attached PC Alert III for you. ;)

[RobUK]

hi OI's

I have the MSI KT3 Ultra ARU and it is possible and safe to use DDR333 momory with an AthlonXP. The host clock is set to 133Mhz (266ddr) for the CPU but the setting for the ram are different. If you use the SPD setting the mobo will look at the ram an decide if its ddr333 or ddr266 and set the clock acording, either 133 or 166. This setting does not affect your cpu fsb. Or you can set the memory speed yourself by using the HCLK (which is 133mhz) or HCLK +33 (which is for ddr333 memory 166MHz).

I have an Athlon xp 2000 running with Crucial DDR333 memory and all is well at 166MHz.

You can only run the system safely at 166 with the PC2700 memory and not with PC2100 memory. If you try overclocking pc2100 memory to 166Mhz it won't work well at all, if it works!

RobUK

[BipolarBill]

The AMI BIOS doesn't have those settings. :(

[BipolarBill]

Oops! Found it. :)

I need a translator for the Chinese-English translation. :p

[Mutant_Donkey]

do you notice with that mobo when you turn of ACPI it will not start windows?

[BipolarBill]

No, but I also enable APIC and ICPI. Windows XP requires that ACPI be a feature.

[I0's]

RobUK, i set to HCLK +33 and WCPUID tells me 280.99 MHZ only, btw, i have a athlon 1800 (15700mhz), the default system clock is 133 but it set it to 140, so that it runs at athlon 2000 (1600), does that make any difference.
can some 1 help me with what CL, whether 2 is faster or 2.5, what should i set the rest to get the best from my DDR 333 RAM

THx

[BipolarBill]

I'm pretty sure that overclocking the FSB limits the memory/FSB to synched and hence the HCL+33 is overidden. You're likely better off with 133 and HCLK+33.

CAS 2 is faster than CAS 2.5. SOme memory rated at 2.5 can be used at 2.0 - Crucial comes to mind.

Funny - I ran Wintune on a P3 1.0 w/PC133 memory and my new rig w/DDR333 CAS 2 and I got the same memory result - 2400MB/s. Go figure.

[RobUK]

IO's, i think what you've done is just upped the FSB of the whole system and not just the ram. BTW the ram won't take 166MHz plus an overclocked fsb aswell. Effectivly at 280 fsb and your ram set to +33 (x2) you would be running a ram speed of 347Mhz a little too high. i would just put the fsb back to normal (133) and set up the ram correctly.

To set the ram manually in the bios "configure SDRAM Timing by" needs to be set to USER and "SDRAM Frequency" needs to be set to HCK+33. If one of the two is not set the +33 setting will be ignored. Only Fuzzy logic, the pragram that came with your mobo cd will tell you the correct memory speed, its not shown on normal FSB detection software, including Sisoft sandra.


But SPD should detect the correct settings anyway, what brand of memory are you using? I have both the mentioned settings set to SPD and when i test it with fuzzy logic it says its running at the 166MHz memory bus speed. But my ram is made by Crucial
:rolleyes:

CL 2 is faster than 2.5, but only the good 2.5 memory can take cl2, i found this out with generic ram on my old 450 k6/2 system. Since then only bought crucial ram.

You can tell the difference between 266ddr and 333ddr, but only when using benchmarking software or while playing games. What RAM are you using BipolarBill????

Hope this enlightened you IO, lol

RobUK :)

[BipolarBill]

I'm using OCZ DDR333. I would have bought Crucial, but they didn't (and still don't) offer DDR333 per se.

[RobUK]

QUOTE: "I'm using OCZ DDR333. I would have bought Crucial, but they didn't (and still don't) offer DDR333 per se."

What do you mean by "per se." ??

why can't you get crucial ddr333 memory?? They sell it on there web site?

RobUK

[BipolarBill]

Umm...no. They have PC2700 and they don't offer it in 512MB DIMMs.

http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.asp?Mfr%2BProductline=MSI+%28Micro+Star% 29%2BMotherboards&mfr=MSI+%28Micro+Star%29&cat=RAM&model=MS-6380E+%28KT3+Ultra-ARU%29&submit=Go

[RobUK]

I know they sell it in 256mb only, but i didn't know what you meant by "per se".?

I wanted 512, but for one its too expensive for pc2100, so pc2700 (if availaible) would be stupidly high. So i settled for 256.

btw you never said you had 512mb ddr333, you only said you couldn't get ddr333 from crucial. They do sell 256mb x2 = 512mb, you could have had that.

RobUK :rolleyes:

[BipolarBill]

So then PC2700 is DDR333?

[RobUK]

well i have always though it was! PC2700 is the ram that runs at 333Mhz (166x2), hence DDR333.

If i'm wrong please correct me!

Your making me paranoid :eek:

RobUK :t

[BipolarBill]

Don't ask me! The more I stay in this game, the more confusing the numbers are. :(

[I0's]

I am using the OEM DDR333 memory with Samsung Chipset.
did any1 try setting bios to LOAD HIGH PERFORMACE DEFAULTS?, if u did does it really work high performance.
My Bios time seem to work fine now, hope it stays that way, ROBUk hows ur Bios time, u had problems rite?

[I0's]

i set FSB to 133 and ram to HCK + 33 still says 266, can u tell me how to c Memeroy Mhz with Fuzzy logic 4 caz i have no clue how to use it.

[BipolarBill]

Where does it say 266?

[I0's]

Wcpuid, check out the image

[I0's]

BipolarBill, how do u keep up to new topics and post, u go throu each and every catogary again and again???

[BipolarBill]

I go through most forums. I get e-mail notifications too.

The problem is not with your motherboard/memory - it's with WCPUID. It doesn't recognize anything over 266Mhz yet. I just tried it and got the same result. I disabled Fast Post and POST shows me at 333Mhz.

Relax and enjoy it. Man - Quake3 starts up fast on my 1900+ w/RAID 0! I can't read a thing in the console before the game starts! I mean zoooom!

[I0's]

heheheh good one, is Quick boot same as Fast Post??
did you try setting bios to LOAD HIGH PERFORMACE DEFAULTS?, if u did does it really work high performance???
Do u know how to use Fuzzy Logic 4??

[BipolarBill]

High Performance defaults would likely strain the system. If I try to push memory timings, I get no POST.

Fuzzy Logic is buggy and causes trouble in my system.

[I0's]

yeh, Fuzzy Logic also acts funny on my system, that y i am not too sure what to do, donot wont to burn anything by just pressing all the bottons, hehehe

is Quick boot same as Fast Post??

[BipolarBill]

yup.

[I0's]

u use RAID, rite, u have to go throu the slow RAID Bios to check hard drive, everytime u boot up, or u got any solutions??

also, is the driver for USB2.0 (that comes in the CD) good enough for win 2000 and XP??

[RobUK]

I have used high performance defaults lots of times and my system is stable as a rock (crucial memory). :rolleyes:

System bios clock has kept time now for a few days. It does this then one day it just does it 3 or 4 times.

I did say that normal fsb progs don't recognise the 333MHz ddr memory!!!

Yes IO there is a sligh delay in boot due to raid, but there isn't any was around it. Also USB2 drivers that came on cd are fine, i'm running WinXP and having no problems at all.

Fuzzy logic also works fine on my system, wounder if there really is a big diff between generic and branded memory????

Thoughts people!

RobUK :)

[BipolarBill]

You can get through the RAID BIOS quickly by pressing and holding ESC.

I'm going to try High Performance soon. We'll see about FL4. Three was a disaster.

[I0's]

i read somewhere that on Ram's, on the corner of the ram, bottom there is a chip and on top of that they write the CL min had CL 2 on it... it that true??

[BipolarBill]

It varies by maker. If your PC works on CL2, use it that way - by all means!

Will you relax about the memory? What's it gonna get you - a 3% change? It's not worth the "ink". :p

[I0's]

hehehehe, ok just wanna sux the maz what the manufacture promises, hehehe well i paid for it :r

btw let me know when u set ur bios to high performace

[BipolarBill]

Originally posted by I0's
btw let me know when u set ur bios to high performace Deal!

[I0's]

i hope when u do that u dont star banging ur head like ur pic hehehe
btw, are u interested in modded Bios or ur raid to ata133 ide bios??

[BipolarBill]

Originally posted by I0's
are u interested in modded Bios or ur raid to ata133 ide bios?? What do you mean...a custom BIOS?

[BipolarBill]

High Performance Defaults disabled the RAID controller and (after I re-enabled it) blue-screened WinXP. It's a non-starter.

Trying Fuzzy Logic IV now...

XP can take 140Mhz, but crashes at 145Mhz. Hardly worth the effort. Then again, HCLK+33 and 145Mhz=178 Mem bus. Not healthy. Frankly, it's stupid to try. I'd rather pick up a 2200+.

[I0's]

What do you mean...a custom BIOS?

means more options in the bios, or u can say the original bios, what we are using is modified so that we dont have all options available to us, some guy has too much time in his hands and he mods bios, returning them to their original form.

is ur h/d on raid??

[BipolarBill]

is ur h/d on raid?? Yes 'they' are. ;)

[I0's]

yo, just today twice my computer restarted while i was just using IE, i dont think its the temperature caz the room temp is 25 and the computer starts rite away without any waiting the cpu temp is 46 and case 38 any ideas??

[BipolarBill]

Check Event Viewer. It's in Administrative Tools.

[I0's]

hmm.....
i did change the ram setting also today CL 2 2-5-2 with a OEM ram Samsung chip set must be that???

[BipolarBill]

I don't think I want to help you YOU NUT! You bought that cheap RAM and set it at CL2?

If you're going to hot rod the PC, you're out there on your own, IO's. I can troubleshoot systems that are standard, but not that.

[I0's]

hehehehehehehehehehe :p u make good jokes, ok, ok :r , but the ram stick is as cool as cucumber, but i will set it 2.5 3-6-3

[I0's]

oh i check and it said
The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck. The bugcheck was: 0x0000001e (0xc0000005, 0xba31da0a, 0x00000000, 0x00000031). Microsoft Windows 2000 [v15.2195]. A dump was saved in: C:\WINNT\Minidump\Mini072302-01.dmp.

any idea?

[BipolarBill]

Nope. You can stop it from rebooting though. System properties > Advanced > Startup and Recovery. Untick Automatically Restart.

[I0's]

where is System properties???, never mind found it

[I0's]

ohoh, do u use an enermax power supply?? i do a 350 watt with 2 fan, ok th power supply has a cable coming out (black/white) and has a 3 header pin but the middle pin is empty any idea what it is?? i think its for fan monitoring but that need 3 pins for the mobo

[BipolarBill]

I have the same PSU - the little one is for motherboard control of the PSU fan. It can control it, but the missing wire is what relays the fan speed to the motherboard, so you can't see the PSU fan speed, but can control it.

[I0's]

is ur EG365P-VE ?? mine is, or is ur the whisper one??
if its how do i control the fan speed??

[BipolarBill]

I have the same. You adjust the speed manually with the knob in the rear.

[I0's]

excatly which is ur model EG365P-VE FCA, mine is EG365P-VE or any other please state ur model caz i am :confused: caz there are so many different ones,

btw mine does have a black/white cable do u just plug it into PSFAN1 on the mobo????

[BipolarBill]

You're really driving me up a wall here, IO's. You're bordering on obsessive with this stuf.

Yes, I have the EG365P-VE S/N 11073760.

Yes, I use the B/W connector to the PSFAN1 "jumper".

[I0's]

hehehehehehehehehheeheehe, sorry to **** u off
i have EG365P-VE the ATX +12V series,but mine does not have a know at the rear, even on the wesite it does not have
http://www.enermax.com.tw/products/switch-main.htm
( :( :( :( :( :eek: :( :( :( :(

[BipolarBill]

OK...I have the FMA series:

http://www.enermax.com.tw/products/eg-365p-vefma.htm

You must have the plain VE:

http://www.enermax.com.tw/products/eg-365p-ve.htm

Enermax has one confusing lineup!

[BipolarBill]

BTW - the motherboard connection for both our Enermax's (Black/White) just monitors the intake fan for failure - it doesn't adjust it or power it on/off. Only the FCA model does that. The FCA has a red wire in the middle.

[I0's]

phew i am glad this thing was clarified, good, dam enermax, but they make good stuff thou

so u just plug the black and white plug to PSFAN1 and when my intake fan fails it will tell me??any software??drivers??

[BipolarBill]

Originally posted by I0's
any software??drivers?? Nope. Just PC Medic.

[I0's]

Originally posted by BipolarBill
Nope. Just PC Medic.

PC Medic or PC alert ???

btw, u have a athlon 1800 rite? which HSF do u have on it, is it loud??

btw, does ur HSF blow into the heatsink or suck out, caz i have volcano 6cu and it blows into, rite now my temp reaches 49-50 c
i am kind worried, i was woundering if i turn the fan which would make it sux air out, will that help??

[BipolarBill]

Yes - PC Alert. I was at work.

I have the 1900+ and I use the Thermalright SK6 with a Thermaltake 4500RPM fan. It's pretty quiet. It must be installed carefully because it's really tight. The Thermaltake Volcano was 4500 RPM too, but it was an 80mm fan vs. 60mm for the Thermalright. Big difference. The standard fan with the Thermalright is the 60mm Delta fan and it's a screamer. I ditched that. The Thermalright SK-600 and 800 are the same, but bigger and can still use the 60mm fan.

http://www.thermalright.com/sk6.html

http://www.thermalright.com/slk600.html

http://www.thermalright.com/slk800.html

http://www.thermaltake.com/products/dcfan/6025.htm

[I0's]

is not bigger fan the better??

[BipolarBill]

Not necessarily. Bigger is definitely noisier.

If it works, why buy bigger? I can see a bigger heatsink, but I question the need for a bigger/faster fan. The best way is the smallest possible heatsink and the slowest/smallest fan that works. I hate noise. :mad:

[I0's]

is this post one of the longest??
if its is its just built by 2 ppl, hehehe :r

[Giblet Plus!]

I have an MSI KT3 Ultra. I run my 900@1000 Tbird (200 fsb) at 133 fsb and the memory at 333 (effective speed-ddr) using the the HCLK + 33 setting.
My motherboard is also perfectly capable of running at 166 fsb with the memory at that speed. I haven't had any problems with running my 2100 ddr at 2700 speeds, but I can't use aggressive memory timings.
Gotta love that red PCB:t

[I0's]

Gotta love that red PCB yep yep

kewl, some1 else with same mobo.
u can run 2100 ram at 2700??

[Giblet Plus!]

Originally posted by I0's
yep yep

kewl, some1 else with same mobo.
u can run 2100 ram at 2700??

They didn't even have 2700 when I bought it last summer. No problems except that I can't run any agressive settings except for the fast command, and it doesn't like increased voltage. No stability issues at all, though.

Gotta change my signature, I've got a Thermal Integration V77L instead of the stock coolermaster heatsink now. In combination with my case fans, my temps are 35 degrees C. on both idle and load.(load is running folding@home) They used to be 43 idle and 49 load. (toasty) A good heatsink and a slow processor will work wonders. :t

[I0's]

i have a Geforce 2 Ti card and u know the AGP has a hook for the card my hook does not does into the card, but the video card works fine for now, any problems?

btw, i did try to push the card in but did not try very hard caz i might break something

[BipolarBill]

Older AGP cards won't have a notch for the hook. As long as the card works, it's fine.

I have yet to break a card when seating one. If you can break it, let me know. There's a circus in town and they need a new strongman. :p

[I0's]

If you can break it, let me know. There's a circus in town and they need a new strongman.

:r :D

[gtr]

Hi BipolarBill. I too have a sk6 heatsink and a delta fan 7000+rpms and it's giving me a headache at home. I used it in the dorm while i was in college and it filtered most of the noise for your sweetmates and now i dont' want the noise anymore.

Where and how much for a quiet fan which fits that heatsink?

[BipolarBill]

Search at NewEgg (http://www.newegg.com) for this:

TT-6025A-2B

That'll do ya. :) Get two!

If you have a few extra bux, try a 2600RPM fan:

SF6025L

[gtr]

Shoot. They are all out of stock. Thanks anyways :) . What temperature are you geting with your athlon xp? With my current fan i'm getting 107-111 F, but that's in a room with A/C.:)

[BipolarBill]

That's what I'm getting with a Thermaltake 4500RPM fan on the SK6 and an Athlon XP 1900+.

http://www.coolerguys.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=001&Product_Code=F-6060253&Category_Code=F-60

In stock!

[gtr]

Thanks BipolorBill. Do you recommend the KT3 board?

[BipolarBill]

Yes - but not for overclocking. The EPoX is better for that.

[I0's]

Originally posted by BipolarBill
Yes - but not for overclocking. The EPoX is better for that.

y not?? i has good features??
btw, i am a newbie at overclocking, so u have to fill me in :D

[BipolarBill]

The MSI is a nicely finished and loaded motherboard. It has it all. Unfortunately it can't overclock for beans. That's fine for me - I like stability.

I'm not giving classes in OCing for two reasons:

1. I don't recommend it.

2. I'm not the most knowledgeable person on it. We have a forum for that.

Frankly, it's not rocket science, but does take patience.

[I0's]

no, no, no, i am not asking u how to overclock, well the bios has almost all the functions to overclock so i dont c where u think this mobo is not good for overclock, i might have missed something :confused: ??

[BipolarBill]

Tell you what. Turn your FSB up to 142 and see how long it runs. The EPoX can run all day at 150, but doesn't have USB 2.0 or that sweet red PCB.

[I0's]

yep have to say red PCB, is sweet
btw, what i meant by overclocking was unlocking the L1 and adding water cooling and then turning the baby upto the max, will this mobo handle it well??

[BipolarBill]

It will handle unlocking and the cooling will help, but you won't be able to push the FSB very much.

What's that gonna get you anyway - a 10% increase in speed? So what? :rolleyes:

[RobUK]

The MSI is a nicely finished and loaded motherboard. It has it all. Unfortunately it can't overclock for beans.

i have to disagree with you BipolarBill, the MSI came second behind the epox in stability and overclocking and that was compared to the the ASUS and Abit offereings i think. My friend has this mobo and has had his 1700xp runing stable at 1900xp, thats a bus speed of 145Mhz. I have this mobo and a 2000xp but not yet tried overclocking it, theres no point really.

But i suppose you need good quality ram to overclock well :rolleyes: lol

RobUK

[gtr]

Which epox board are all of you talking about? Think epox has like 5 kt333 boards.

Would the MSI board run at 166fsb with crucial 333 ddr ram?

[RobUK]

depends on what you mean GTR. Do you mean the memory bus speed or the whole system bus speed???

If you mean the memory bus then yes it does, mine is running DDR333 (pc2700) ram at its default 166MHz.

As for the system, i don't think it would handle the 166Mhz bus at all. As all the devices connected would have a bus speed increase and it would probably damage them.

RobUK

[gtr]

The 145 you've mentioned was system bus speed? I was hopeing it was able to get 166 system bus but i guess that wouldn't make much sense since the cpu was designed 133x2. The truth is that i'm unfamilar with the via 333. If the bus speed remains the same and the memory speed is raised by 33mhz. Isn't that about the same performance as the 266 boards but just a little faster memory. OR the 145mhz kills the 266 boards?

[I0's]

What's that gonna get you anyway - a 10% increase in speed? So what?

thats y i did not increase the FSB, when i overclock i will be unlocking the L1



Do you mean the memory bus speed or the whole system bus speed???

Rob where do u set the ram bus speed, is it the ADVANCED CHIPSET FEATURES---->DRAM TIMING CONTROL---->SDRAM FREQUENCY?? i thought it does not matter caz it take ur FSB and doubles it??
correct me if i am wrong

THx

[BipolarBill]

Originally posted by gtr
Which epox board are all of you talking about? Think epox has like 5 kt333 boards.

http://www.epox.com/html/english/products/motherboard/ep-8k3a.htm

http://www.epox.com/html/english/products/motherboard/ep-8k3a+.htm

[RobUK]

IO as i understand it when you set the bus speed for the CPU (2 x 133 = 266DDR) the cpu and the system bus run at the 266MHz, all the other buses, agp, pci etc... are set by the bios to be stepped down to their correct bus speeds. A devision calculation is used for example 266Mhz / 4 = 66.5 MHz for the appropriate bus, agp, pci etc....

So when you overclock the system eg. 145 x 2 = 290Mhz bus, you get the following for whichever bus agp,pci etc....

290MHz / 4 = 72.5Mhz so you are overclocking the bus of whichever, agp,pci etc.....

Now the memory bus on the KT333 chipset is separate from the rest of the system. The mobo can detect the correct speed settings from the ram module or it can be set maually, usually HCLK or HCLK+33Mhz, these settings are found in the bios under the DRAM settings.

Now i don't know this for sure but if you set the CPU frequency higher and use the auto detection method for the ram, in theory it should set the ram to the normal 166Mhz (x2 = 333Mhz DDR) and leave the system bus at whatever you selected. Now i havn't tried this but i might out of curiosity. But if you set to HCLK it will set the memory to whatever the cpu clock is set to and if you use the HCLK+33 then it will run the CPU speed plus 33Mhz, which could really mess your ram up.

Be careful, overclocking can damage you PC!

RobUK

[I0's]

Now the memory bus on the KT333 chipset is separate from the rest of the system. The mobo can detect the correct speed settings from the ram module or it can be set maually, usually HCLK or HCLK+33Mhz, these settings are found in the bios under the DRAM settings.

does this only apply to KT333 chipsets?

[BipolarBill]

As far as I know, it is, but I wouldn't be shocked if the new SiS could do it.

[Nightblade]

First things I love my KT3-Ultra ARU, the sweet Red color is sooo much better than those other bland boards. Tricked my sys out with red mesh around the PSU cables and red zip ties. Just can't wait to get a newer video card from Gainward in Red.

Now back to OC'ing: I have noticed that Video cards are usually cool with OC, but my SB Live! or my Audigy **** out quickly when I crank up my FSB.

also I run my 2.5 CAS stick of Kingston 512 ddr333 at 2.0 CAS without any problems but when I start tinkering with the timings its bites the big one. I can run it a the High setting at 2.5 but with Memtest-86 I get better proformance with 2.0

I highy recommend Memtest-86 when u want to test your memory speeds and stabilty.

Memtest-86 Link (http://www.memtest86.com/)

When u run the install it'll make a bootable floopy, the full test can take some time but its worth it to see if you re getting any errors. If you get some errors try adjusting your memory voltage up or down (usually up, but I had to go down on my POS Abit KG-7) I also run full tests on any new mem sticks I get especially cheap generic ones from Fry's.

[RobUK]

Nightblade i have the nice MSI (8850) Geforce3 ti200 pro-vt128 and its in RED it looks so cool along with my KT3 Ultra ARU. What a combo!

RobUK

[AndyWhitt]

I had a MSI K7T, its was fricking amazing, I had the 1700XP running smooth as, and had it at 1900XP for ages, as RobUK said earlier ;)

I've heard good reviews about the MSI Geforce 3 too.

Would definetly buy more MSI stuff, from what i have read on this post, some of you need to do some reading, RobUK is the only one who seems to know what he is on about.

Will definitely get the MSI board when the new AMD's are released, will have a kick *** system.

Andy

[Giblet Plus!]

I have a MSI KT3 Ultra, as I stated earlier. I have had the FSB up 174 mhz (the fsb, not the mem bus), and I have left it at 166 for extended periods of time. You have to have an unlocked processor to run at these FSB settings. I used the pencil trick on my TBird. It has been very stable. I'd go higher on the FSB, but the lowest multiplyer in the BIOS is 6.0. (I have a 900)
Some blamed some high FSB instability on their Audigy. While it is a overrated card, I also have one. I don't think it limits my FSB at all. Try looking at other compents. :t