How far can PC-133 ram be O/C'ed?

[Matt M]

I have a good combo of 9.5 on the multipliers and 111Mhz on the FSB giving me 1,054 Mhz on my AMD Athlon 900. It is very stable and with CPU Cool running, the idle temp is around 31*C with ambient of 26*C, and heavy game load temp is around 48*C. Since I over O/C'ed my FSB, I put my ram on 100 instead of 133 in BIOS so it is running at 111. My question is, with midgrade PC-133 RAM, is it ok to go ahed and put it to 133 in the BIOS and let it run at 147.5 Mhz with the O/C'ed FSB? Is 14.5 mhz going to be enough to make it so hot that there could be trouble or is it just safe to leave it underclocked at 111?

[Target]

You could certainly try it out. Its really hard to say if your mid-grade RAM will be up to the task. Some obviously are better than others. I have personally seen some PC133 sticks that begin to have trouble shortly after 133mhz, and yet others don't seem to mind running into the 140's or even the low 150's.

Only way to tell with yours perhaps is to try.

[Matt M]

What kinds of signs am I looking for if it is overheating? Will my computer just hang a lot or will it give me error messages or do I just look for smoke comming from the case? http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[Bsdboy]

No smoke but you're right about errors and such,if this happens just clock it down a little.

Bsdboy

[NDD]

Look for BSODs with "0028" or "0167" in it ...

Best Regards ...

[Virtual Infinity]

You can always try lowering the CAS latency to 3 if it doesnt work properly.

[JScottieC]

Or you could just buy pc150 ram, I recently got some off of ebay. Its OCZ ram

[Dputiger]

I'd stay away from OCZ and OCZ products--for reasons just hit Resellerratings.com--they've got an abysmal reputation and from having dealt with them I can corroberate it--frankly their an insult to honest PC companies.

[elroy]

The real performance improvement will come if you can get up to 133FSB.
Try premiersystem.com in Chicago for ram. They guarantee it to be compatible or they pay for return shipping. Their low price ram is excellent, they also have PC150 and PC166 ram. Also their shipping is $4.95 and free for repeat customers with a $50 order. They have 256mb of PC133 cas2 for $45.

[krusty the klown]

Ditto what Virtual Infinity said - CAS3 http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

Running at CAS3 over CAS2 usually frees up a lot of stable MHz, with only a small performance hit.

[paul233]

I have some generic 133 ram that runs fine at 149, give it a try.....ram does not get very hot, if it is too much the machine just wont work

[No Limit]

My Texas Instruments PC133 ram that I bought on EBay works fine up to 146mhz on cas3. My Corsair PC150 works fine at 160mhz on cas2.

[Bob The Great]

Just raise it up a little at a time. You might want to get another case fan or something to point at them mem. The mem can get pretty hot!

Basicly go for it. It's just pure chance. I have some generic pc-100 mem that I got to 133 easy!

[Savant]

yep go ahead and try its the only way to tell, same as with processors I have generic pc100@140 on here at the moment http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[paul233]

I can ditto what elroy said about Premiersystems.....fast and cheap. My 133 is running at 148, no problems. You have to try it to find out.