Memory timings, weird bios behaviour, frustration...

Question

Hi.
I recently bought a MSI 875P mobo, a P4c 2.4GHz to go with it and also 2x512MB Kingston HyperX PC3200 memory.
First thing I did was flash the bios to the newest version (1.8), which, after reading things from another thread might not have been such a great idea after all.
Seems that the CAS latency setting in the bios does not do anything. No matter if its set to 2, 2.5 or 3, CPU-Z always shows 2. Also, im getting quite frustratign results when overclocking with this mobo, no matter how much voltage I give to the memory (I have tried as much as 3,2v) whenever the memory bus is over 200MHz the system wont be stable. It seems as if the memory voltage setting doesnt do anything, as it doesnt matter if its set to 2.5 or 3.2 it wont be any more or less stable. (I know over 200MHz is over spec for this memory but the mem is supposed to do alot better than that, especially when increasing the voltage.) Also even with low memory speeds im unable to get the CPU to go very high... it does 3GHz (250MHz FSB) fine with default core voltage, but anything above that wont be stable no matter what CPU core voltage I use. Could be my CPU, but I suspect the motherboard to be the reason with so many faults already.
Theres also some weird behaviour by the bios I have seen. For example, sometimes the AGP/PCI divider has three settings (66,75,83MHz) and sometimes it allows me to set the frequencies by 1MHz steps, but still so that there is no 66MHz setting at all, just 67 - 83MHz and one extra setting which gets adjusted as I adjust the FSB. Also, sometimes when I try to go into the BIOS setup, I only get a black screen. This often happens if I press some other key (for example tab) before pressing del during POST. weird and extremely annoying.
Is there any hope that issues such as these would be resolved in a future bios update? I'm a little frustrated after setting up this system with watercooling etc. and now being stuck with this motherboard doing weird things and certainly not being a good mobo for overclocking!
In case these issues wont be solved in the near future, I will propably switch to another brand motherboard... Anyone reading these boards with good experience from other manufacturers, preferably similar boards as the 875P in terms of features (wanted ones)?
any help appreciated (preferably from someone from MSI),thanks.

Answer 1

Quote
Originally posted by DOS
If you set any performance setting other than Slow the memory timings are set for you. If you want to overclock to 3G set the ram voltage to max 2.8, set the performance mode to Slow (bad term - is should be 'Normal'), set the DRAM clock to 333 (this will run the ram at 320 when FSB is at 200, also referred to as 5:4 ratio), set your FSB to 250. This will clock the ram at 400. You should be able then go further.
This is what I have done, the performance setting is set to slow, and even right now I have CAS 3 set in the bios but cpu-z still shows its using CAS 2. Using 333MHz DRAM clock with 250MHz FSB is stable at all default voltages, but anything above those wont work, no matter what voltages. If I set the FSB to 255, it wont be stable anymore, not even with 1.7v vcore and 3.3v memory voltage. Even setting the DRAM clock to 266MHz wont be stable with 255FSB. Also, running a lower FSB with a higher memory clock, so that the FSB is lower but memory goes above 200MHz wont be stable no matter what.