nd22 wrote on 2025-10-13, 09:09:

The first screen is the soft menu where you can see that I manually selected the lowest possible voltage across the board:

Is it a SoftMenu from K8U? What is max value for CPU FSB clock? And what can you set in AGP Clock? Maybe it allows locking AGP frequency?

nd22 wrote on 2025-10-13, 10:29:

DRAM menu lets you select manually the timings; unfortunately only with AUTO and SPD will you get a stable system - at 2.5V of course:

You can always use A64 Tweaker to read default values for all timings and then try to set them manually in the BIOS. 😀

I have not seen DDR 400 ECC memory. Only DDR 333 registered. It looks exactly as https://priceblaze.com/hymd512g726bf4n-j-aa-a … y-Server-Memory

Locally 2x 1GB is available. With 3x, it might have been possible to fit s754 with 3GB memory at DDR 400 provided the memory runs that fast. It seems to be rated for CL2.5 at DDR333 so it might run at DDR400. But since it is only 2x, it isn't that useful.

AlexZ wrote on 2025-10-13, 16:58:

I have not seen DDR 400 ECC memory. Only DDR 333 registered. It looks exactly as https://priceblaze.com/hymd512g726bf4n-j-aa-a … y-Server-Memory

Locally 2x 1GB is available. With 3x, it might have been possible to fit s754 with 3GB memory at DDR 400 provided the memory runs that fast. It seems to be rated for CL2.5 at DDR333 so it might run at DDR400. But since it is only 2x, it isn't that useful.

They do exist.

https://www.neotronics.es/memoria-ram-servido … 2777092135.html
In fact, that's a 4GB PC-3200R ECC module.

I think I still have some of these, albeit 2GB sticks, laying around. I bought them 10-15 years ago for use in the Abit Nforce 4 board I mentioned earlier to get it to 4GB. Pretty sure I picked these up because, at the time, they were the cheapest 2GB DDR-400 sticks I could find and the board supported ECC registered memory. It did work, but MAN... those things ran BLAZING HOT. I think one of them died eventually... although any issues with that board may have just been related to the caps that were failing. I haven't tested that RAM in anything since. Also, they are very wide due to the heatsink design so you may actually have to bend the heatsinks flat to get them to fit, which would obviously not help with cooling.

EDIT: Actually, maybe I am misunderstanding something? I just did a search on ebay and there are tons of PC-3200R modules available for barely more than scrap price. These aren't rare and many are 2GB.

I am not sure, if those can work on my K8N, as manual stated:

Ydee wrote on 2025-10-13, 17:45:

I am not sure, if those can work on my K8N, as manual stated:

Yeah, I'm not sure. Unless there is something online stating otherwise, I would assume that it won't work.

The Abit AN8 32x manual says "Supports Dual Channel DDR 400 ECC/non-ECC un-buffered memory" , and I was able to use 2GB sticks of the type linked above. I just dug them out. I thought they were 1GB but they are actually 2GB. Sweet. 😀

There was an article somewhere regarding ECC support on AMD desktop hardware, in short unlike intel they take no steps to intentionally disable it and IMC usually supports it, but also motherboard manufacturers take no steps to actually claim support or validate it, though in most cases motherboards do have things necessary for it to work.

Registered memory is a little different in a sense that it, again, requires IMC to support it which often is not the case, but on K8 it is.

Most manuals for K8 boards (s939, s754) i've seen claim "ECC/non-ECC un-buffered memory", though i've tried ECC registered on multiple s939 boards at this point and it works, including actual error reporting.

Since there is no official support the only way to be sure is to try, which is not a big problem given smaller modules are practically free.

From my experience i've also seen much better stability with registered memory - it easily works with 2 sticks per channel, CR1, 200Mhz and relatively lower timings than is possible with unbuffered.

For example on the boards i have i was unable to get 2 unbuffered sticks per channel work reliably with CR1 even at 3-3-3-8 200Mhz(DDR400), without messing with voltage at least. Would not even post most of the time. Which is also confirmed by period-correct discussions - it was seemingly always the case and people just assumed 2 modules per channel require CR2 most of the time.

Given this, larger modules available and low price IMO it is totally worth getting registered memory for K8 builds.

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2025-10-13, 18:05:

Ydee wrote on 2025-10-13, 17:45:

I am not sure, if those can work on my K8N, as manual stated:

Yeah, I'm not sure. Unless there is something online stating otherwise, I would assume that it won't work.

The Abit AN8 32x manual says "Supports Dual Channel DDR 400 ECC/non-ECC un-buffered memory" , and I was able to use 2GB sticks of the type linked above. I just dug them out. I thought they were 1GB but they are actually 2GB. Sweet. 😀

This is good to know! I also got that board but i use regular non-ECC RAM. Thank you.

luk1999 wrote on 2025-10-13, 16:56:

Is it a SoftMenu from K8U? What is max value for CPU FSB clock? And what can you set in AGP Clock? Maybe it allows locking AGP f […]
Show full quote

nd22 wrote on 2025-10-13, 09:09:

The first screen is the soft menu where you can see that I manually selected the lowest possible voltage across the board:

Is it a SoftMenu from K8U? What is max value for CPU FSB clock? And what can you set in AGP Clock? Maybe it allows locking AGP frequency?

nd22 wrote on 2025-10-13, 10:29:

DRAM menu lets you select manually the timings; unfortunately only with AUTO and SPD will you get a stable system - at 2.5V of course:

You can always use A64 Tweaker to read default values for all timings and then try to set them manually in the BIOS. 😀

As you can see written on the top of the page: SOFT MENU
I got A64 tweaker and it doesn't help at all; memory compatibility remains just as terrible!

The AGP configuration page is the next stop where we find something important: AGP secondary latency timer lets you set the number of cycles the AGP bus has in order to finish its job before other PCI devices take over. That is the official explanation; in the case of KU8 it also controls compatibility with certain video cards -bridged AGP Radeons!

The last interesting page is the hypertransport configuration:
- hammer to M1689 frequency represents the hypertransport frequency and it is set at 800 MHz as it should be on socket 754.
- hammer to M1689 width is, as the name implies, the width of the hypertransport bus and 16/8 bits is the max value
- M1689 HTT (hypertransport) tristate - contrary to some forum posts this option actually enhances the stability of the system and it is mandatory on Abit KU8 otherwise you will get random crashes! Leave it enabled at all times!

nd22 wrote on Yesterday, 06:16:

As you can see written on the top of the page: SOFT MENU
I got A64 tweaker and it doesn't help at all; memory compatibility remains just as terrible!

One curious thing about DDR1 is that it is 2.5V only up to 333, DDR-400 should be 2.6V. I've had this bug with some SocketA boards and without ability to change voltage it is... problematic. Here you should just set it to 2.6V and perhaps things will improve.

You are correct: I have seen 2.6V that on some modules; other have even 2.8V written on them - Corsair for example. However in every single system I have assembled I manually selected the lowest possible voltage and tested every RAM stick until I found 2 that work! Until today on all socket 462 and 754 boards I managed to find modules that work with 2.5V - that is the lowest voltage for DDR on all Abit boards I worked with.

You should be using the voltage written on the modules (2.6V), unless they are for OCing as in that case they tend to have 2.8V on them. You shouldn't have to test all sticks to find ones that work with 2.5V. If ABIT was that picky, nobody would have bought ABIT back then. It is a consequence of some settings you are using.

System info: CPUZ - legacy shows most of the info; GPUZ shows that the geforce 7800gs belongs to the problematic G71 series - I used that card in all the systems for thousands of tests until now and it still works! I must be lucky.

AlexZ wrote on Yesterday, 07:35:

You should be using the voltage written on the modules (2.6V), unless they are for OCing as in that case they tend to have 2.8V on them. You shouldn't have to test all sticks to find ones that work with 2.5V. If ABIT was that picky, nobody would have bought ABIT back then. It is a consequence of some settings you are using.

Point taken - if sometime in the future I will test an Abit board that will not work with minimum RAM voltage with any of the modules I have I will try the voltage written on the sticks. I should underline the fact that I hope to keep all the boards in running condition for many, many years and AFAIK low voltages + low temperatures are some of the conditions required to have them running 10- 20 years from now.

Everest version 5.50 - AIDA today! - shows every single detail.
ULI drivers are surprisingly easy to get a hold of: nvidia still has them. I use the latest 220 integrated drivers for the chipset; latest realtek 4.06 drivers for AC97 codec; IC+ network card has an available driver version 4.5.50202 on SOGGI's website: https://soggi.org/drivers/ic-plus.htm.

It seems that I forgot to mention the drivers used on the NVIDIA systems so here they are along with all the drivers used:
- nforce3 platform driver version 5.10 - latest for nforce3 are 5.11; the only difference between them and the previous version is the newer network driver on the latter; for some mysterious reason I got disconnected a million times from my intranet using 5.11 (cable length is irrelevant, only 4m!) The fact that I used the exact same driver version with another system will be highly advantageous in part 2!
- nforce4 platform driver version 15.23 - latest available!
- geforce driver version 175.19 & 197.77 - tested both version and the results are extremely close, practically the same.
- radeon driver version 10.2 - latest for X1K series and by far the one with the best performance! Catalyst control center needs net framework 2.0 installed.
- VIA platform driver 4.56V.
- VIA network driver version 1.76A.
- Realtek AC97 driver version 4.06
- IC+ network card driver from the best site for Abit owners: www.soggi.org!

Because I mentioned VIA it is now time to present the last system: Abit KV8 PRO/VIA K8T800 PRO.
It is the only motherboard with a VIA chipset used in the tests. A very common board, easy to find and cheap, KV8 PRO is like the name implies based on the K8T800 PRO chipset. I will summarize the keys features and differences between it and the predecessor K8T800 with this picture taken from the review of the board on www.hothardware.com.
It features only what the chipset offers and nothing else so you get 2 SATA ports that can only use first generation drives (or drives that can be jumpered to SATA 150 speed); a VIA gigabit network adapter that uses the PCI bus so this will be a bottleneck as the max speed is nearly the max speed of the PCI bus; a standard Realtek ALC658 codec just like the rest of the boards.