Tír Na HiFi

----TWEAK 14-----
UPDATING my ram timing+frequency experience.
-of all my hardware, hdd, cpu, board etc, RAM affects sound the most! if you don't tune your RAM, you are totally missing out!
-if you buy a energy saving board, then you can't tune your RAM. shame.
-less RAM voltage doesn't equal better SQ. your RAM needs food to sound at its best. this applies to CPU voltage as well.

my ram is consair is rated at 1600Mhz 9-9-9-24-2, 1.5v

rules:
1. any kind of overclocking requires >1.5v for stability. overclocking makes compressed sound, thinner sound, earaches at high frequencies.

2.
e.g. 1800Mhz, 10-10-10-24-2, 1.5v is NOT overclocking. because no voltage increase is needed for stability.
e.g. 800MHz, 4-4-4-7-2 is overclocking!
DON'T BE FOOLED BY HIGHER FREQUENCY. RAM speed is defined by TIMING + FREQUENCY.

3. CPU bus speed: DRAM speed ratio. either it is 100:100 or 100:133
e.g. 800, 1866, 2133 etc are 100 to 133.
e.g. 1400, 1600, 1800, 2000, 2200 etc are 100 to 100.
100 to 133 seems to produce better soundstage (3D), but losses details
i recommend 100 to 100.

4. in general, i like
12-13-13 > 12-12-12 > 11-11-11 > 10-10-10.... (at 13-13-13, bios won't boot)
more free and open. more analog.

5. at 12-13-13-x
x is best SQ at 22, 35 and 48. (at 61, bios won't boot). any other x sounds wrong. e.g. if 22 is correct, then 21 losses details and 23 is dry, 24 is drier/thinner.
12-13-13-22 is most direct. soundstage can be too forward, too directly into the face.
12-13-13-48 is best balance. everything sounds good up to a point.
12-13-13-35 is in-between.

x is calculated as (13+13)*number-y.
number=1,2,3,4,5...
y=1,2,3,4... in general 13 must use y=4, 12 to 9 must use y=3. 5 to 6 must use y=1.

6. at 12-13-13-48
1800MHz sounds too raw. no elegant.
2000MHz sounds best. mellow, everything well-balanced.
2200MHz seems to sound better, but is worse. seems more transparent, but thinner, dryer. stage seems more 3D, but actually main music is pushed forward.
2400MHz is overclocking, requires 1.61v for stability and 1.65v to sound ok. earaches. more thin sound.

7. choose a correct voltage for 2000MHz 12-13-13-48
1.5v. dry. earaches.
1.53v. power/energy kicks in. earaches are less.
1.545v. earaches are much gone.
1.55v. a layer of sound indicating too much voltage.

8. i used to like 800-6-6-6-11 at 1.5v
2000Mhz 12-13-13-48 at 1.53 to 1.545v is much better. don't use 12-13-13 or 11-12-12 etc when memory prefetch is disabled.
2000Mhz 12-12-12-45 at 1.53 to 1.545v is also great. recommend 12-12-12 or 11-11-11 etc for easy stability of SQ.

JC

What command rate do you use?
This command rate also has significant effect on how the RAM is working.

Cheers

Aleg

Aleg wrote:JC

What command rate do you use?
This command rate also has significant effect on how the RAM is working.

Cheers

Aleg

think hes working from a command rate of 2

get a feeling his voltage phenomenon would be removed by clean power
12v battery to cpu socket would be a good test

Aleg wrote:JC

What command rate do you use?
This command rate also has significant effect on how the RAM is working.

Cheers

Aleg

there is only 1 and 2. why don't you try and tell us lol.

command rate = 1 had not been a totally positive experience for me when timing is tight.
shall test command rate again. it might work for a loose timing like 12-12-12. never tried.

nige2000 wrote:

Aleg wrote:JC

What command rate do you use?
This command rate also has significant effect on how the RAM is working.

Cheers

Aleg

think hes working from a command rate of 2

get a feeling his voltage phenomenon would be removed by clean power
12v battery to cpu socket would be a good test

what does it sound like when you add like 0.2v to you ram? interested to know.

my power sucks. no linear. no battery.

jesuscheung wrote:

nige2000 wrote:

Aleg wrote:JC

What command rate do you use?
This command rate also has significant effect on how the RAM is working.

Cheers

Aleg

think hes working from a command rate of 2

get a feeling his voltage phenomenon would be removed by clean power
12v battery to cpu socket would be a good test

what does it sound like when you add like 0.2v to you ram? interested to know.

my power sucks. no linear. no battery.

finished messing with wires for now
will try your overclock and voltage settings tonight and report back

nige2000 wrote:

jesuscheung wrote:
what does it sound like when you add like 0.2v to you ram? interested to know.

my power sucks. no linear. no battery.

finished messing with wires for now
will try your overclock and voltage settings tonight and report back

don't forget to tell me adding or less voltage is better for linear power!! thx

right i have a b85 set up here so no 2000mhz on the ram
i will be putting a z87i in the final build

didnt get giving the ram voltage a real good test but enough to get an idea
only tried 1.2v and 1.5, seems to change the sound very little, slightly preferred 1.2v

when i settle on a build ill revisit the settings

-----TWEAK 15-----
intro:
i was modding my soundcard ASIO driver. i had to ownership of the folder c:\windows\System32 to overwrite the original ASIO dll files. my ASIO has better SQ, as i hope. somehow MQn uses WASAPI sounds better too! so, i guess taking ownership means OS doesn't have to work hard to maintain security of System32. hence OS has more free time/CPU cycle to process audio!

download "Take Ownership" Registry Script:
http://www.askvg.com/add-take-ownership ... ows-vista/

only take ownership of system32 and SysWOW64.
don't take ownership of other folders. may degrade SQ.

edited tweak 15