darklink

I just pieced together my new AM3 build over the weekend and have been having some issues. Not sure if this should be under the AMD memory or motherboard section (really in regards to both).

After I put everything together and setup the BIOS, I could not get my computer to load Windows. I was receiving errors that OS files were missing even though I hadn't even installed an OS yet. After playing with the BIOS settings I realized this was because I had the RAM set at 1600MHz (which it is rated for). As soon as I set it back to 1333 I was able to install windows.

After the install of Windows I downloaded CPU-Z, Prime95 and CoreTemp and began some overclocking. I tried everything under the sun to get my RAM to run at 1600 but it seems the board just does not want that to happen. This is where I am not sure if it is the RAM or the board just being picky.

Last night I set the ram to 1066 and set the timings completely loose at 8-8-8-30-40-1T. I then set the cpu clock to 250MHz and the HT Link and NB frequency to 2500MHz. NB and SB voltage is at 1.4 and the CPU/NB VID is set at 1.3. That has been running Prime95 stable (8 hours) and has still been running since I left for work.

The memory is not on the QVL list on Gigabyte's website that list is extremely short anyway. When I get home tonight, if Prime is still running then I will move back on to the memory speed and timings. The memory is spec'd at DDR1600 8-8-8-24 at 1.65v so I guess I'll start relaxing the timings to 9-9-9 and start from there. In the long run I was wondering if any other owners of this board were having any RAM issues.

__________________

DRUM & BASS

!!~AMD Phenom II X3 700 Series OC Club~!!

McDown

Phenom II officially doesn't support 1600mhz RAM. I had AMD edition Platinum with my 955 setup and I had to set Vdim to 1.7V and CPU-NB to 1.33V to be able to run memory at rated speed and timings. I also had my NB @ 2600mhz.

_02

As stated above

Many people have been having issues getting 1600 stable, and there are several threads listing specs people have gotten stable.

Since it's not a Qualified Vendor, there is no guarantee of compatibility anyway.

I have this same board in the mail. Good luck.

McDown

The memory controller is inside CPU, the board doesn't have to do anything with it.

_02

Indeed, small typos make big differences

darklink

Thanks for the replies. I checked the OCZ forum and it sounds like there really are a lot of issues with getting RAM to 1600 on these boards. One thing I noticed was a lot of people setting the command rate to 2T from 1T but I thought that for AMD platforms, 1T was always the way to go. Would I notice much of a performance drop going from 1T to 2T?

__________________

DRUM & BASS

!!~AMD Phenom II X3 700 Series OC Club~!!

McDown

I don't think you will notice much of a performance drop but it sure will make much easier to get your RAM stable at higher frequencies.

darklink

I have a different question now in regards to NB/HT and voltages. I have been reading a bunch of different threads in regards to my previous memory question and now have more questions. One of the threads indicated that HT link isn't as important as NB frequency, but they are related and the NB cannot be higher than the HT link. Is this true? If so then how can the NB OC'd without the HT link being OC'd.

Also, I currently have the system clock at 250MHz with the NB and HT speeds at 2500MHz. I am running 1.4v on the NB and SB and 1.3v on the CPU/NB VID. Are the voltages too high on the NB and SB or 1.4v still considered safe?

__________________

DRUM & BASS

!!~AMD Phenom II X3 700 Series OC Club~!!

bringonblink

wow on my board stock nb sb and cpu-nb are all 1.1, ive got nb and sb at 1.3 atm, and cpu nb at 1.35, nb and sb idle at bout 30 , load bout 32

darklink

Yeah.... I was starting to think my voltages were too high. Started digging through the massive amount of AMD overclocking information and am going to make some necessary changes as soon as I get. I'm gonna drop the SB to stock volts and back down to 1.3 on the NB. Set the NB-CPU to 1.35 and drop the HT link back to around 2200. Then I'll see if I can get the NB frequency to about 2800.

__________________

DRUM & BASS

!!~AMD Phenom II X3 700 Series OC Club~!!