[Zoomer]

So I had memory issues. 3 of my DIMMs are dead. I'll be getting a new Mushkin set sometime this week.

My DVD Drive wasn't working well, that seems to have fixed itself.

One remaining issue:

The one stick of RAM that still works seems to have some strange glitches, despite passing Memtest86+ (V. 2.11). It won't run at rated speed when synced with the CPU FSB speed (though both have run fine at that in the past).

Some have said this could be a motherboard issue. I've tried slightly higher voltages and looser timings (looser timings also cause the "Overclocking error, please reset...." message on boot, which I find VERY weird).

Everything is stable synced at 1333mhz, otherwise, when unlinked (both at 1600mhz), I CAN boot, but usually my system will freeze up and I have to restart after 30 minutes-hour.

Since the RAM came in sets of two, I'm thinking the last stick is close to dying too, but since it passes memtest, I have no idea.

Should I bump up the FSB voltage? (It's still running auto in the BIOS.)

That's all I can think of....could it be something else with my mobo?

I can give temp. readings if requested, will just have to write them down. All fans set at manual 100% currently.

EDIT: The system IS my sig rig, but as stated, the Q9550 is at stock at the moment, and running 2GB (one stick) of the corsair as the others fail horribly at memtest. They had been running for about a year.

 

[Zoomer]

I'm just gonna give this thread a little nudge in the right direction......

 

[Zoomer]

Can anybody say if this is a motherboard issue or specific to the FSB/RAM? I don't have a voltmeter, but I'm pretty certain it's not the PSU. <_<

 

[Zoomer]

So I'm going to have to assume it's either the RAM or motherboard. Since the RAM passes memtest, is it most likely the motherboard? Somebody please give me some advice on how to tell if it's my mobo (it's an XFX 790i, which is the reference design, with the stats in my sig besides what I already pointed out)!

 

[ChickenInferno]

Please don't bump your thread for 24hrs. You bumped it 3 times in 2hrs, which is a big No-No.

that being said List off your voltages and settings in your bios.

Make sure that your stick of ram is in the 2nd slot and not the first (from left to right) as the 2nd and 4th slots are for 1600mhz and higher.

With that said, set your ram to Linked/Synced and increase the voltage up .1v above stock. If this is your ram, then you should be able to push it pretty far. (That's what I have).

The key to me figuring out how to make my ram work was Enabling P1 and P2 (Not just auto switch to enabled).

 

[Zoomer]

Wait, you have yours at Cas 7? That's actually a pretty decent overclock....but are you sure you mean .1v? As in set it to 1.9 Volts? What are your other timings?

Also, sorry about bumping so much. Forgot about that. X(

 

[ChickenInferno]

Yeah, they mine can't be pushed much in terms of mhz, but my timings dropped like flies. I'm currently running 7-7-7-20-2T at 1690mhz which is linked/synced with my CPU overclock. On our chipset anything but a 2:1 ratio (DRAM:FSB) will just kill performance.

Yes, I have mine running at 1.9v, which is fine. Before I enabled P1 and P2, I couldn't get any performance out of my ram.

 

[Zoomer]

Sweet!! I'll try that now (though I will switch to some Mushkin soon, to replace what was lost, if nothing else. Also, their stock timings are extremely awesome at 6-7-6-18 ^__^).

 

[ChickenInferno]

Consider buying some 1800mhz ram instead of the Mushkin 1600mhz cas6 set.

Since your sig says you are running 3.83ghz (450x8.5), to run a 2:1 ratio (Linked/Synced), then you would need to be at 1800mhz. You might even consider buying a 2000mhz set which would give you more headroom to overclock your CPU while still staying Linked/Synced

1800mhz $85

2000mhz set $87 after MIR

If the mushkin set I think you are referring to is this, then just keep in mind that it's a tri-channel kit and you have a dual channel mobo. There is no guarantee that it will work or work effectively, but I can definitively say that if it worked it would be running in dual channel with 2 sticks or single channel with all 3 sticks. Basically, you would have a stick to just throw away or use it as a backup. Also, note that i7 tri-channel kits run at 1.65v. You might be able to overclock the crap out of it by raising the voltage up to around 1.85-1.9, but that also might fry it....what I'm trying to say is that I don't know of a case where it's been done. I would be very interested in your results if you tried to do it

 

[Zoomer]

Well, all DDR3 boards can run DDR3 between 1.5 and 1.9~ish volts, so that's in spec. Also, they're the same pin arrangement and such, and run within normal speeds.

The CPU overclock isn't that important to me, either. I could just sync them at 1600mhz and I'd be perfectly happy, as I haven't noticed a very large difference in games and such, and that's what I do. I'm not running this as a folding rig and only sometimes do transcoding of DVDs. I just want low latency RAM to link up to the CPU synced or at a very decent ratio to remain stable, and perhaps the future-guarding of the i7 compatability.

Also, 2GB sucks when using an x64 OS, as that's what's reccomended anyway, and I use almost half of that on a normal basis.

The OC you reccomended seemed a little high for me, so I tried setting a 1T clock rate with all other timings at stock at 1.875 volts and that froze up my PC today, so I'm pretty sure that it wouldn't work for me in this case.

Thanks, btw, for the tips. I will be trying to use a tri-channel set (single-channel mode doesn't make a huge difference anyway).

My only concern is running all three sticks at 1600mhz. Would that be compatible and stable if more than two slots are filled? I'm just wonderin since you said the 2nd and 4th slots are for 1600mhz+.

 

[ChickenInferno]

In your sig you show your CPU as being at 3.83ghz, which would have to be achieved by 470x8.5. You need ram that can run as 470x4=1880 to link and sync. With ram at that speed linked and synced, I can pretty much guarantee a 10% or more performance increase in games from 400x8.5=3.4ghz with linked/synced 1600mhz ram.

Your two GTX 280's are begging for more clock speed from your CPU and your monitor's resolution (1680x1050) is more CPU bound than higher resolutions, which means that Clock speed is even more importance.

What I was saying with the tri-channel ram may not work in a dual channel mobo post is simply that the ram you are looking at was not designed for anything but the i7 mobos. There is no guarantee that it will run at its rated speeds or timings. There is no guarantee that your 1600mhz 6-7-6-16 mushkin set will run at that. You may find out that since it was designed to operate with the Intergrated Memory Controller (IMC) that when it is being handled by the northbridge it can only run 1600mhz 9-9-9-24-2T...which is no different than what you already have...and on top of that there is no guarantee that if you only used 2 sticks that dual channel would work correctly.

Yes, there is a huge difference between single channel and dual channel. Your bandwidth would be cut in half and you would have a noticeable decrease in performance on all levels.

Some DDR3 will run 1T timing at lower speeds with a pretty decent performance gain, but most won't. Tighten your other timings. I'm currently at 7-7-7-20-2T @1.9v and the sub timings I'll have to look up really quick. I can't guarantee that your ram will be able to run these timings though.

tCL 7
tRCD 7
tRP 7
tRAS 20
CMD 2T

tRRD 1
tRC 29
tWR 10
tWTR Auto (19)
tFAW 29
tRFC 110 (If using all 4 slots this must be above 79 IIRC. I'm still working on lowering this)
tREF 7.8uS

 

[Zoomer]

Well, even at all stock speeds and 2T at 1.85-1.875, it is not stable. I have had to reboot my system several times today and was greeted by the "Overclock Failed" Message and asked to reset CPU or Memory settings.

I ran memtest several times yesterday, so it's not likely errors. Not entirely sure what's going on.

With what you said, I will be doing some research around the net (most likely via the Mushkin Enhanced Forums) to see if what I had planned on will work. If not, then I will go with a Dual Channel kit rated at 7-7-7-20-1T (that is what most people have gotten, and they say that's what it's rated for, but Newegg doesn't list the Clock Rate).

As long as I can run games past 60FPS with Medium-Max settings, I'm good. I don't have a great cooler, and had bad luck with trying to install a Noctua (didn't seem to make contact for some reason, have no idea why, CPU heated up and kept rebooting due to temps, but I'm still using the paste despite having returned it >_>).

3.4 is decent enough for now. Just need to know why the last stick of RAM isn't stable.

If I did overclock the CPU more, I'd just run them unlinked, or if nothing else, run a divider as you mentioned before. I'm not looking for bleeding edge, just good performance and reliability for gaming, mostly.

Here are the readings from the System Monitor:

CPU0: 43*C/109*F
Board: 33*C/91*F

CPU Core: 1.32V
CPU Current: 18.76A
Memory: 1.84V
NForce SPP: 1.32V
+3.3V: 3.23V
+3.3Dual: 3.23V
+12V: 12.07V
+V Bat: 3.04V

 

[ChickenInferno]

Have you run Small FTTs in prime95 to check your CPU overclock. I would if you haven't just to rule out CPU instability.

You need to increase your NB up to 1.5v max that should help your ram out alot.

 

[Zoomer]

Northbridge is listed as the SPP, am I right?

I'll get Prime95 loaded ASAP, I'm on the laptop right now.

For whatever reason the crashes/freezes have always happened when running firefox and nothing else....my Granpa's playing a game on it now and it seems to run fine for him. <_<

 

[ChickenInferno]

SPP is northbridge
MCH is southbridge

Even if it seems fine an instability can cause hard drive corruptions, which sucks really bad especially when it's on a 1Tb drive (I speak from experience).

I have a feeling you may need a little more vcore or the insufficent Northbridge volts is causing instabilities/ram instabilities.

 

[Zoomer]

Okay, good to know. Will use 1.5 in the future. Still going for the new RAM soon, gonna post on the Mushkin forums now.

Oh, and still can't access desktop, so will update later.

 

[Zoomer]

Hey, are you sure that it's safe to set the SPP to 1.5 volts? That's the highest amount the board allows. I set it to 1.45 (the highest 'green' voltage offered) for now, seems to have helped a bit. Vcore right now is set to around 1.32 volts (hard to tell with the stupid VDroop or whatever you call that inhibitor). That's what the previous value was, anyway, and I changed it to one notch lower, so about 1.31 (which should run fine at the 3.4GHZ it's at now, anyway).

Will run Prime95 now to make sure.

 

[lidesign]

Most DDR3 ram at 1600 will run comfortably at 1.9v at 7-7-7-18. Don't listen to the 6-7----- crap because most likely you will run into an issue and never know if you can trust those timings. I also recommend picking up the 1800's in the future so you have some play.

My 2 cents

-Matt

 

[Zoomer]

Well, that may be so....I'll look into it. I just want low timings with at least 1600 speed as a preference. 7-7-7-20 would be awesome (especially if it runs well at 1T)!

TO NEWEGG!

((BTW, all four threads of Prime 95 have made it to test 11 of the Small FTTs test so far without a hitch. Still running.

))

EDIT: Okay, 1866 at any decent timings will set me back way more than the Mushkin 1600 sets, which is all I'll need anyway. If I want more speed, I'll loosen the timings. Also, I read somewhere that lower speed and tighter timings can usually hit higher speeds more easily than higher speed kits can underclock and use tighter timings (if that makes sense).

 

[Zoomer]

Passed the Small FTTs test perfectly.

EDIT: I was slightly wrong about the comment on DDR3 1800.....thought you meant 1866, but was mistaken. It's just that there isn't much selection, and I'm wary of going Patriot again (which seems to be one of the better sets newegg has), and I'm not sure if I should go with Super Talent.

Still, they are slightly more expensive than what I was looking at, so I'll get Mushkin. XD