Dominators not doing what they should?

[NGD]

Hi all!

To begin with, I'm new! Been checking this site out dozens of times before, but now it's time for me to pose a question

My machine:
GA-EP-45-DS3;
E8400 proc, currently testing @ 440 x 9 - 3960Mhz @ 1.4V;
4x 1Gb Corsair dominators PC8500;
Sapphire HD4850 w/ Scythe Musashi @ 690/1050;
500 Gb seagate barracuda;
450W power from Chieftec.

But now the problem...

I've been running my E8400 longtime @ 8x 475 with 2 sticks of 1Gb dominator RAM. Two weeks ago, I bought another 2Gb, identical set as my previous. First problem occured, my mobo doesn't like 4 sticks @ 475 FSB 4-4-4-12, nor @ 5-5-5-18.

So I thought heck, let's just run it @ 9x 400, so I can get my RAM @ 1066 using the 2.66 divider. I guessed wrong, my monitor keeps telling me 'no signal'. Bummer!

What am I doin wrong? Is is a known problem with GA-EP45-... bords that working with dividers is difficult?

At the moment I'm stressing @ 440 FSB, so 880 RAM @ 5-5-5-18 @ 2.1V, seems rock solid!

 

[mlee49]

I'd first look at your bios and see if there is an update available. Most likely that could help with adding more ram and getting stability.
Second have you memtested the sticks? Try running at stock settings and run two passes with the new sticks and then overclocked and run two more passes with just the new sticks.

Thirdly your cpu is waaaaaay Overvolted: 4.1V should be frying that sucker! I'm sure you ment 1.4 right

 

[NGD]

Bios is up-to-date. Got F8, F9 is out, though that only fixes S3 resumes on Vista

Memtest was the thing I was planning to do indeed. Never done that though, gotta Google me some. 4.1V, what are you talking about? TS says 1.4! thank god for the edit button...

 

[iandh]

Sorry for OT but Giga really needs to pull their heads out of their arses on S3 sleep functionality... they make such solid boards but every single new board seems to have broken sleep.

I love my UD5P AM3 but come on now... even jetway and asrock can make S3 work properly.

 

[SonDa5]

I'm in the process of finding replacement RAM for 2x2GB PC28500 Dominator DDR2.

Make sure you MB is listed as being compatible at Corsairs WEB site. If it is not listed call up Corsair tech support to see if there is a compatibility issue.

I'm using a P45 JR T2RS JR with the latest bios that supports DDR2 1066mhz.
The Dominator DDR2 didn't work out for me. Constant crashes when gaming and memtest86x memory failure readings after gaming.

My experience with the Dominators PC8500 is that they are very touchy when increasing FSB. I could reach designed speed of 533mhz with 5-5-5-15 CAS but only near the standard FSB setting and at that speed they were unstable when gaming system would crash and then show memory failures on Memtest86.

Right now I'm running Patriot Viper PC28500 and I can play games and are much more stable for gaming at high FSB speeds.

This is a nice spot for the Patriot Viper PC8500 on my system.
The Patriot Xtreme Vipers were not able to run their designed speed of 1066 mhz with 5-5-5-15 timings with high FSB speeds.

I was pleased with their performance for gaming.

The set up below of 4-4-3-11 low latency performed well with my system@ 424FSB with RAM@848mhz with 1:1 Ratio 400/800.

CPUZ verification:

http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=543918


Though the Vipers perform much better than the Dominators I ordered G. Skill PC28800 from Newegg the other day and should have them soon.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231194


The G. Skill PC28800 are designed to meet 1100mhz speed with 5-5-5-15 CAS with only 1.8v.

They are recommended by DFI for my MB.

So I am hoping be able to fine tune them and acheive maximum results with my build.

 

[sneekypeet]

Issue #1..... Even though you bought the same ram, it may not even be usung the same brand of IC's any longer.

Issue #2..... Northbridge voltage usually needs to be bumped on the motherboard to comensate for running 4 DIMM's full of ram.

Issue #3..... You may even need to bump the ram voltage itself to allow the ram to function as well.

Run Memtest 86+ 2.0 or better on each set, if you find an issue. If you do RMA that set. I bet you wont though, Im leaning towards a voltage issue.

 

[NGD]

Both my Northbridge (@1.4V, I've got sufficient cooling) aswell as my RAM (@2.1V, should be enough according to the SPD which states EMP of 533Mhz @ 2.1V) get enough juice.

Voltages aren't the issue, it's something with which I'm not that much carefull with. Chipsets and prcessors don't just die instantly if you use appropriate cooling.

I downloaded MEMTEST, burned it on a DVD as boot-DVD. Thing won't start. I do get the Windows Memory Diagnostics though, which doesn't seem to give any errors... First thing I gotta do is get that MEMTEST to work, check both my sets and draw conclusions out of the results.

Gotta admit btw, what a great forum this is! I live in the NL, so tweakers.net is my startpage, but techpowerup.com rocks!

Keep you posted 'bout the results!

[edit]
I checked Corsairs website, RAM should be 100% compliant...

 

[4x4n]

How about your subtimings and performance level? Might have to have PL at 9-10.

 

[sneekypeet]

Both my Northbridge (@1.4V, I've got sufficient cooling) aswell as my RAM (@2.1V, should be enough according to the SPD which states EMP of 533Mhz @ 2.1V) get enough juice.

Voltages aren't the issue, it's something with which I'm not that much carefull with. Chipsets and prcessors don't just die instantly if you use appropriate cooling.

I downloaded MEMTEST, burned it on a DVD as boot-DVD. Thing won't start. I do get the Windows Memory Diagnostics though, which doesn't seem to give any errors... First thing I gotta do is get that MEMTEST to work, check both my sets and draw conclusions out of the results.

Gotta admit btw, what a great forum this is! I live in the NL, so tweakers.net is my startpage, but techpowerup.com rocks!

Keep you posted 'bout the results!

[edit]
I checked Corsairs website, RAM should be 100% compliant...

Have you tried raising the NB to 1.425 or higher? or tried like 2.15V on the ram? SPD isnt anything more than a suggested setting. Each motherboard and component require different things to function together correctly.

 

[cdawall]

P45+4dimms=shitty ram oc until you tweak subtimings and crank NB

 

[mlee49]

I say you test the overclock on the new set of sticks to see if they handle the stress.

Personally I havn't heard anything of using 4 dimm's on a P45 and getting a crappy overclocks. Any real evidence to support this? I personally think it maybe a faulty bios and or limited board.

 

[sneekypeet]

If the NB isnt great it will have issues supporting 4 DIMM arangements. I have a P35 that will run 2 sticks well up to 1200MHz but with 4 DIMMs populated I get BSOD's past 1000MHz. It takes a healthy bump of my NB to support all 4 slots. I know it isnt P45 but the principle is the same.

 

[NGD]

going past 1.4V on ur NB isn't dangerous? Googled my ass of trying to find the max safe Volt for the P45 chipset, found nothing though.

I'll try to up the NB voltage, loosen timings a bit (just try @ 6-6-6-18?) and up the RAMs voltage aswell...

Keep u posted!

 

[Meghan52]

Well, I've got my NB voltage at 1.5V, running 8GB of Mushkin Redline DDR2-1000 RAM. Had to raise the NB voltage up to there to get ultimate stability to hit 4GHz out of my Q6600. But then again, I'm watercooling the NB chip, along with the cpu....but it's been running that 1.5V for over a year without incident.

 

[SonDa5]

If you go beyond the voltage rating range they might burn up and if so they might be unable to be RMAd.

For everyday stability seems like running the RAM in within the manufacturers recommended voltage settings would be safe.

 

[cdawall]

If you go beyond the voltage rating range they might burn up and if so they might be unable to be RMAd.

For everyday stability seems like running the RAM in within the manufacturers recommended voltage settings would be safe.

not true even manuf spec can kill ram 2.4v is corsairs PC6400C3D dominators spec. that kills the chips on them and is well known for that. however i have a set of OEM 1.8v spec'd Micron D9DCD based ram that is usable at 3.2v for 24/7.


there is also no way for the manuf to know you have pumped volts thru the ram.

 

[NGD]

Update!

Finally got them (hours of gaming) stable @ 475. Timings 6-6-6-18 though, so that will still need some tweaking. NB gets around 1.5V at the moment, temps are fine. Would like to get some off that aswell. Anyways, my first attempt to boot @ 475 with 4 sticks failed miseralbly. What I did afterwards was just easy increasements of 5Mhz FSB per time, et voila!

While doing this I benched my RAM with Everest. Results:
FSB + Timings ------ read - write - copy - latancy
450 FSB 5-5-5-15 -- 7025 - 9493 - 8014 - 79.3ms
450 FSB 6-6-6-18 -- 6708 - 9461 - 7814 - 80.2ms
475 FSB 6-6-6-18 -- 7219 - 10019 - 8430 - 78.3ms

I've read so much 'bout timings vs Mhz's, now it is somewhat clearer to me. Higher clocks definely beats tight timings!
20% looser timings result in a +/- -300 - 0 - -200 - 1ms results.
A 5% higher FSB with looser timings results in +/- +200 - +600 - +400 - -1ms result!

[EDIT]
Getting the timings down, in which order should I try it? All at once? Just reboot, go into BIOS, set 5-5-5-18 and prey? Or should I first try 5-6-6-18 etc etc? Never done any 'tweaking' on my RAM before. I do know that when my PC doesn't like it, I'll be reboting for half an hour 'till it knows what to do with my wrong setting..