E6400, DS3, Cosair XMS DDR2 800Mhz, No Good OC

[MonkeyManX]

So, I finally got all my parts and put together my New system. I can get into to Win XP at stock voltage at 8 X 400Mhz FSB but Prime 95 quits in a sec with the blend test... The other test that doesn't include the memory runs though. I did notice for some reason my memory is showing at 2.1v instead of 1.9v when I have the FSB overclocked and the divider at 2. But it is 1.9v which is correct when I have everything running stock.

I don't see a place to manually control the Voltage for the memory in the bios... What should I do? I ram the memtest to make sure the ram isn't bad, and it checked out fine. I'm thinking maybe the higher voltage is causing it to go haywire.

Also, when I reboot the pc wont come back up until the board resets itself back to a stable mode. The chip isn't even hot, I've tried giving it more voltage but I don't think that is the problem.

Does anybody else have the DS3, a E6400 and the XMS DDR2 800mhz(CAS5) that could give me some insight?

 

[MonkeyManX]

I just ran Prime and it failed in a second with everything at stock except I upped the RAM voltage in Easytune to 2.1v... I guess I could control the voltage there, but I would think there would be a way to have it boot up at 1.9v other than running everything at stock.

 

[Mogadon]

I don't actually have the board but am going to get one and here's what i've found so far:

Hit CTRL+F1 in the BIOS to get into the extra options to set the memory timings and such. You'll probably want to update the BIOS to one of the newer F4 versions.

As you overclock the board automatically changes the VDimm.

The board has a feature that when you overclock it may take multiple boots to sort your settings out ... that''s what's happening with your reset issue.

I've heard that this board doesn't like big jumps in settings, if you're overclocking you have to do change the settings one or two at a time then boot .. etc.

There's lots of options you need to setup to get this board to overclock OK, here's some linky's to some good threads:

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=28&threadid=1908286&enterthread=y

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=28&threadid=1909354&enterthread=y

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=110460

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=109719

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=106685

Lots of reading / experimenting ahead for you methinks ... enjoy ... .

 

[MonkeyManX]

Well I'm at 8 X 400Mhz FSB with the Ram at 800Mhz... Prime 95 is running fine, I had to use easy tune to change the voltage from 2.1v to 1.9v... I guess this is how I will have to do it. The Voltage for the memory isn't in the bios, even after the extra options are added after the ctrl+f1...

It is actually pretty impressive that this chip does a 1Ghz overclock on stock voltage. Also it runs pretty cool. It's just a shame with the motherboard and ram being so touchy I guess...

 

[Mogadon]

That's pretty sweet, sounds like you should be able to get up into the 3.6GHz's with a little extra on the VCore ... .

 

[Mogadon]

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g51/thilan29/P8120116.jpg

Was checking out this screenie from Thilans thread earlier, does the 'DIMM Overvoltage Control' option not allow you to specify the VDimm?

I'm pretty sure there must be a way to change the VDimm in the BIOS, from what i've read people were having problems using the older BIOSs and high voltage memory, the system wouldn't boot and they would have to get in to the BIOS using a stick of low voltage memory, set the VDimm to a higher voltage then reboot having swapped out the memory sticks.

 

[MonkeyManX]

Well... I may need a little more voltage on the CPU... It quit prime after about 25 minutes, a big difference from the 1 second though when the ram was at 2.1v.

That overvoltage won't go under though. It gives a buffer for extra voltage I believe.

 

[MonkeyManX]

Just got home, Prime 95 is still running and no errors after about 3 hours... Just upped the CPU voltage to 1.35v instead of the stock 1.325... Still odd about having to change the ram voltage in the easy tune software though.

 

[Mogadon]

Yeh, that is weird, good to hear that p95 is stilling going strong though ... .

I was wondering if you could help me out, i'm thinking about getting the DS3 and am gonna hot glue a fan onto the NB and maybe the SB too. Do you reckon a 50mm fan would be ok on the NB or would it be too big and iterfere with the CPU HSF or vid card?

 

[MonkeyManX]

Well I ended up getting one of those cases that has a huge 250mm side fan that moves a good amount of air. I have also a 120mm intake fan in front and a 120mm exause fan in back. Also I have the Big Typhoon with the 120mm on the CPU so I didn't attach a fan to the chip on the motherboard, there is a heatsink attached to it that gets fairly hot, but my overall, the cpu and ambient stays fairly cool, under 40c, maybe sometimes 45c under some stress... Also room temps make a difference of course.

 

[MonkeyManX]

I just did a reboot and the board had to reset itself, even after running prime 95 stable for over 4 hours. I think the problem is that at boot, something with the voltage for the memory is off and just makes it fail. Hopefully the next bios update will make this work a bit better.

 

[Mogadon]

what BIOS are you using?

 

[MonkeyManX]

F4e, I've tried the official F4 also with no luck.

 

[Pabster]

The voltage setting is there. In fact, it ought to be there even without the "Advanced" options (CTRL+F1)

Look for VDIMM.

EasyTune sucks IMO.

 

[MonkeyManX]

I'm telling you, it really isn't there... I've looked through so many times searching. Also, other people have been looking for it to because it is odd that you can't control that from the bios...

 

[peleejosh]

default voltage for vdimm is 1.8 on this board, so you shouldnt have to set it using easy tune. If you want 1.9 then set +.1 in the bios for vdimm overvoltage

 

[MonkeyManX]

If left in auto and everything is set to stock, it comes in correct at 1.9v without having to adjust anything. It's once I start to overclock and changing dividers that it bumps it to 2.1v for some reason. I would like it to stay locked at 1.9v without having to use easytune because on reboot, the easytune settings are not in effect and it will reset itself back to stock settings...

I don't see why they don't have vdimm control in the bios, not talking about the overvoltage because that only gives you +.3v headroom, and I don't need headroom, I need it to stay at 1.9v and not move from that value.

 

[Mogadon]

Peleejosh - how's that OCZ RAM working out for you? You getting a good overclock out of it?

 

[MTDEW]

MonkeyManX,

Try setting your DIMM OverVoltage Control to +0.1 in the bios, i have some of that ram and just threw it in my DS3 and when i set it at +0.1v in the bios , Easy tune reports 1.9v. (i'm using the F4 final bios from the gigabyte website)

Also, for the reboot issue try these settings:
System memory multiplier - 2 (i see you have that)
MCH - +0.1
ICH - +0.1
PCI Express Frequency - 100


And i manually set the timings to 15-5-5-5

 

[Polish3d]

What does the "2" multiplier set the memory to? I assume it's 2x the FSB (ie, 2x200)

 

[MTDEW]

It sets it to 1:1. (ie: whatever the fsb / cpu host frequency is)

In other words, if you set your cpu at 8x400= 3.2ghz
And your System memory multiplier to 2 it will be at 1:1 (2x400 = DDR2 800)

 

[Kougar]

"System memory multiplier" does exactly that, "2" will "2xSpeed of RAM". So if you have DDr2-800... "2"x400='s 800mhz. It is used instead of ratios. But "2" is the lowest setting...

MonkeyMan, that is strange. I am using the "F4e" BIOS and the the memory is always at 1.8v... however I've never put it back to stock, it's always "Dimm Overvoltage +0.2v or 0.3v", so maybe that is why. Manually setting this to +0.2v will give your RAM 2v exactly, which is what I am running my system at. Same mainboard, sounds like the same Corsair XMS2 memory, E6300, 7x476FSB @ 3.33ghz.

Mogadon, while Gigabyte's software is rather dangerous to use (Just booting into XpressRecovery2 from your DS3 driver's disk will kill your RAID array, etc) , the hardware is great! I can run at 501FSB, and the system is stable at 486FSB with 1.356vcore.

I have NOT used the MCH or FSB overvoltage options, but especially for anyone that does you must run a fan on both the MCH and ICH8 heatsinks if you want to be using this board several years down the road... Installing a fan on the ICH8 chip may or may not block a 2slot GPU cooler however.

 

[MonkeyManX]

Well, some reason it defaults to 2.1v when I overclock, I don't know why. I will try the +.1v in the bios and see what happens. I do have the PCI-E set to 100Mhz. I'll also give a try to the ICH and MCH to +.1v and set the timings too...

From a cold boot this morning it booted right into windows fine overclocked. Maybe it has something to do with a reset instead of a full power down.

Also, this doesn't seem to run to hot. Probably because of the 250mm fan on the side of the case sucking in nice cool air.

 

[MonkeyManX]

Sweet... The +.1v to the overvolt made it boot at 1.9v instead of 2.1v. Thanks for the advice. Looks like I'll have to manually set the timings too for it to be right, it looks like the TRAS is 18 instead of 15 when in auto.

 

[MonkeyManX]

Actually all I needed was the +.1v at the vdimm overvoltage, I set the others back to normal. The timings should work at 12-5-5-5, thats what the Corsair site has it at. That is what I set it to now.