E8500 @ 3.8GHz Problems.

[RavenSEAL]

Moved RAM voltage to 1.9v, gonna test a little bit.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Both LinX and Prime95 shut off after about 30 seconds.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Well, RAM is testing, 2.7% covered. RAM is @ 1.9V, no idea what to even change it to, any tips?

 

[ItsAlive]

You could try 2.0v, but I would first try lowering the memory ratio if the bios even gives you the option.

 

[RavenSEAL]

How is 4/5/5/15?

 

[ItsAlive]

No thats memory timings, I was referring to the memory FSB ratio. Setting the ram to run 4-5-5-15 would be tightening the timings which is harder on the ram. You could try setting it to 6-6-6-18 thereby lowering the CAS and loosening the ram, which would put less strain on it. Lowering CAS would somewhat lower performance tho.

 

[Termie]

How is 4/5/5/15?

Edit - ItsAlive covered this.

Those are your timings, not your ram speed. Hard to say if 4-5-5-15 would work without knowing the speed, and also knowing what your ram is rated for. I'm assuming you have 5-5-5-18 rated sticks, so when overclocking DDR2-667, 4-5-5-15 is definitely NOT ok. You'd need something closer to 6-6-6-20.

I think you should take a look at this overclocking guide: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=47089. It might help you understand all the terminology.

 

[RavenSEAL]

No thats memory timings, I was referring to the memory FSB ratio. Setting the ram to run 4-5-5-15 would be tightening the timings which is harder on the ram. You could try setting it to 6-6-6-18 thereby lowering the CAS and loosening the ram, which would put less strain on it. Lowering CAS would somewhat lower performance tho.

Oh, by bad. What should i set to then? Look at the screen shot in the previous page, i have them set to linked.

 

[RavenSEAL]

 

[Termie]

Oh, by bad. What should i set to then? Look at the screen shot in the previous page, i have them set to linked.

Again, linked refers to the correlation with the bus speed, i.e., you're talking memory speed, and linked sets it at 1:1, or 2x the bus speed. At 3.8GHz you're at 400 bus speed and 800 ram speed.

The timings are completely separate. Your photo shows 5-6-6-18 timings, I'd go to 6-6-6-20.

I'd still recommend doing all this testing with your single DDR2-800 2GB stick. If your stress test doesn't fail after 30 seconds like it has been doing today, then you know it's the memory, and we can help you address each thing one at a time.

 

[RavenSEAL]

 

[ItsAlive]

Look at the other pic of your bios under FSB - Memory Ratio. Try adjusting those settings to bring your actual memory clock down closer to 800mhz. Im not familiar with your board and the pic doesnt show the settings available so its hard to say what options you have there.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Look at the other pic of your bios under FSB - Memory Ratio. Try adjusting those settings to bring your actual memory clock down closer to 800mhz. Im not familiar with your board and the pic doesnt show the settings available so its hard to say what options you have there.

Oh, gotcha, stupid me :x

*facepalm*

 

[ItsAlive]

I agree with Termie in the fact that your ram arrangement is not ideal and testing with just the single 2gb stick would be much easier to get your overclock stable.

However, your lower rated sticks are probably not going to reach the same speeds as the 2gb Corsair stick, so optionally you could test with your lowest rated stick and see how far that goes, and more than likely the Corsair would be able to match it speed wise.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Well, as expect the 667 ram went booty **** as soon as i changed the latency. I rebooted with just the XMS2 module and reset the BIOS, I took out the other 800MHz memory module and channel matched the 2 PC5400s.

Any ideas where to go from here? I'm thinking of just settling my self @ 3.6GHz right now.

 

[ItsAlive]

I would try just the 667 sticks in dual channel. Set them to unlinked and the FSB memory ratio to 5/4. Set ddr2 voltage to 2.0v and cpu voltage to 1.35v. Set ram timings to 6-6-6-18 then up the FSB (QDR), Clock until the system becomes unstable. Then drop back a few on the FSB clock and that should be the maximum your ram can run. Then you can try lowering ram timings to 5-5-5-18. If still stable proceed to lower cpu voltage to the lowest stable setting.

Once you've found the max stable overclock on the 667 sticks you can add back in the Corsair and pray that they can handle the overclock.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Wow, LinX called it a win at those settings, now to pop the Corsair stick and hope for the best :x

 

[ItsAlive]

Great news. Best of luck with the Corsair!

Edit: If its unstable you may need to bump cpu voltage if you lowered it. Populating all ram slots could also warrent a small bump in FSB voltage as well.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Nothing, dead at the gate. Won't even boot past the bios. Any ideas?

 

[RavenSEAL]

Well, i think the options are clear, either buy another set of the exact 667 ram or buy another 2GB stick of XMS2. Anyone else got any tips to try and make the 2 sets of memory stable?

 

[ItsAlive]

How many sticks did you have installed when it was stable? How many after?

What ram timings? 6-6-6-18 or 5-5-5-18?

What FSB Clock?

What ram voltage?

What cpu voltage?

Edit- Some boards just dont like having all the slots populated.

 

[RavenSEAL]

How many sticks did you have installed when it was stable? How many after?

What ram timings? 6-6-6-18 or 5-5-5-18?

What FSB Clock?

What ram voltage?

What cpu voltage?

Stable:

Sticks? 2 667MHz PC5300

What ram timings? 6-6-6-18

What FSB Clock? 1600

What ram voltage? 2.0

What cpu voltage? 1.3116

Unstable:

Sticks? 2 667MHz PC5300 + 1 800MHz PC6400

What ram timings? 6-6-6-18

What FSB Clock? 1600

What ram voltage? 2.0

What cpu voltage? 1.3116




I got 1GB DDR2 800MHz PC6400 sitting on the side unused.

 

[ItsAlive]

I would say last ditch effort to raise cpu voltage to 1.35v. My old E8400 took 1.36v to get to 4ghz, but was cool and perfectly happy there for a couple good years.

 

[RavenSEAL]

These are the four sticks of RAM i have right now:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820609219
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-201-_-Product
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148239

 

[RavenSEAL]

I would say last ditch effort to raise cpu voltage to 1.35v. My old E8400 took 1.36v to get to 4ghz, but was cool and perfectly happy there for a couple good years.

With the 3 sticks?