I think I may be in Trouble

[f1canadayyz]

Hi all,

I'm just getting ready to pull the trigger on a new build, however, I believe I've run into a problem, at least on paper.

Compatibility and stability out of the box is important to me, with overclocking coming down the road.

So far the build will consist of:
Either an EVGA 780i board or an ASUS Striker II Formula (I know the Striker is overpriced, but it's damn pretty, and has better audio)
Q6600
2xEVGA 8800GTS 512's
4 GB of either Crucial PC8500 or Mushkin Redline PC8000 DDR2
Vista 64

Here's the problem, in speaking with a Mushkin rep momentarily he advised that the tRFC needs to be over 50. Upon hearing this I started reasearching overclocking RAM and discovered potential problems with the 780i chipset and 4GB of RAM on Vista64. Something to do with the Memory controller. If anyone is running Vista64 with 4GB, (I'm sure there's many of you), Please put my fears to rest.

Thanks in advance,

F1

 

[PCTC2]

780i is very closely related to the 680i. I have a 680i with 4GB and Vista 64. You have to install with only 2GB. Also, right now, I'm having instabilities on my system and I've narrowed it down to either my RAM, motherboard, or video card.

 

[f1canadayyz]

I'll be curious to hear where the instability comes from.

Keep me posted, and thanks for the quick reply.

F1

 

[lopri]

780i sets loose enough timings for 2GB sticks or 4 sticks configuration. (meaning tRFC>51) Board will automatically detect when it needs to loosen tRFC, although I always think for a long-term use (like.. more than a week) one shouldn't really bother with memory overclocking. Consider high frequency memory is just an insurance for proper CPU overclocking.

I am using 8GB on 780i and I did use 8GB on 680i as well. NV chipsets handle memory very well unless you're overzealous about memory clocks. Give as little voltage as possible within maintaining stability. My 680i over-volted memory by 0.1V, and I suspect my 780i does the same since I carried over the same memory from 680i.

Frankly, I'm more concerned about your quad-core. What's your target overclock?

 

[f1canadayyz]

Hi Lopri,

Thanks for the quick reply. I understan that on the Auto option the 780i will sometimes get the tRFC right (>50), however I keep reading horror stories of folks that can't get their memory to run at advertised timings/speeds. I'm not stuck on this by any means, and if that means running at DDR2/800 I'm good with that. Just thought the Redline with the PC8000 designation might provide a little extra headroom in the future.

As far as future overcloking is concerned, I would consider myself far from extreme. I prefer to buy high quality components and mildly overclock with a focus on longevity and stability.

I've seen plenty of Q6600's at 3.4 or better, I'd be perfectly content with 3.0 on air with a Thermalright Ultra 120.

Thanks again for the replies, and as I'm planning on ordering tomorrow any further responses are appreciated.

Cheers,

F1