Is my Memory Spec Good Enough for what I'm tryin' to do here?

[BonzaiDuck]

I might have posted this on the "CPUs and OC'ing" forum, but I suppose it belongs here.

Figure two things: I'm old now, and more cautious than I was when I'd spend a weekend sleepless in the '90s getting a piece of equipment to work right -- brute force and determination. And -- not LAZY -- hoping to shortcut and avail of somebody's recent experience.

I've deferred building a new computer for three years -- excepting a WHS server I built in early '09 with some spare parts. IT'S TIME!! I usually spend a bit longer researching certain hardware parts, but I've learned to be a quick study on reviews. That being said --I jumped on the Z68 chipset for my i7-2600K build, when my usual practice ("old" with caution) would be to get a "more mature" chipset like the P67, which would have gone through some BIOS revision(s). Let's just say I took a roll of the dice after reading some reviews . . . .

WHAT AM I TRYING TO DO?

I will be happier'n' a pig in poop to get this puppy OC'd to 4.4 Ghz. Satisfied with 4.0 Ghz or higher. I understand that this is pretty easy.

I bought the ASUS P8Z68-V-Pro motherboard. There are "features" with "switches" on the ASUS z68 board which almost make it effortless -- or so certain promotional videos at the ASUS "Republic of Gamers" web-site suggest.

I also picked up a set of (2x4GB) G.SKILL "RipJaws" DDR3-1600 RAM -- the "GBRL" XMP kit.

And I see -- on another thread -- that someone feels their 1600's are running at 1333. I ALSO see in the QVL spec that certain memory speeds will configure to run at a slightly slower speed -- for instance, DDR3-1800 kits will auto-configure to 1600 -- something like that.

Given my OC objectives, did I purchase a memory kit spec'd to run fast enough?

Interested in all serious responses . . . . and thank you for yur support . . ..

 

[GarfieldtheCat]

Yes, yes you did.

Memory speeds for almost all real life apps is irrelevant. The difference between slow and fast RAM are on the order of 1-5%.

Xbitlabs

Most high speed RAM will usually be programmed for something slower, so that you don't have a problem with installing and booting the RAM the first time, before you can change the voltage or other settings. Having the default set to a conservative speed/setting allow you to have a safe fall-back if you screw up your OC settings.

So you may have to manually set the speed in BIOS, which isn't a big deal anyway.

But your RAM is fine, and enjoy your new PC.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I also picked up a set of (2x4GB) G.SKILL "RipJaws" DDR3-1600 RAM -- the "GBRL" XMP kit.

As long as they are 1.5v, then you should be fine.

If they are 1.65v, then you will want to return them and get a 1.5v (or lower) kit.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Oh . . . yeah . . . they're 1.5V jobs . . .

I'd checked the QVL list for the ASUS P8Z67-V-Pro board when I placed the order.

Apparently, these QVL lists represent a cross-cutting sample of available RAMS. They had tested a "GBRL" kit, but I think it was DDR3-1800, and I assume they figure this also covers kits rated at lower speeds.

Point of all this: I skipped doing a "build" of a Socket 1366 system, and I have to bone up on new concepts like "QPI." So I was wondering if the RAM spec-speed offered enough headroom -- thinking along the lines of the old FSB and [CPU : RAM] ratio.


What leaves me almost . . . overwhelmed . . . is a review I just read about ASUS' implementation of the Z68 UEFI/BIOS. I could've got by just fine for another couple years on my LGA 775 systems, but I was eager to OC one of these new "gen 2" cores. Now I find that ASUS may have made "manual over-clocking" obsolete! The review showed the options with the mobo that seem to make it such . . .

That being said, knowing there are plenty of guides and reviews around . . . I feel compelled to "understand" what those automatic features are doing. It almost makes me feel . . . uncomfortable . . .

EDIT: Larry!! Tell me that that Q6600 was a G0 stepping!! If it was B3, how did you do it with a Vcore less than 1.32V?!

 

[GarfieldtheCat]

Point of all this: I skipped doing a "build" of a Socket 1366 system, and I have to bone up on new concepts like "QPI." So I was wondering if the RAM spec-speed offered enough headroom -- thinking along the lines of the old FSB and [CPU : RAM] ratio.

Sandy bridge only overclocks with changing the multi, so you don't do FSB overclocking anymore. That negates the need to worry abuot RAM speeds (like you said, in the older CPU's, you would need high-speed RAM to run at those 200+ FSB speeds). So your system will still run at 100Mhz FSB (or whatever it's called now).

What leaves me almost . . . overwhelmed . . . is a review I just read about ASUS' implementation of the Z68 UEFI/BIOS. I could've got by just fine for another couple years on my LGA 775 systems, but I was eager to OC one of these new "gen 2" cores. Now I find that ASUS may have made "manual over-clocking" obsolete! The review showed the options with the mobo that seem to make it such . . .

From what I have seen, all these "auto" OC-ing things work, but tend to run higher then needed. I would use the auto settings to get some ideas about speeds, but then maybe start to manually dial back the voltage to see if you can run it lower then the auto-OC logic. But it's a great starting point to work from.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Sandy bridge only overclocks with changing the multi, so you don't do FSB overclocking anymore. That negates the need to worry abuot RAM speeds (like you said, in the older CPU's, you would need high-speed RAM to run at those 200+ FSB speeds). So your system will still run at 100Mhz FSB (or whatever it's called now).



From what I have seen, all these "auto" OC-ing things work, but tend to run higher then needed. I would use the auto settings to get some ideas about speeds, but then maybe start to manually dial back the voltage to see if you can run it lower then the auto-OC logic. But it's a great starting point to work from.

That was what I'd been able to glean from it. But I was impressed. All of us had dismissed OC'ing programs that ran in Windows, and I'd previously thought much of that stuff was worthless. I got very comfortable with manual OC'ing in the BIOS.

But a review of the ASUS z68 board put it through its paces. The BIOS OC-Tuner "does its thing," and finds a 4.4 Ghz OC setting for the 2600K leaving the vCORE at 1.28V. The Windows-based TurboV EVO in the AI Suite gave up 4.7 Ghz @ 1.408V. Once those settings were known, they were able to tweak it to 5.0Ghz with a 1.400V vCore.

So I can see how you'd save a lot of time -- a lot of it -- by using the available tools to generate ball-park settings, and do as you said afterward . . .

On the difference in OC'ing the bus -- yeah -- very little wiggle-room with the BCLK setting. Maybe a couple Mhz. It demystifies how they're selling a chip with unlocked multiplier for the nominal $300. All of that changes the ball-game considerably. So I'm not going to sweat different RAM options. I also suspect the manufacturers do a lot of superficial product-differentiation. How much a difference is there between "RipJaws" and "Sniper?" And actually, the pricing of these different models also tells something . . .

I'll be posting another question for insights about "I.S.R.T." -- reason I logged in today . . .

 

[GarfieldtheCat]

How much a difference is there between "RipJaws" and "Sniper?" And actually, the pricing of these different models also tells something . . .

Just in case you don't know, Crucial is the only company that I know of that actually makes it's own RAM chips.

Everyone else, such as OCZ, Corsair, Mushkin, Gskill, Geil, etc, all buy the same chips from the same 2-3 (?) companies that make RAM chips, and then bin them on how they perform.

So you are spot on, there isn't much difference at all.