M4A78-EM PC2-9600 Need HELP with Bios settings

[Mike9685]

Here's my current rig -

ASUS M4A78-EM (Bios 1010)
AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE
Kingston DDR2 (PC2-6400) 2x1024 MB
NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT
2x 300GB Western Digital VelociRaptor - RAID 1
3x 1TB Seagate Constellation
Windows 7 Ultimate x86 32 bit

I have the following (brand new) that I'd like to use -

Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1200 (PC2 9600) Model F2-9600CL6D-4GBRH


The GSkill's tech sent me this info to setup the RAM -

"Dear Customer - Set the memory to DDR2-1066, 6-6-6-18, 2.0V. (This I know how to do...) From here, you will need to set CPU Host Frequency to 225 to reach DDR2-1200.

(What do I use for a multiplier? 3.4 GHz/225 comes out to 15.111111111etc??? I'm not sure how the adjustments are stepped. I know it will overclock some - can I use 16? (225 x 16 + 3600) - Is there anything else I need to be aware of? Is there anything else I need to do FIRST? I've never messed with these setting before - N00B, and an OLD N00B at that.)

CPU-NB Voltage must also be increased +0.1V or more. (How do I decide when it's high enough?? Is this "CPU-NB" what it's called in the bios?)

This should stabilize the memory and memory controller. If you have slight instability (How do I tell? - what's slight?), raising the HT Voltage may help (Where in the bios, and by how much? What's the "step"? When will I know it's enough?). Also, make sure the memory is installed in the correct slots. Only two will be capable of DDR2-1200 as stated by AMD. (THIS I understand - from the manual - the "yellow" slots.)"

What am I missing? Is there anything else I need to be aware of? ANY help would be appreciated - "Man's gotta know his limitations..." I know mine...

Mike

 

[Rifter]

use whatever multiplier you want. its a BE chip so you can pick any multiplier, if you want to keep it near stock speeds i would go with 225 x 15.5 = 3487Mhz. You will also probably be fine at 16 multiplier for 3.6Ghz but may need more cpu voltage.

Run memtest on the memory and then if it fails raise the NB voltage .1v and see if that solves the problem. it may or may not run stable at 1200 with stock voltage to the NB. Same goes for the HT voltage if it passes memtest leave it alone, if it doesnt raise it till its stable.

 

[Mike9685]

Thanks,
I'll give it a shot and let you know.

 

[Mike9685]

"Dear Customer - Set the memory to DDR2-1066, 6-6-6-18, 2.0V. (This I know how to do...)" Mike

OK, I THOUGHT I knew how do do this - I can't find the Memory settings in the bios to set these values. (I get the memory tomorrow...) Right now I have the CPU at 210 x 18 (3780) and she runs stable at 42 C while benchmarking. When I set her at 225 x 15.5 I got an "overclock failed" message when she tried to boot into windows. I'll keep upping it until I get the failure while checking temps. More help would be appreciated.

 

[Mike9685]

I should've been more specific - I apologize. I've never messed much with the bios (other than setting everything to "auto"). I've got the CPU up to 225 x 16 and it's stable (3.6 Ghz - benchmarking - temp's stable at ~ 42C) Strange problem - I can't get on the internet at this speed. When I checked CPUZ, I noticed the memory speed (see currently installed memory above) DRAM frequency was at 450 MHz - is that the problem? I reset the CPU to "auto" (3.4 GHz) and everything is fine. I was, mostly, just checking to see what the bios selections were and to check the CPU for overclocking for the ram. (Like I said - new rams in the mail and should be here tomorrow...) I CANNOT find the settings for memory timing (6-6-6-18, 2.0v). CPU-NB doesn't have a step of 0.1v. When I look at the CPU voltage, all I see are more multipliers. Anyone with this board, I'd sure appreciate the help - this has got me lost.

Thanks! Mike

 

[Rifter]

i think you want to keep the memory below 1200(600Mhz) so 450Mhz should be fine.

Are you using the onboard network controller? if so make sure the PCIe bus is not being overclocked this could be causing the network card not to work. See if there is a bios option to lock PCIe speeds to 100Mhz.

I will download your manual and take a look and see if i can help some more give me a few min.

 

[Rifter]

Ok from looking at the manual it seems it is a little limited, especially with CPU voltage but you will still be able to overclock a bit.

In the Jumper free configuration section to set your ram timing it looks like you need to change the Memory clock Mode from auto to manual. then you should be able to input the timings. Below that there is a Memory Over Voltage option, change that to 2.0V(the voltage you said your ram was)

As for CPu overclocking and setting the PCIe speed to 100 it is abouve the memory settings in the same jumper free config section of the bios. Set CPU overclocking to manual if you havent already. And PCIe Overclocking from auto to manual and set speed to 100.

As for the CPU-NB voltage steps its only got 3, just start over volting it from the smallest step it allows and up voltage as needed to keep stable at the speeds you are trying to run.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

 

[Mike9685]

Thanks for all your help. It worked -CPU's up to 3.6 GHz, memory's showing 1200 in CPUz. Memtested 4 hours with no errors. Stress tested (Everest) with no problems. I AM watching the CPU temps closely...

Room temp: 29 C
MB temp: 36 C
CPU temp (ASUS Probe & Everest) IDLE: 43 C
CPU temp @ 100% during stress testing: 57 C stable

This is the CPU cooler - Cooler Master Hyper N520 CPU Cooler
2 Case fans (Ultra case) - Scythe 120mm "Slipstream" Case Fan (110 cfm - yes, there in the right direction)

Is the temp too high?

Thanks again for all your help!
Mike

 

[VirtualLarry]

I'm curious what your linpack Gflops score is with DDR2-1200

 

[Rifter]

thats not to high, actually pretty good temps.

 

[Mike9685]

I'm curious what your linpack Gflops score is with DDR2-1200

The Java version score was 769. I noticed that there were several caveats with the Java version. It took me awhile to figure out how to run it, and exactly what it was...

Mflops/s: 762.121 Time: 0.11 secs Norm Res: 5.68 Precision: 2.22044604925031 3E-16

So what is this telling me?
Mike