memory not running at max speed

[Steve3596]

I will preface this with I am very new to building my own computer, and dont know much about the intricacies involved. I built a computer using these pieces of hardware as my core,

AMD Phenom II x4 920 Processor at 2.81ghz
G.SKILL 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066
ASUS M3A78-T AM2+ 790GX motherboard

and although I have been using the computer for a year already, I was wondering if I was getting the full amount of power out of the rig I built. I am not an overclocker, dont trust myself enough to do so, but I downloaded CPU-Z in order to monitor how my system was running, and I noticed under the SPD tab it says Max Bandwith is PC2-6400 (400mhz). So what I was wondering was if the memory sticks that I bought run at a faster speed than what my motherboard can handle? on Newegg the motherboard says

Number of Memory Slots 4×240pin
Memory Standard DDR2 1066
Maximum Memory Supported 16GB
Channel Supported Dual Channel

so I would assume it supports 1066. I could be completely wrong and just misunderstanding this, but could anyone help clarify if there is something not running correctly? Thanks

 

[Sylvanas]

Your Memory is currently running at 800mhz (400 x 2 ). Nevermind what the 'SPD' tab says in CPU-Z the actual frequency your memory is running at will be displayed in the 'Memory' tab under 'DRAM Frequency'. If you are running at 800mhz all that you need to do is go into the BIOS and under the memory options there should something in relation to setting the speed to 1066mhz. It varies on each vendors BIOS so I can't say what option exactly (perhaps google search 'ASUS M3A78-T BIOS' ) you'll need to set but it will be there usually as an option of '1066mhz' or there will be a multiplier which you need to select. More info on memory multipliers on Google.

 

[Steve3596]

thanks for the help, but it doesn't seem to have fixed the problem.

I went into BIOS, set overclocking to standard rather than auto so I could access the DRAM timing configuration tab, under which I changed the memory clock mode from auto to manual, then setting MEMCLOCK value to 1066mhz. Restarted my computer and these are the values i am still getting from CPU-Z

Type: DDR2
Size: 8192Mbytes
Channels: Dual
DC Mode: Ganged
NB Frequency: 1804.6 MHz
DRAM Frequency: 401.0 MHz
FSB DRAM 1.2
CL: 5 clocks
tRCD : 5 Clocks
tRP: 5 Clocks
tRAS: 15 Clocks
tRC:24 Clocks
CR:2T

when my computer starts up reading the command prompt it says specifically DDR2 800 Ganged Mode, I thought what I did in the BIOS would fix it, but I guess not.

 

[Steve3596]

well, I just updated my BIOS seeing as I havent done it since I got the computer, and now with the updated bios I was able to fix the memory problem. My DRAM frequency is now 534.7 MHz but now it is running in Unganged. I dont exactly know what that means as opposed to ganged but it is at least at the right speed now.