MSI X48C platinum and 8gb of G.SKILL DDR3 PC 10600 CL9

[NiukNiuk]

Hi all !

I recently purchased two 4gb kits (2x2gb) of G.SKILL DDR3 PC 10600 CL9
And I have some difficulties to get a stable system
My motherboard is a MSI X48C platinum (a ddr2/ddr3 compatible motherboard)
I used the latest official 7.3 bios and now I'm using the latest beta bios 7.4b7
My cpu is a core2quad Q 9450 @ default clocks (333x8)
I don't overclock
Power supply: Corsair 550w
I'm using Vista 64 (I did a clean vista 64 install when I bought these ram sticks)
I tried with and without the DDR2/DDR3 turbo cards

I experience random freezes/bsods when loading the operating system/playing, and I'm trying to find some stable voltages in my bios.
At the moment, the memory sticks are set to their AUTO values (1333mhz, timings by SPD, 1n/2n memory timing set manually to 2n)
Voltages are set to their AUTO value.
By when I start my system it sometimes crashes when loading windows...

So I decided to up the voltages a bit:

NB: 1.42v
Memory Voltage: 1.71v (system almost instantly crashes when windows is booting if I put something under this value).

...with these settings windows loads fine, but my computer still crashes randomly when I launch a demanding game (I tried with crysis and sacred 2).

I also tried to put manually the memory timings (9 9 9 24) but there are other options that I can't set to AUTO and I have to fill them manually, but I don't know which value to enter...

Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks for any help

[GSKILL TECH]

What's the lowest mem voltage you have tried? Some have had luck lowering the voltage on this mobo, and entering values in manually.

[NiukNiuk]

Thanks for your reply.
Well I tried the "AUTO" value, then 1.5v (the lowest) and gradually until 1.71 wich crashes too, but less often that the other values.
I don't really know if I can push the voltage further, it seems dangerous because this memory works at 1.5v usually.
Concerning the timings, when I set them to AUTO my computer crashes often, but when I want to put them manually, there are other values in this bios menu and I don't know what to put.
Here's a picture from this timing menu, found in another thread in this forum:



So when I put manually the first 4 values (9 9 9 24), I don't know what to put for the other values.
I tried to put the values found with the help of everest (wich "reads" the memory spd), but everest doesn't find the values for 666mhz (it only shows up to 609mhz, see screenshot below)


CPU-Z can't find them too:


But another program, memset, can find the values for 666mhz:


I tried the settings shown in memset, but the system is still unstable
So right now I'm really confused

[GSKILL TECH]

You may need to adjust the FSB to RAM ratio or unlink the two. Once that's done, try the memset values. Those seem to be the proper values. If that doesn't work, try tinkering with the tRFC, but not exceeding 80.


GSKILL SUPPORT

[NiukNiuk]

I just put the fsb/memory ratio to 1:2.00 (1333) and tried to manually put the values from memset:
9 9 9 24 76 (instead of 74) 10 5 4 5, 1n/2n memory timing set to 2n, and I left the voltage to 1.71v
It seems to work so far

Oh and another question, does 1.71 seems too much for these memory sticks? because if I enter something below this value it crashes, but I don't want to fry my memory sticks...

Thanks !

[GSKILL TECH]

Not a problem. Glad to know it is running stable.

GSKILL SUPPORT

[Cipsah]

MSI X48C platinum and 8gb of G SKILL DDR3 PC 10600 CL9

I bought the MSI Neo2 Platinum and have been very happy with it. Before that board I had purchased a K8T800-based Abit board, but had major problems with it because the AGP lock did not function. While attempting to overclock my CPU, I nearly burned up my video card, and it actually overlcocks to a lower speed now that I have the new board. That chipset had known issues with the AGP lock not working, but supposedly they fixed it in the newer revision, which I had. I dont know if they have fixed this issue by now or not, but as of the first week of February it was still broken, and could not be fixed with a BIOS update. I will not be buying anything with a VIA chipset in it until they can figure out their problems.

As for undervolting the Neo2, I can take a look at mine tonight when I get home and post the available settings for you. Off the top of my head, I believe it does have some lower settings available, but I dont know for sure. Im sure the voltage range for that board is also available from MSI or one of the many hardware review sites.

For the record, I have owned a long string of Asus boards in the past, and would have bought one again, but they didnt have a NF3 based board available when I bought mine not sure whats available now.