F2-9600CL5D-4GBPI on a EVGA 780i SLI

[GSKILL TECH]

No, SPP Voltage is the memory controller voltage, you need to increase that since it will be overloaded at some point with such high frequency.

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

[Moleculor]

Then I'm DEFINITELY confused as to what I need to do next. I guess I don't know what "as needed" really means, as I'm practically changing numbers blindly here. What information do you need about my machine to give me more specific help?

[Moleculor]

Ok, just to experiment I found the SPP thing in the voltages settings.

It had six options (besides auto)

1.30
1.35
1.40 <-- (auto sets to this)
1.45
1.50
1.55

I bumped it up to 1.45, made sure the timings were 5-5-5-15 2.1V, DDR2-1200, which is what the RAM is supposed to be capable of running at.

I got errors in MemTest86+ faster than I had in any previous test. An error in the moving inversions test about 20 seconds in. I didn't even bother finishing the testing cycle, just rebooted and set things back to the known stable 1066 settings.

So I don't think I did that right. There was something called "HT blahblah SPP <-> MCP" or whatnot. Was I supposed to change that too? Instead?

Or is this RAM just not capable of running at the speed it supposed to run at?

[GSKILL TECH]

If you don't think the memory is pulling it's weight, test them individually.

If you can post BIOS pics, we can see if anything is incorrect.

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

[Moleculor]

Ok, after that last response I figured I'd need pictures. My camera refused to work, I've only just now gotten it working.

IMAGES!







Now to ask... how would I safely test one stick at a time? I'm assuming that to do so I'd have to alter the voltages to something completely different. What about timings?

[GSKILL TECH]

Voltage and timings are the same, just the SPP Voltage can be slightly lower since less modules is less load on the memory controller.

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

[Moleculor]

So I don't have to change the voltages at all? K. "Before" I try one stick at a time (and by "before" I mean "while"), do you see any settings in there that stand out as things that should change to get the rated speed on the RAM with two sticks? Or are we assuming something's just "bad" with the hardware at this point?

[GSKILL TECH]

Nothing appears to be bad, it is just a difficult motherboard to overclock memory because it is technically rated for DDR2-800. tWR for example should be 8 or higher for DDR2-1066+ motherboards, but it is 6 max, which means it is a DDR2-800 mobo. That is the limitation, so loosening timings such as 5-6-6-18 may be easier to reach higher frequencies, but you're probably better off trying to max it out with CL4 timings.

Although, if you search the forums, some have been able to get close.

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

[Ex0duS5150]

Hey, just wanted to put my 2 cents in here as i own a 780i SLI FTW board and have successfully gotten these modules to run at rated specs.. I set my
CPU FSB voltage to 1.75,
memory to 2.1v,
spp voltage to 1.45,
nForce MCP is at 1.6 volts
and HT nForce SPP<->MCP 1.4v..
Timings are 5-5-5-15 2T.. All other timings are auto at 5-54-6-11.. tRRD,tRC,tWR,tREF respectively..

*CPU is a Qx9650 @ 3.6Ghz
FSB-Memroy Clock Mode is [Unlinked]
FSB (QDR), MHz [1600]
MEM (DDR), MHz [1200]

Keep in mind if you change your FSB frequency your overclocking the whole systems Front Side Bus, ie: FSB and making your CPU clocks higher and may have to up your CPU voltage a bit to get it stable..

Try moving the ram to the dark gray or black slots, i hear those particular slots are better suited for more MHZ and it seemed to work for me.

Ive had nothing but great performance with these modules, i hope you find your problem..

[GSKILL TECH]

Thanks for your input Ex0duS5150.

Greatly appreciated!

GSKILL TECH

[Moleculor]

Nothing appears to be bad, it is just a difficult motherboard to overclock memory because it is technically rated for DDR2-800. tWR for example should be 8 or higher for DDR2-1066+ motherboards, but it is 6 max, which means it is a DDR2-800 mobo. That is the limitation, so loosening timings such as 5-6-6-18 may be easier to reach higher frequencies,

Ah. I wasn't aware this counted as overclocking.

I knew its specs said "Rated for DDR2-800" but when I talked to EVGA, they claimed that that did not matter. It seems I was lied to. Well, I've had a couple misgivings about my loyalty to EVGA in the past (bad cooling on EVERY graphics card I've ever bought from them), but this knowledge right here convinced me to branch out to other brands in the future. (And I'm currently rocking an ASUS Geforce 470, which is far and away better than the EVGA Geforce 9500GT I had previously, though it's such a big card it snapped the plastic guide and bent the pins on the power socket on one of my hard drives. Lets see if the card lasts! My last three EVGA cards didn't work without an RMA.)

but you're probably better off trying to max it out with CL4 timings.

Other than that meaning 4-4-4-12 or something like that, I'm not really sure what that would entail. I'm definitely no expert on computer hardware, sadly.

Hey, just wanted to put my 2 cents in here as i own a 780i SLI FTW board

Yours is the FTW board (mine is not), and as I didn't want to overclock my CPU (too), so I tried out all your voltage settings (which were even higher than the last FTW-using person to post in this thread) except the FSB ones.

I don't know if that was smart or not, but it didn't work regardless. Thanks anyway!

===========

Anyway, as my system seems stable enough at 1066, 2.0v, and I was apparently lied to by EVGA, I probably won't continue to try and push the frequency up to 1200. If someone wants to try and explain how I might go about moving to CL4 timings, I may try it out, but if anyone does I would also like to know the potential risks involved in doing so (as this RAM is only rated for 5-5-5-15 timings), as I don't want to end up setting the RAM on fire or something, as I value having a working computer.

Thank you, everyone, for the assistance.

[Tradesman]

If you want to try the CL4, might just initially try 4-5-5-15, if that works you could then go 4-5-4-15, then 4-5-4-13, etc.....just go gradually. AS for OCing the CPU, you've got a strong one, these will fairly easily do 3.4 GHz even with the stock cooler, with a good aftermarket cooler look for 3.6-4.0 or even better. It's set for a 1333 FSB, again go in steps, maybe start by raising vCore .1 and set FSB to 1400-1450. As mentioned above, as you OC, you may have to raise the vCore in degrees, (Intel calls for a (very, have found their ranges are far from max) safe range of from 0.800-1.3625 and your prob not even vary close to 1.3, so you have room to play)

[GSKILL TECH]

Try different timings and frequencies will not damage the memory. It will either work, or not. So what you can do is set timings to 4-4-4-12, then raise DRAM Frequency to see how high it can go with your comfortable voltage amount. Most people can get around DDR2-1000 4-4-4-12 2.10V, if you want to push voltage a little more, you can get even more possibly. It also depends how good your memory set is.

This is what memory fanatics do.

Oh yea, and then you can benchmark to see whether all the hard work paid off over your current settings.

Thank you
GSKILL TECH