1600 Memory reported as 1333

[GSKILL TECH]

The 2666 model is only $5 more so they are bang for the buck. They can be manually set to the same settings as the DDR3-2400 CL 10 kit without an issue, so it just depends whether you want a DDR3-2400 or DDR3-2666 XMP Profile.

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

[LBro]

The 2666 model is only $5 more so they are bang for the buck. They can be manually set to the same settings as the DDR3-2400 CL 10 kit without an issue, so it just depends whether you want a DDR3-2400 or DDR3-2666 XMP Profile.

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

Does the cooling fan help a lot? If so an extra $5 is well worth the price as you get the fan and higher stock speeds going this route.
With the 2666 RAM I see a CL of 12 while the 2400 is CL 10. Would that make them just about a wash if both are running at stock speed?

I am hoping this or the 2400 speed RAM go on sale here pretty soon.

[LBro]

For a lower end kit its hard to say if and how much oc potential it actually has. I would start by increasing primary timings to

11-11-11-27 then
10-11-11-27 then
10-11-10-27 ..
10-10-10-27 ..
9-10-10-27 ..
9-10-9-27 ..

If the first of those settings doesn't POST, then try again with a little bit of added Vdimm.

EM,
Well back home and at it again. I made it to 10-10-10-27 timing fine. As soon as I hit the 9-10-10-27 timing I lock up upon reboot as BIOS was posting. This was at the 1866 frequency and I was glad to see I could go that high at the loser timing.
Next I set Dram Voltage to 1.575, though it reports 1.584 actual volts.????
I then went for 1866 with a timing of 9-10-9-27 and that works fine, at least when booting into BIOS. As of right now I still have no OS, so I can not load up any testing tools.

Should I call it good at 1866 with the timing at 9-10-9-27 and running at setting of 1.575v for Dram? My thinking is I should leave it here and then load the OS, test the stability of the RAM and then either leave it alone or ???

Or is it possibly to push this RAM to 2400? I see other frequencies before that steep of an increase. If I go this route I would need to know the frequency you would recommend and the timings.... just like you listed before as those worked great!

Please advise what you might try next.
Thanks so much for your help!

EDIT: Buttoned up the case and tried to install windows 7-64 Ultimate. No go as it crapped out when expanding files. Took the RAM back to 1600 with stock timing and it ran fine. Win 7 went on like a champ.... Now as far as the RAM goes I am wondering what the next step is? I am thinking kick up the voltage a tad more and see if it can pass some bench marking. I am talking about putting it back up to 1866.
LB

[GSKILL TECH]

Cooling does keep the modules nice and cool, so it surely does it's job in prolonging the lifespan of the modules by preventing possible heat damage.

If you overclock the CPU frequency, the DDR3-2666 kit should perform better since you open up the bandwidth. But at stock frequency, they will be roughly the same. Either way, you won't be able to tell much of a difference unless you use a benchmark test.

You can't really call things good until you have an operating system up and everything is running smoothly. Those settings are pretty good, if your system is stable, you got a nice memory kit. I suggest leaving it at that because most likely they won't get much better unless you raise DRAM Voltage.

You can raise frequency, but you will need to raise DRAM Voltage as well. 1.65V minimum

Try DDR3-1866 9-11-10-28 1.60V.

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

[LBro]

Cooling does keep the modules nice and cool, so it surely does it's job in prolonging the lifespan of the modules by preventing possible heat damage.

If you overclock the CPU frequency, the DDR3-2666 kit should perform better since you open up the bandwidth. But at stock frequency, they will be roughly the same. Either way, you won't be able to tell much of a difference unless you use a benchmark test.

You can't really call things good until you have an operating system up and everything is running smoothly. Those settings are pretty good, if your system is stable, you got a nice memory kit. I suggest leaving it at that because most likely they won't get much better unless you raise DRAM Voltage.

You can raise frequency, but you will need to raise DRAM Voltage as well. 1.65V minimum

Try DDR3-1866 9-11-10-28 1.60V.

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

Thanks for the comeback!
I have the OS on now and memtest working. - Are there any better free memory tools out there?

I will try the DDR3-1866 9-11-10-28 1.60V setting and report back what happens. Can you tell me what voltage I should look at? My thinking is to use the actual reported value instead of the set value since it would be more conservative. ???

EDIT - Put in your suggested speed and timing settings. Booted both into BIOS and Windows just fine. I snuck up on the 1.6v and the funny thing was, the closer I got to 1.6 volts the closer the actual voltage was to the set voltage. I ended up at 1.6v set and that produced an actual voltage of 1.608v. I am running mem test now and will report back on how that went.

EDIT 2 - Ran 8 instances of memtest for a couple hours and got to over 100% - no issues and RAM ran cool. Ran Prime95 at stock settings for about 5 minutes as my CPU temp climbed to 59 deg C once it went into torture mode. I had the CPU warnings set tight to 60 deg C. It reported no problems...

This RAM and the setting you suggested look pretty stable! Please advise if you would do anything else. Maybe longer testing?

Thanks again...
LB

[GSKILL TECH]

What type of tools are you looking for, for what purpose? Did you see the thread with all the free tools?

http://www.gskill.us/forum/showthread.php?t=10511

Don't need to worry too much about DRAM Voltage, as long as you set it to a sufficient amount, the system will be stable. Stability is more important than being conservative with a few tenths of a Volt.

Sounds like you found the sweet spot, so everything should be good now. You should get to some real testing like play some games, stream videos, or whatever you built the computer for. Time to enjoy your new build! Then if you encounter any problems, they can be dealt with at that time.

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

[emissary42]

I will try the DDR3-1866 9-11-10-28 1.60V setting and report back what happens.

EDIT 2 - Ran 8 instances of memtest for a couple hours and got to over 100% - no issues and RAM ran cool.

Sounds good. So are you gonna keep 'em now?

[LBro]

What type of tools are you looking for, for what purpose? Did you see the thread with all the free tools?

http://www.gskill.us/forum/showthread.php?t=10511

Don't need to worry too much about DRAM Voltage, as long as you set it to a sufficient amount, the system will be stable. Stability is more important than being conservative with a few tenths of a Volt.

Sounds like you found the sweet spot, so everything should be good now. You should get to some real testing like play some games, stream videos, or whatever you built the computer for. Time to enjoy your new build! Then if you encounter any problems, they can be dealt with at that time.

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

Yes most everything looks great with settings I for RAM that you suggested. I had not seen but will certainly look at the tools you suggest. Mainly I wanted something other than Prime95 to check CPU, Memory and temps. To me Prime95 is too radical. I would likely never run anything that would push the system as hard as it does.

Thanks again!
LB

[LBro]

Sounds good. So are you gonna keep 'em now?

Oh yes these sticks of RAMBO are in for a while. However I will keep an eye on the 2666 modules and perhaps the 2400 ones to see if they go on sale for $30 off. If so I may well pick them up. The last thing I am looking at is an SSD drive as storage is the bottleneck on the system. It runs at WIE 5.8 and all other scores including memory come in at 7.8-7.9.
Thanks for your help!
LB

[emissary42]

I don't know if G.SKILL Phoenix III series is available anywhere yet/still, so i guess you would have to look at other manufacturers for your SSD needs.

And good luck on hunting down one of the bigger kits.

[LBro]

I don't know if G.SKILL Phoenix III series is available anywhere yet/still, so i guess you would have to look at other manufacturers for your SSD needs.

And good luck on hunting down one of the bigger kits.

I got the bigger kits hunted down, just need to get them to my price point.

Here is the SSD Drive I had in mind: 840 EVO-Series 250GB. Toms has it rated very high.

I want to thank you again for your assistance!

LB