Rampage III Formula + Pi Series (6 sticks)

[Jehk]

Alright, they're not QVL'd and seriously not compatible at the retailed timings and speed, but I have them and I don't have money to find better compatible memory so here we are.

I have an i7-980X at 4 GHz stable on a Rampage III Formula motherboard.
I have 6 sticks of F3-17066CL7D-4GBPIS which are DDR3-2133 CL7-10-7-27 1.65V (3 kits of 2048MB X2 sticks).

I wish to make them work! Now of course there's no way in the world to get the i7-980X to handle 6 sticks of 2133, so I'm going to have to lower it to 1866.

My current settings are 12 hours stable of Prime95:
1866 MHz @ CL7-9-7-27 @ 1.65V

Other voltages such as CPU and QPI/VTT have been increased, I believe CPU is 1.250V and QPI/VTT is at 1.4250V (feels kinda high for me but system won't post otherwise)

However I've come across a problem! Only 10GB is being read by the BIOS and Windows.
What do now? An odd number of RAM recognized sounds like a major performance hit to me.

All 6 sticks are still recognized by CPU-Z as 12288MB.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Tradesman]

Check that you have the latest BIOS and possibly try raising the DRAM voltage to 1.7

[Jehk]

Certainly the latest version, 0903. I had 12 GB on 0801 by setting the RAM to 1600, but it doesn't seem to recognize it all at 1600 anymore on 0903. Haven't tried downgrading BIOS to check if it had anything to do with a BIOS update though.

Is 1.7V safe for 980x? I get a big warning message saying more than 1.65V can damage cpu.

Edit: Tried 1.7V DRAM with 1.5V VTT at 1866 MHz still 10GB recognized, trying 1600 MHz.

Edit 2: Tried 1600 MHz, still 10 GB, increased timings to 7-10-7-27 2N as well. Also tried increasing UCLK to 3600 MHz but afaik that shouldn't have to go any higher than 1.5x RAM freq with 980x as I'm told...sigh.

Edit 3: Also tried 1333 MHz, still 10 GB! This is bananas.

[Tradesman]

With the QPI/VTT your running I'd say yes, may want to check each stick individually w/ Memtest to see if one is bad, or, empty the slots and blow them out with compressed air, clean the gold contacts on the sticks with say rubbing alcohol and a foam swab, also might take a look at :

http://i4memory.com/ramdetect

an article about missing DRAM Capacity

[Jehk]

Oh snap! I just tried 3 running 3 sticks and it said 4080 MB!
I removed one, 2040 MB!
I put it back in, removed a different one, 4080 MB!

Well then, it looks like I found a dead stick of RAM!

And guess what I'm typing this from!

3 sticks in the red slots at 6GB running at 2133 MHz and CL7-10-7-27 @ 1.65V.

MY COMPUTER HAS NEVER FELT SO GOOD IN ITS LIFE.

What do I do with this bad stick now? lol
Thank god I can cancel my motherboard RMA!

Edit: Rounding error 10 minutes into Prime95 Blend test, shall I bump it up to 1.7V again?

Edit: Trying 1.7V and still getting errors 15 seconds into the blend test...small FFT never fails... Can't be CPU I think because small FFT passes, must be RAM, what should VTT and UCLK and possibly others be at to ensure stable 2133 mhz 7-10-7-27-2N? :S

[Tradesman]

Can try, for the RMA, from the accent sounds like Canada...eh? So for the Americas contact rma@gskillusa.com...........and let the Thunder roll......

[Jehk]

I guess my CPU just needed a slight bump to 1.2750V and UCLK lowered to 3466 MHz.
RAM is running stable at 1.65V.

RMA started too. Thanks for the help, sir!

[Tradesman]

No problem....I try...have a good 1 !

[Jehk]

Haha now I ran into a weird one, I'm trying to overclock my CPU a bit and if the RAM is not 2133 mhz it doesn't detect the 3rd channel or whatever.

RAM @ 2109 mhz = 4 GB
RAM @ 2133 mhz = 6 GB

is that normal? o_o

either way it doesn't bother me too much, 152 instead of 150 bclk was able to bring it to 2133 (instead of 2109) mhz and 4.27 (instead of 4.2) ghz stable

[Tradesman]

What are the system voltages at, i.e. vCore, QPI/VTT etc

[Jehk]

Full specs reading out of BIOS...

Target CPU Frequency: 4256 MHz
Target DRAM Frequency: 2133 MHz
CPU Ratio: 28.0
BCLK: 152 (150 causes missing RAM but still stable?)
PCIE: 100
UCLK: 3657 MHz
DRAM Timings: 7-10-7-27-1N (all else auto)
Load Line Calibration: Off (auto, not sure if I should change this)
CPU Voltage: 1.35000
CPU PLL Voltage: 1.81525
QPI/DRAM Core Voltage: 1.47500 (lowering causes ram unstable)
DRAM Bus Voltage: 1.65625
IOH Voltage: 1.11300
IOH PCIE Voltage: 1.51050
ICH Voltage: 1.11300
ICH PCIE Voltage: 1.51050

Everything else is set to auto... all unneeded features disabled except virtualization and xd bit.
Any recommendations to keep stability and lower temps? I'm surprised I have to put QPI voltage up so high. :S

Sent from phone.

[Tradesman]

I'd try dropping PLL, also can you drop vCore any?

[Jehk]

Nope @ 1.33 v core fft prime95 fails after 3 minutes
I will try dropping PLL a bit but isn't 1.81 stock for 980x?

[Tradesman]

PLL creates a lot of heat and normally can be lowered some