Downclocking Ripjaws Z (2400)

[Xander001]

Hello!

When I was picking what components to buy for my system upgrade, I decided on getting this memory:

http://www.gskill.com/products.php?index=516&c1=&c2=

To go along with my ASUS Sabertooth z77 and i5-3570K because the product page mentioned that the memory would work great with the i5 (so I thought why not get the higher frequency memory?).

Yet today, when I got all the parts, I called up the GSkill tech guys and asked if this memory would in fact work with my mobo/cpu combo, and they said nope, not at its rated speed. Yet, they also said I could manually adjust the memory settings to lower its speed down to 2133 or 1600 and it would work.

Since I am a total newb at adjusting such settings (I was hoping to just use XMP) I stopped my build, thinking it might be best to just RMA the memory and get a kit that would work without any tweaking.

Then a friend said I should at least try to downclock and see how it works. So, would anyone happen to be familar enough with the z77 Sabertooth bios to give me an idea on how to downclock this memory kit to 2133 or 1600?

Also, would downclocking this memory be a good idea in regards to having the system be stable? I'm not going to OC the system at all.

[Tradesman]

I haven't touched one of these mobos yet, when it was released was surprised by the 1866 top end DRAM rating, because the Z77 shipset has no problems up to 2800 and up, and your CPU can definitely go 2400 (and prob better), to try at 2133 I'd try with XMP off, go to manual/auto set freq to 2133, base timings to 9-11-11-30, 2T, start with DRAM voltage at 1.5 and may want to try with VTT at 1.1, if it goes can prob lower these voltages while maintaining stability...if no joy, let me know what it does and we might be able to adjust, or drop to 1866....think it should go, but have no idea what Asus did to this mobo to quasi limit it to a 1866 rating, may have to manually play with advanced/secondary timings...there's few tricks to try

[Xander001]

I'm not sure the mobo is limited to 1866? The manual for it shows QVL's for memory up to 2400 (my kit isn't listed).

How to set those settings you mentioned is a mystery to me, at the moment. Haven't built up the system enough to try and get it to boot yet, will be doing that today (right after I post this). Hopefully the new bios gui is freindly!

[Tradesman]

If it will handle the sticks, then it should be as simple as install sticks go into BIOS and enable XMP, then select the 2400 profile - what has bothered me is their spec advertising - see:

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Int...specifications

which list 1866 as the high end when their other mobos (Z77) list 2400 and up. Also, Asus 'test's memory at the default freq of the mobo - 1600

[Xander001]

Got it all built and running. Seems to be doing ok. Initial boot had the memory at 1600, since then I've used XMP, which had the memory at 2400, with 1.65v.

I've seen lots of people say the lower voltage is better, even if the frequency of the ram is lower as well. Is this true? I'm curious because there is an option in the bios that shows what the dram speed settings would look like.

For a setting called "JEDEC" it has the frequency at 1600, and voltage at 1.5, with the timing(?) at 10-11-11-11. For the XMP settings, it has 2401 / 1.65, and 10-11-11-12 (or close to that).

[Tradesman]

JEDEC is the organization that sets the standards for basic DRAM, DDR3 originally came out at a standard of 1.5, but as frequencies go up, so does voltage, in part to match up to a degree with the voltage needed by the MC (Memory Controller) in the CPUs (which has it's own voltage supply in addition to the vCore voltage for the bulk of the CPU. 1.65 and even a little higher is perfectly safe as long as the set up is good. This comes up quite often, but if you want to run fast sticks, you are normally running your CPU on a decent OC which can require more voltage (as well as the MC). As far as lower voltage is better, to a point I agree, in that I try to keep voltages as low as possible while still maintaining stability, and it's not because higher voltages are dangerous in of themselves, i.e. 1.55 DRAM voltage vs 1.65, or 1.15 VTT vs 1.2, etc, but lower voltages mean less heat overall in the case, and the cooler the better for running and producing higher OCs

[Xander001]

Interesting. During one of the reboots I had to do today, I went into the bios and looked at my memory again. For some reason it had changed to a manual setup, with the frequency at 19xx, and the CPU was at 44xx. This was after I had set the XMP profile for 2400, not sure why that happened.

Checked again a little while ago and it was back to the XMP profile with memory at 2401 and the CPU at 41xx. Bascially what you are saying is that people who want to agressively o/c their CPU's will generally want faster sticks of memory, such as these 2400's.

That means I am in good shape with this system, since I'm not going to o/c yet (if at all), and if things seem to be running a bit too hot or not stable, I could lower my memory down to 1600 without an issue, and most likely not see a big performance drop.

Thanks for all the help and information!

[Tradesman]

Just a question, did you see the drop actually in the BIOS or was the system running and you saw that in a Win program, if so that could be Speedstep, stepping in (sorry for the play on words) but speedstep and other mobo utilities can step things down when the full speed of the CPU isn't needed.

[Xander001]

Na, I was just curious about the settings during one of my reboots. I had been reading through another forum thread where users of the Sabertooth z77 would talk about any issues they have had.

A number of people had odd issues with the bios not keeping their settings once they had updated that bios to the latest and greatest. My board came with the latest bios already installed, so I was just curious.

Now that I think about it, I might have initiated that change without knowing. The bios has an "EZ Mode" interface which is the default screen you see when you enter the bios. There are 3 settings for the mobo that you can choose: Power Saver, Normal, Performance. I decided to use Performance after seeing that the system was stable at XMP 2400, I think that changes I saw resulted from that (maybe).

[Tradesman]

Could be, keep us informed