Trident X DDR3 2400 + Asrock Z77 Extreme6, Unable to use XMP

[Draizer]

One of my sticks showed errors almost right away, other three were fine for two whole passes. I guess everything was (almost) for naught, sorry about that. Well, RMA, here I come!

Just to make sure I'm currently testing the healthy kit together to be sure there's no problem elsewhere (like some weird compatibility failure or something), but I guess it should be fine now.

Again, thank you for your time Tradesman. I guess once I get another healthy kit I'll be able to use the settings you advised to me for all 4 sticks and everything should run just fine!

[Tradesman]

Let us know when you get the new ones

[Draizer]

Well, the healthy kit ran fine for a pass and a half so I went to bed while letting it get tested overnight.

When I came back this morning there was 16M errors. I'm starting to think there's an overheat issue too or something, otherwise it should screw up right away like my bad stick did, I guess?

I'll update you when I get my new kit though, of course.

[Tradesman]

We'll be waiting to hear

[wopro]

new bios 2.8

asrock extreme 4 bios 2.8 bios reponds to gskill bugs @2133mhz
my F3-2133C9-4GAB seem to work stable now (until bios 2.7 i was fored to clock @1866mhz) lets see if it works long term... why not sooner?

[Tradesman]

Can only guess, but they have continued to expand their line of mobos, and generally as a new one comes out it appears based on an older version of a previous mobos BIOS, so as they work on and get a fix on one model, say the extreme 4 they continue to expand that fix to the other lines they have out. Think they may be semi concentrating on the higher density (8GB sticks) and higher freq DRAM (2400 and above) which is rapidly growing more popular. Good thing is, it appears (to me anyway) that ASRock is taking a pro-active approach to attacking the BIOS update problem opposed to many of the other mobo makers who appear to just be taking their time

[Tomcattwo]

Methodology

Wopro, how did you set those up in the bios:
1) By simply selecting the XMP process and save/exit or
2) By simply selecting DRAM frequency at 2133 Mhz then save/exit or
3) Manually setting G.Skill recommended RAM Config, speed and DRAM voltage manually (using DRAM configuration manually in bios)? Or
4) By some other way?

I too have a new ASRock Z77 Extreme 4 board running the newest BIOS (2.80), and G.Skill F3-2133C9D-16GTX Trident X) sticks (2 x 8GB sticks) in slots A2 and B2 (Dual Channel slots). So far, I cannot get the system to boot at the rated 2133 MHz speed using any of the above methods. Best I have been able to do so far is 2000 MHz. I did that simply by selecting DRAM Frequency to 2000 in BIOS, and all the DRAM configuration values automatically updated and it boots fine. But if I select 2133 MHz, I get the boot loop 3 times and then it goes back to default BIOS DRAM frequency and settings (1333 MHz).. And at 2000 MHz and stable, the CAS Latency is 10 (sticks are rated for 9).

I'll post all of my DRAM settings at the functioning 2000 MHz speed when I get home tonight and maybe I can get some suggestions to try to achieve the full rated 2133 MHz speed.

R/
TC2

[Tradesman]

Try resetting the CMOS, install the sticks in slots 1-3 (A1-B1 which are the primary) make sure fully seated and give it a try...if still no joy post up your BIOS settings

[Tomcattwo]

Thanks T-Man. Am running CPU overclock tests tonight, so won't swap them just yet. However, here is a pic of the freqs that currently work, just by selecting DRAM Freq (which auto-sets all the DRAM params in DRAM configuration auto-magically).



Last ratio (for 1600) should be 1:6, vice 1:06.

System is currently stable at 2.000 GHz RAM speed, 4.000 GHz CPU speed (I am temperature limited, despite a CoolerMaster HP212 installed).

The ASRock Install guide stated to use A2/B2 for "best Dual Channel Results" Hmmm

Any advice? I tried straight up using the XMP (1 and 2, both the same settings at the G.Skill recommended values of 9-11-11-31-2N). Boot-looped

Then I tried to set them manually (including DRAM Voltage at 1.60v) at 9-11-11-31-2, but of course had no clue what to set the other params at. Boot-looped

So just on a whim, (they were running at the ASRock/G.Skill default of 1333 MHz), I selected just the DRAM Freq at 1600 MHz, save/exited and lo and behold, it booted! I recorded all the params, which were automagically set by that selection, apparantly, then tried successfully at 1800, 1866, and 2000 MHz. It boot-looped when I selected 2133 MHz, the rated speed of my sticks.

Not sure if I feel like swapping the RAM to A1/B1, because everything appears to be running well at 4.0 GHz on the i5 and 2.0 GHz on the RAM. WEI is 7.9 for all except the CPU (7.6 at 4.0 GHz), and these are relatively safe overclocks.

However, any other suggestions in BIOS settings?

Thanks,
R/
TC2

[Tradesman]

Couple of things for trying 2133 you might try, DRAM voltage 1.6, CR at 2T, and w/ some of these mobos it seems the MC voltage doesn't regulate evenly so take MC (memory controller) voltage (CPUVTT) to 1.14 if that's good then prob want to run some tests, think your bandwidth will be a little higher, but at 2000 w/ 1T prob have lower latency and performance my actually be a hair better, think it will take more MC voltage at 2133 to hit 1T. Also should be able to OC the CPU to 4.4 fairly easily using a + 0.04 to + 0.05 offset voltage rather than a static voltage

[Tomcattwo]

Thanks TM. Think I will just leave the DRAM at 2000 MHz.

On the CPU, I was able to clock it all the way to 4.4 Ghz with +.004 Turbo Overvoltage and+.005 offset voltage in offset mode with no overvoltage issues (highest Vcore was 1.29 v under Prime95), but the temps hit 95°C about 4 minutes into the test on Core 1 (which seems to be consistently running 2°-4° above the other three cores), so I shut down the test. The best stable OC I could achieve with Prime95 load for 1 hr without Core 1 exceeding 90°C was 4.000 Ghz. At 4.1, it hit 92°C, 93°C for 4.2 and 4.3 GHz, and 95°C with worker hardware fault at 4.4 GHz. f I want to get it higher, I need to look at improving core cooling/heat removal capability. Some things I could try:

1) I used the thermal grease provided with the Cooler Master H212 heatsink kit, should I try Artic Silver or another grease?
2) Only have 1 CPU heatsink fan, but I have power connections for one more. Maybe add a second heatsink fan?
3) Have 2 front case fans (Lian Li case), but power for a third case fan is available and I could maybe install one at the top, but the case and board are plenty cool and stable already, it's just the CPU that's problematic.
4) Cooler Master 1000 W PS has one fan, no room for more; VGA Card is MSI GTX 670 with Twin Frozer fans. Nothing to be done for either of those.

So right now I have the CPU clocked and stable at 4.000 GHz, and the DRAM clocked and stable at 2.000 GHz, and that's pretty decent.

'Preciate the feedback
R/,
TC2

[Tradesman]

1) Just my preference but I use AS on all my heatsinks, been using it for years and no complaints on my or any of my clients systems.
2) Can try a second fan, I use a lot of the 212 EVOs and also the plus models, I've got a few systems out there floating with the dual fan set up
3) Sounds like maybe just redoing the heatsink my help, the rest is sounding good, may not have got a good spread of the thermal compound, if you make a change, make sure you clean all the old off well.
4) Sounds good here

Drop us an update when you get time

T