Sabertooth Z77 and i7-3770K Using F3-12800CL7Q-16GBZM Limited to DDR3-1360?

[nerdindenial]

I just finished building my Sabertooth Z77 and i7-3770K system using F3-12800CL7Q-16GBZM (4x4GB). It booted up fine with the latest 1206 BIOS and is running Memtest86+ V4.20 well. It automatically started by using the JEDEC settings of DDR3-1337 9-9-9-24.
Following some advice on this forum (unfortunately the search function on this forum doesn't work for me in either Firefox or IE8) I used the Ai Tweaker in the UEFI BIOS to auto-tune the OC parameters. After numerous automated attempts (very cool) it finally arrived at the XMP type timings of CAS 7-8-8-24, but the voltage stayed at 1.5V and the speed increased only slightly to DDR3-1360. Memory bandwidth increased only slightly from 17207 MB/s to 17499 MB/s.
It's not clear to me that the memory subsystem is really in XMP mode (I don't immediately see "XMP" in the BIOS).

I see in the latest QVL that ASUS runs most of your low latency sticks at 1.6V, but I don't see my set with the "ZM" suffix in there.
Do you have a recommendation as to how to get better memory performance without causing heat, stability, or short part lifetime problems? Thanks.

[Tradesman]

Try manually at 6-8-8-24 2T 1.5 and set freq to 1600....Their BIOS prob isn't ready yet for low latency sticks, if no joy may want to try 7-8-8-24 @ 1600 (and may want to try DRAM voltage at 1.55)....if still a problem, might want to run Memtest to see if you may have a bad stick

[nerdindenial]

Sabertooth Z77 and i7-3770K Using F3-12800CL7Q-16GBZM Switched to XMP

Ah, my mistake. I looked in the excellent Asus UEFI BIOS again, and under "Ai Tweaker" one of the first settings is called "Ai Overclock Tuner". I set this to "X.M.P.". It auto-selected Profile #1 at DDR3-1600 7-8-8-24-2N at 1.50V. Memory bandwidth jumped to a full 21,472 MB/sec in Memtest86+, which is 4 times what my C2D and C2Q systems can do! I'll let Memtest86+ run overnight, but also need to run Prime95 and Really Slick Screensavers (OpenGL) simultaneously for 3 hours to see if it holds up. My only remaining problem is the CPU cooler. An Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 hits the inner DRAM stick, and a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus looks to me (a mechanical and electrical engineer) like it could easily short out the traces on the back of the motherboard. So for now I am using the stock cooler, and I may switch to the Antec Kuhler H2O 620 or 920 liquid cooler, since the manual for my Antec Solo II case has a whole section on how to install them. Thanks for your help!

[Tradesman]

Might take a look at the Hyper 212 EVO, the fans (you can add a second push fan) are based on adjustable clips so they can be raised slightly for sticks like the Ripjaws and Snipers, etc, works well, have used a few of these now

[nerdindenial]

Update: The Intel CPU cooler fan quit working (another bad batch!) so I installed a CM Hyper 212 EVO and gritted my teeth as it scraped some of the protective coating off the motherboard (why can't they use thicker, larger diameter insulating washers and sheeting?). Anyway it's still running okay and Prime95 max heat test stays at 41C (instead of 65C), which is great. The CPU box running Windows draws 45 watts at idle and 120 watts on the Prime95 max heat test. Even though the graphics rate 6.5 in WEI, I can't get it to run OpenGL Really Slick Screensaver at over 1.25 FPS (should be 35-60). I don't know what is wrong there; maybe the screensaver is using an obsolete API.

Unfortunately, the X.M.P. settings that worked forever in Memtest86+ will not let Windows 7 shutdown or sleep. I see on the forums that other people have this problem on the Sabertooth Z77 as well. So I followed their advice and used the Clear RTC (Clear CMOS) jumper to restore the BIOS setttings to the default JEDEC DDR3-1333 settings, which "fixed" this problem at the expense of 25% slower memory.

So at this point I have run out of time and need to use the system as-is. Do you have any idea how I could get the BIOS or DRAM to behave properly so that I could cleanly shutdown and sleep Windows when using X.M.P.? Right now the WEI for Memory and Processor are 7.7. Thanks!

[Tradesman]

COuld try raising DRAM voltage, but it appears the biggest problem is in/with the mobo - might get on the horn to them or drop an e-mail and ask when they are going to fix these issues, it's on the net others are having it, so they need to get on it and fix it

[GSKILL TECH]

Did you check the S2/S3 sleep mode and memory power down settings?

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

[nerdindenial]

Sabertooth Z77 and i7-3770K Using F3-12800CL7Q-16GBZM Now Running at 1600 MHz XMP

I finally resolved this by:

1. Clearing RTC/CMOS by moving jumper on the motherboard
2. Turning off Fan Overtime in the BIOS
3. Installing ASUS AISuite II

I'm not sure which step fixed the problem (probably #1), but CPU-Z now shows the memory running at the proper X.M.P. DDR3-1600 7-8-8-24 2T and turbo mode at 3.9 GHz. WEI numbers with the built-in HD4000 graphics and Intel SSD 520 are: 7.7, 7.8, 6.6, 6.6, 7.9. The CM Hyper 212 Evo cooler keeps the CPU down to 50C at full Prime95 max heat load and the DRAM climbs to about 55C. The system now shuts down, sleeps, and wakes reliably. On a cold boot, the BIOS requires about 10 seconds, Windows start up requires 10 seconds, and logging in and starting all software requires another 5 seconds. Recovery from sleep requires about 2 seconds with no password.

[Tradesman]

Glad to hear all is well and thanks for the steps you took, will prob help others in the future, keep in touch