32Gigs of F3-1600C9D-16GXM for a ASRock Z68 Extreme 3 GEN 3?

[OldAnalogGuy]

I'm just putting together an ASRock Z68 box and (withing checking) I ordered four (4) sticks of G. Skill F3-1600C9D-16GM memory and I now see it isn't listed on the boards approved memory list.

I'm waiting for a Sandy Bridge CPU so I can flash the BIOS to accept my i73770K ivy bridge, but if I get that far, may I have memory problems, too?

I have a week, or so to exchange it at Newegg, but I've always used G. Skill memory and don't want to change now if I don't have to.

Can someone give me a heads-up on if this memory is inclined to work, or not?

I appreciate any help or advise.

Thanks!

-dave-
Medford, Oregon

[Tradesman]

2 sets of 2x8GB right? If so, and you can, a single 4x8GB set would be a better bet. Mixing 2 sets, even of the same model can be problematic.....which usually if need be can be corrected with slight voltage adjustments, however a single set will be tested to ensure all 4 sticks will play well together.....and...are programmed to work under XMP, with two sets, each set is programmed for XMP with 2 sticks, 4 sticks will require different advanced timings, particularly the tRFC which I think jumps from around 100 (2 sticks) to 171 (4 sticks)....if you do go ahead and try what you have and have any problems give a shout and I'm pretty sure we can get them to play

[OldAnalogGuy]

Thanks tradesman for the reply and suggestions.

I made a post to this last night but don't know where it went (!?).

Hopefully, I should know if I have a chance with the 32GB (yes, four (4) 8GB sticks) tomorrow when the new sandy processor arrives and I can boot.

I'm going to just start with one stick in A1 and see if it even likes that.

I'm feeling a little better about it since I read "I'm pretty sure we can get them to play".

Comforting words, indeed.

Thanks again!

-dave-
Medford, Oregon

[Tradesman]

Not a problem, when you get it up, check and make sure you have the latest BIOS, then proceed, Mon, I'll be in later in the afternoon and most of the evening have a couple builds to make, so holler if any problems

[OldAnalogGuy]

Got it going

I was able to get the beast going. Newest board bios and drivers.

Bios shows the four (4) sticks of RAM at apx 32G, but it shows them at 1333 each and not 1600.

Anyway, it seems stable. Ran 3DMark11 and got an overall score of 9722, but I believe it should be more and perhaps the RAM timing may help, yes?

Strangely, when I enabled the AHCI mode rather than SATA, the box wouldn't boot. When I selected basic settings, it boots and seems stable. That may be a question for another board as now I want to get this great G.Skill memory running at optimum. I don't want to return it!

Do you have any suggestions or is there a sticky that I overlooked as to the RAM settings?

After looking at all of the choices in the BIOS, I was tempted to just button it up and use it as it is, but I know it has much more potential than that.

As always, any suggestions are warmly received...

[Tradesman]

Can try by manually setting base timings to freq to 1600, 9-9-9-28, 2t or 2N, DRAM voltage 1.55, and think the MC (memory Controller) voltage is VCCIO, VTT or CPUVTT up appr .07

[OldAnalogGuy]

Thanks again, TM. I'll give it a go tomorrow and let you know what happened.

My Best to you!

[Tradesman]

Be looking forward to it, I'll be in and out all day tomorrow (sigh!...as usual)

[OldAnalogGuy]

This bloody thing may be working!

Mr. Tradesman!

I think this thing may be working OK (!)

I loaded XMP PROFILE and bumped the RAM speed up to 1866(!) and ran memtest and prime 95 without a failure!

It failed at 2000, but seems stable at 1866 and 1800.

I didn't touch anything else.

I can't believe that 32GB could run so well and fast. It sure speaks highly of G. Skill RAM, but that's something we already knew, yes?

There are a few additional system glitches, like an '!' on a "unknown device" and apparently unavailable bios over clock selections and a "failure" of the ASRock over clock application, but I should be able to work those things out and are all unrelated to memory. I was just worried about the RAM.

My sincere thanks to you for your astute help and patience!

As Always, my best to you!

[Tradesman]

What is the ! sign on...or whats above it and below it - might be something like a USB device that isn't hooked up or whatever, the failure on OC generally wants a little dab of voltage - might be vCore, VTT or even dram - could raise all three of those about .03 or .04 and see if still there, id it goes away can try working one of those at a time downward

[OldAnalogGuy]

Well, the ?!? is here:

As you go down device manager from the top, the area where the unknown occurs is

monitors

network adapters

OTHER DEVICES
*
*
unknown device

ports, etc.

I've deleted it and it comes back on the next boot. (!)

Also, I was going to try the ASRock application 'AsXTU' to overclock but as soon as I click on it I get ?access violation @ address 004a9c62 in module 'Asrxtu.exe' read of address 00000030? (?)

I've also deleted and loaded a new one from the ASRock site, but the same thing.

Even if I never get these figured out, I'm a happy camper. I got a 7.7 out of a 7.9 on the Windows performance program + a 9827 on 3D Mark11, so that should play a few games for the grand kids, yes?

Thanks again for all of your help. Couldn't have done it without you!

My Best!

-dave-

[Tradesman]

On the Asrock Xtreme tuner, that would be a wrong version for the BIOS, as they update the BIOS they also need to update the software, which can take a bit, might check their downloads section for a newer version or I'll try and take a look a little later this evening and get back with what I find (if anything)......on the ! - other device- it may be where it tried to load something or something was loaded twice and it shut one down, might be like a flash drive was in the computer and the computer shut down unexpectedly or crashed and in effect it's trying to find it...a lot of possibles, I wouldn't worry about it unless something you do have isn't working

[OldAnalogGuy]

Thanks again TMAN!

Ahhh, the new bios vs. the old app...makes sense! I can wait for an update.

And yes, that could have been the thumb drive. I'm going to ingore it for now.

I'm going to plug in Call of Duty and she how she does...

It's time to relax a little, yes?

Thanks again TMAN, you're a great asset to this site!

My Best!

-dave-

[Tradesman]

Time to relax.....BAH HUMBUG!! you need to break away from the Analog and go digital w/ 32 GB.......... seriously, looked at the site and the latest version of the tuning software is from April v 1.218

( http://www.asrock.com/mb/download.as...0Gen3&o=Win764 )

on the other hand there's been BIOS updates in both Jun and July -- might take a look and try the version off their Z77 Ex 3 here:

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z77%2...nload&o=Win764

It may (or sadly, may not) work - got one of their P67 Fatl1ty mobos and got caught in this, but was able to use the version from my EX 4 with no problems - worst can happen is it won't work

[OldAnalogGuy]

Hummm...

"Time to relax.....BAH HUMBUG!! you need to break away from the Analog and go digital w/ 32 GB"....

Yes, I 'spect you're right...sure had a ton of fun building this box, I may have to build another....but antenna engineers aren't computer engineers, you know...however I keep sampling those digital waters and they are beginning to apeal to me. Scary

Thanks for the links! I'll give them a try tomorrow and hopefully one will work. That was very nice of you to dig them up for me. Thanks.

I kinda have a quest to meet that 7.9 benchmark Windows Performance dangles in front of my nose. I'll bet a OC from 3.5 to 4.0gHz would do it.

I'll keep you posted, my friend.

In the meantime, be good to yourself!

-dave-