Hello, bought some new ram Adata Vitesta Extreme Edition ddr2 800, rated 4-4-4-12 at 800mhz by manufacturer. Should oc to 1000mhz fine with some kind of ram timings, not that I'm trying that. My mboard is Gigabyte 965p-ds3 (v1 or 2, can't remember, will find out if needed) Bios version F12. My cpu is e6400 oc'd to 3.01ghz (stock hsf). Fsb is at 376 to achieve this (with 8x multiplier). When this setting is in place, my options for the memory multiplier are 2 (which sets the frequency at 752mhz) or the next increment up is 2.5 (sets the frequency at 940). System will boot with the SPD timing settings with the memory multplier at 2.5 (940mhz), the SPD timings show in the bios as 5-5-5-18. It boots fine, ran a half hour of memtest, seems ok, but for some reason it's showing as 7-7-7-20 in the memory tab of cpuz. System will not boot with multiplier @ 2.5 (940mhz) and timings at 4-4-4-12. Which is to be expected, no problem there. I just want to get it running at 800mhz with timings at 4-4-4-12, the hardware is definitely capable of doing this. I don't want to try to change the fsb, I already tried once, set it to 390 (which still only gives me 780mhz ram) so the cpu was now 3120mhz, but it wasn't having it, no boot. Anyway I'm not trying to further OC the CPU. So the questions are: Is there a way to get it going at 800mhz with 4-4-4-12 (without ocing the cpu more)? Is 752mhz @ 4-4-4-12 better or worse than 940mhz @ 5-5-5-18 (or 7-7-7-20, which cpuz is showing!) ? Should I consider getting after market cpu hsf to push to the fsb to 400 or beyond? (this would allow me to get the ram at 800 4-4-4-12 but would push my e6400 to 3200mhz)?
It is tempting I must admit... I know people oc e6400 to 3.6 or maybe more. Have any ideas for cooling that should keep everything fine at 3.2 ghz?
Thanks for those suggestions, but that kit is over my budget for this. I'm looking at up to £30 including p+p. EDIT: I just noticed that speedfan is now showing my cpu temp (temp2) as about 53-54°C, but it's showing the burning fire symbol next to it too. The air temperature here (London) has been quite a bit hotter in the past couple of days and it's pretty hot now, apart from that I don't know... ?
The fire symbol just occurs at 50C, it's not a sign of immediate danger, it just means it's running 'above ideal temperature'. I'd suggest an Arctic cooling Freezer 7 Pro, if you can't manage the Thermalright, but bear in mind 3.6 is going to be pretty much unattainable without teh best of the best cooling.
Thanks for your posts. I'll check out that fan sam thanks. Elokito, I've always been a bit scared of changing the voltages! Isn't that a bit of a big increase from ddr2 1.9v? I mean, I don't really know, like I say, I don't mess with the voltages usually. I read that manufacturers nowadays do allow you to up voltage when oc'ing memory and stay within warranty but for ddr2 it's usually only up to 2.1v. And if you go more they can tell by looking in the chips when it comes back, although I doubt they would, I think the place I bought it would just issue a new set.
And, in your opinion, would that greatly reduce the lifespan of the ram? I do want it to last a couple of years.
I wouldn't think massively, that rather depends what sort of RAM it is. With high quality memory, it wouldn't be an issue, but with A-Data I couldn't say I'm afraid.
I'll give it a whirl and post back. Everything I've heard about Adata has been really really good, from online reviews and stuff, mainly overclockers. This is the extreme edition also so theoritcally should be very good for oc'ing.
Well, all I know is that nobody I know uses it. Seems surprising if it's that reputable. Preferred brands of the moment seem to be Corsair, G-Skill, Patriot and Mushkin.
Here's what happened. Set the multiplier to 2.5 (ram @ 940mhz) and the timings down to 4-4-4-12. Would NOT boot with voltage increases of .01 or .02 (2 + 2.1v). Then I chose "auto" for optomize voltage settings. The flashing warning saying "voltage not optomized" now went green and said "voltage optomized". Kept the ram at 940mhz and the timings at 4-4-4-12. It almost booted fully to the desktop. Went back, kept everything the same including the auto voltage optomization, set the timings to 5-5-5-12. It booted fully and I'm using it now, seems ok, haven't done any stress tests yet. My cpu temp is showing as 58°C though. Cpuz is showing the ram at 940 and the timings at 5-5-5-12 (wonder why it went screwy before...?). Don't know if I should keep it like this but if I pick up one of those Arctic cooling Freezer 7 Pro, which I probably will, it should be ok I guess, might aswell pick up another case fan aswell (currently have one 120mm blowing in and an 80mm exhaust). In the meantime these quesions remain: Should I leave it how it is now, fast but with slightly looser timings or should I go back to 752mhz but with 4-4-4-12 timings? I wonder what the "optomize system voltage" actually did? Why did that allow me to boot with 940mhz but the manual settings didn't? Did it change some other bus voltages? Is there a program to check what the voltages are now (I'm pretty sure cpuz just does cpu) since it just says "auto" or "optomized" or something in the bios now?
My board only goes up in increments of 0.1 so I tried 2.2 - no boot. Again, almost got to the desktop fully loaded. So I guess the optomization thing is just setting voltages itself as sam said, cuz that's what happened when I chose that option before with those timings. So I guess I'm going to have to accept I need to get more cooling to hit 4-4-4-12 at 940mhz with my 800mhz ram (unless someone says "try 2.2"). So the question now is still (maybe a silly one, I don't know much about the performance difference between timings this close): whats better, 4-4-4-12 @ 752mhz or 5-5-5-12 @ 940mhz?
