Question about memory

[jwenham]

My new build is up and running. I have a question about how to set up my ram.

Specs:

i7 940 / Asus P6T Deluxe / OCZ Gold 1600 8-8-8-24

My question is:
How do I go about to make sure it is running at its rated speed?
Should I leave it on AUTO till I am ready to OC the CPU?

Thanks!

[SubZer0]

on the board by default settings it runs at 1066 I believe... go into the BIOS and in the AI Tweaker section you will see the DRAM speed setting.. change it to 1600 and change the timings to it's rated 8-8-8-24 settings.

you might also want to run a memtest to see if the memory works fine

[jwenham]

Thanks Subzero, what I am unsure of due to being new to setting up ram is that there are alot of areas that can be changed in the BIOS ie. 1st information then a bunch of sections below that then 2nd information with 4 or 5 sections under it and last 3rd information with several items being after that.  It looks like the sections I need to change are in the 1st info area but am unsure of exactly which ones. Go easy on me as I am in learning mode.

Thanks, Jim

[NickN]

[quote]Thanks Subzero, what I am unsure of due to being new to setting up ram is that there are alot of areas that can be changed in the BIOS ie. 1st information then a bunch of sections below that then 2nd information with 4 or 5 sections under it and last 3rd information with several items being after that.

[jwenham]

Yes that rating is correct. So change the 1st 4 and I assume I should also adjust the DRAM Bus Voltage as well?

By setting the settings here, when I set up mu OC on the CPU will those settings change or will they stay since they were imput manually?

[NickN]

Yes that rating is correct. So change the 1st 4 and I assume I should also adjust the DRAM Bus Voltage as well?

By setting the settings here, when I set up mu OC on the CPU will those settings change or will they stay since they were imput manually?

Your DRAM voltage will be 1.66

Your QPI/DRAM voltage will be 1.35 to 1.37

To start off at normal CPU speed..    BCLOCK (AUTO) and normal Vcore (AUTO) the MANUAL setting of memory speed 1600 should be available automatically without making any changes in memory multiplier.

As you increase BCLOCK the memory speed will change based on the memory multiplier in use You want to be set to as close to 1600 as possible on the highest BCLOCK to hit your target CPU speed

If you are going for the full 4GHz you will need to check the memory speed as you increase BCLOCK and you can work the memory multiplier to get it in line with the memory

Sometimes you must accept a lower memory speed than 1600 or over 1600 but you can not go too high over or it may be unstable.




Now I do wish to warn about something... do not overclock until Windows is completely installed and stable with drivers. Overclocking is the last thing you do after everything is installed, set up and checked and the system is defragged and clean.

[jwenham]

Yes that rating is correct. So change the 1st 4 and I assume I should also adjust the DRAM Bus Voltage as well?

By setting the settings here, when I set up mu OC on the CPU will those settings change or will they stay since they were imput manually?

Your DRAM voltage will be 1.66

Your QPI/DRAM voltage will be 1.35 to 1.37

To start off at normal CPU speed..

[NickN]

The timings will always remain a constant becuase you set them manually. If you set the speed to 1600, then you are ready to rock


If you wish to verify, after Windows is installed.. download and run CPUz 1.49

the memory tab will show you the memory speed and timing

memory speed will be displayed as 800 (2x800=1600)

This is not a i7 readout... but you see what 1600 looks like @ 7-7-7-20 and  1T





yours should read the same except 800  8-8-8-24   1T

[jwenham]

Thank you! I appreciate your help. One last question, should I hold off on the OC till AFTER fsx is installed as well. I assume you meant that due to the fact that you said not to after the os and the watching grass grow proceedure we all know as the DEFRAG.

[NickN]

Thank you! I appreciate your help. One last question, should I hold off on the OC till AFTER fsx is installed as well. I assume you meant that due to the fact that you said not to after the os and the watching grass grow proceedure we all know as the DEFRAG.

Just hold off on clocking till everything... EVERYTHING (including addons) is installed and properly defragged

Dont forget ALL the Windows updates too!


I know.. its a pain

but you only have to do it once the long way

After you have everything installed, cleaned up and running and you have confirmed everything is running in FSX good..

then you start the clocking adventure

if you clock before and anything in that clock is unstable at all, you risk the entire install to corruption.

[NickN]

One other tip

Turn off hyperthreading in the BIOS

FSX has no use for it and the processer will run cooler in a clock

If you use the system for A/V Editing work, turn HT back on in the BIOS becuase those programs will take advantage of HT

[SubZer0]

Sometimes you must accept a lower memory speed than 1600 or over 1600 but you can not go too high over or it may be unstable.

what I did in this case is find the highest stable CPU clock speed and then set the memory speeds as fast as it would be stable. I have 1600 memory rated at 7-7-7-4 and I had to accept 1480 instead of 1600 because the next highest setting after 1480 as like 1860 and that was unstable

that's how to do it, right Nick? or would we get better performance with a bit lower clock but higher mem speed?

[NickN]

With i7 its about both but CPU speed comes first.

you must buy 1600 memory to clock so you have room to clock but that does not mean you will be running it at 1600

[jwenham]

Yes that rating is correct. So change the 1st 4 and I assume I should also adjust the DRAM Bus Voltage as well?

By setting the settings here, when I set up mu OC on the CPU will those settings change or will they stay since they were imput manually?

Your DRAM voltage will be 1.66

Your QPI/DRAM voltage will be 1.35 to 1.37

To start off at normal CPU speed..

[NickN]

No worries

you wont go into any danger zone till you hit 1.69-1.70


If the memory (with and without) the CPU overclocked will run 1.64-1.65, leave it there. Many SPD's (the memory chip programming on the sticks) are setting this to 1.66 which is not a problem and why I suggested it

if its stable at 1.64, its fine. Lower is always better

Now with QPI/DRAM voltage lower is always better is not quite true.. It must be within .5v of the DRAM voltage and during a clock 1.35 seems to be the sweetspot for that, which again most SPD's are setting that value to