Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6 Memory/Bios Settings

I am building a new Gaming PC, I have a
Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6 Mobo
Crucial Ballistix 4 GB (4 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Q6600 Go stepping CPU
EVGA GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB 256bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0

I can already tell from browsing thru the bios settings that the memory timings are not what they are supposed to be, which is 4-4-4-12 @ 2.2 volts. So I went through the mobo manual, and I see more settings then I have specs for. I am not CLEAR as to what to set these at. Here is a list of settings available in the bios. There are more than this of course, I am just getting into this, so if you can add more advise, please do so.

System memory multiplier
Memory Frequency (Mhz)
High Speed DRAM DLL Settings Option 1 or 2 (manual not to clear on this)
DRAM Timing selectable (Auto or 3-6)
CAS Latency Time (Auto or 3-6)
DRAM RAS# to CAS# Delay (Auto or 1-15)
DRAM RAS# PreCharge (Auto or 1-15)
Precharge delay (tRAS) (Auto or 1-31)
ACT to ACT Delay (tRRD) (Auto or 1-15)
Rank Write to Read Delay (Auto or 1-31)
Write to PreCharge Delay (Auto or 1-31)
Refresh to Act Delay (0-255)
Read to PreCharge Delay (Auto or 1-15)
tRD (Auto or 1-31)
tRD Phase Adjustment (Auto or 1-31)
System Voltage Control (Auto or Manual) Im sure I set this to manual so I can set the memory volts too 2.2
DDR2 OverVoltage (Im sure this is where I will bump up the default memory voltage, whatever that is, to 2.2v per memory spec.

I will make another post I think as to the other settings like the CPU etc. Thanks for any feedback

Fakum said:

I will make another post I think as to the other settings like the CPU etc. Thanks for any feedback

Click to expand...

Just put them in one thread, people will help you and you will get better responses.

I thought it would be best to categorize as to many questions in 1 location would tend to be overwhelming to many to even want to respond.

Fakum said:

I thought it would be best to categorize as to many questions in 1 location would tend to be overwhelming to many to even want to respond.

Click to expand...

It is hard to overwhelm us

Here's the settings for 4-4-4-12 @ 2.2 v

High Speed DRAM DLL Settings Option 1 or 2 - when chaning to manual it becomes option 2.
DRAM Timing selectable (4)
CAS Latency Time (4)
DRAM RAS# to CAS# Delay (4)
DRAM RAS# PreCharge (4)
Precharge delay (tRAS) (12)

DDR2 OverVoltage +0.40

Just leave the other memory options at auto.

And just so you know, the X38-DQ6 boards has issues when it comes to filling up all four slots with ram and running them at 1066+. I've only seen one guy running it fine with 4 sticks at 1066. Thou, no-one has found the problem of what's causing it.
And SADLY, gigabyte claims that if you can't get it to work after sliding up the vdimm one step or two over spec, then they can't do anything about it and say's it must be bad luck(not in those exact words, but that's what they're saying) after e-mailing about this problem.
Got alot of peeps over here running into this problem, not knowing about it before.

Thanks for the info, About this statement “And just so you know, the X38-DQ6 boards has issues when it comes to filling up all four slots with ram and running them at 1066+”. As you can tell by my settings below, I Don’t know what im running at or what it should be? Perhaps because I have the “System Memory Multiplier” set to AUTO? I didn’t realize the issues with 4 gigs? That might explain why Windows XP is telling me I have 3.5 gig of ram instead of 4??? Anyway, here are my latest settings. I appreciate the help as I am a novice at best at the bios configs, that’s why I come here to get help from the pros :}

CPU Clock Ratio (8X)
CPU Clock Control (Dis)
CPU Host Clock Freq (333)
PCI Express Freq (auto)
C.I.A.2 (Dis)
Performance Enhance (Turbo)
System Memory Multiplier Spd (Auto)
Memory Frequency (Mhz) (800)
DRAM Timing selectable (Auto or Man) (Man)
CAS Latency Time (4)
DRAM RAS# to CAS# Delay (4)
DRAM RAS# PreCharge (4)
Precharge delay (tRAS) (12)
ACT to ACT Delay (tRRD) (Auto or 1-15) auto
Rank Write to Read Delay (Auto or 1-31) auto
Write to PreCharge Delay (Auto or 1-31) auto
Refresh to Act Delay (0-255) (0)
Read to PreCharge Delay (Auto or 1-15) auto
tRD (Auto or 1-31) auto
tRD Phase Adjustment (Auto or 1-31) auto
System Voltage Control (Auto or Manual) (Man)
DDR2 OverVoltage (+0.40)
Normal CPU Vcore 1.28750v

System Memory Multiplier Spd (Auto)
Memory Frequency (Mhz) (800)

The Memory frequency tells us that you're ram is running @ 800Mhz DDR when it's at Auto on the Sys mem multi spd. If you change your system memory multiplier spd (usually called RATIORAM) to something else, you look at the memory frequency, how much the ram is gonna be running at.


As i can tell by your settings atm you're runnig it at 800mhz 4-4-4-12 @ 2.2v so you're fine!


You're probably running a 32bit win XP installation, so that's your issue that windows don't wanna show more than ~3.5GB and not 4GB. Because 32bit windows can't adress all the ram like it should when it hits the maximum limit of what it's capable of.

Thanks for clarifying that. I am running WinXP Pro ( I believe that is 32 bit?) That would explain that 3.5 gig of ram indication I suppose ( I was not aware of the limitation. Performance wise , am I better off leaving the 4 sticks in or taking one out? (Not sure because of the 32 bit issue whether or not it matters? Thanks

Just leave it as it is!