Weird fsb issue with GA-P35-DS3L

Alright, I've been trying my hand at overclock for a bit, but I never really tried to puch the ram too hard, because I hadn't bothered to research ram timings too much.

I got into it recently, with some not-too-shappy-not-too-fancy ddr2-800, and found that I could stably overclock it to 1140mhz @ 5-5-5-18 (CR2), (360ish mhz FSB) with some decent bandwidth. However, with a dram:fsb ratio of 16:10, the write speed was significantly lower than the read speed, which annoyed me.



Well, I figured I could tackle this by raising the fsb, and since it seemed to eat itself if it pushed it past 400mhz, I left it at that, and left my memory multiplier at 2. So, with stock clocks, and the ram timings set to auto, I booted up fine, all was fine and dandy until I reached the windows (vista) logo where it flashes, and the screen just froze. Like, didn't bsod, just froze. I occasionally got to the desktop where it would do the same thing.

So, just to see what my mobo would do, I set the timings to 5-5-5-18 again manually (which it was anyway, according to everest), and it would boot up to the desktop without freezing, and I managed to get a decent write speed ( ), but as soon as I tried to load any decent sized program or stress test the system, it would do the same freezing thing, again with no bsods. I dialed back the fsb to around 395 progressively to see if it jsut dind't like that number, but it didn't like me til i went back to around 380.

Is this a normal problem for the p35-ds3l? Is it the fsb or the memory? The cpu stayed around the same clock in this as it is always stably (3.2ghz q6600), so i really can't tell what it could be.

Freezing normally indicates insufficient voltage, like Vcore or vNB (vMCH) for example. Use the following template for the GA-P35-DS3L to post all of your current settings at an FSB of 400 MHz...

I really think you need to narrow down what area is causing you problems. It may not be the memory at all. Have you isolated and tested the common points (CPU, FSB) before going onto memory? What is your FSB limit without hinderance from CPU or memory O/C?

The Gigabyte Performance Enhance option can really improve memory latency (adjusts the tRD as far as I can tell).

Right, i'm installing updates atm on a really slow internet connection so I can't restart, but i'll see what I can do from memory:

Robust Graphics Booster: Auto
CPU Clock Ratio: 3200
CPU Host Clock Control: 8
CPU Host Frequency: 400
PCI Express Frequency: Auto
C.I.A. 2: Off
System Memory Multiplier: 2
DRAM Timing Selectable: Manual
Performance Enhance: Auto or off, can't remember

CAS Latency Time: 5
Dram RAS# to CAS# Delay: 5
Dram RAS# Precharge Delay: 5
Precharge Delay (tRAS): 18
ACT to ACT Delay (tRRD): Auto
Rank Write to READ Delay: Auto
Write to Precharge Delay: Auto
Refresh to ACT Delay: Auto
Read to Precharge Delay: Auto
Static tRead Value: Auto
Static tRead Phase Adjust: Auto

System Voltage Control: Auto (I spent like 2 hours trying to find what they should be set at, to no avail, so I just left it at that, it seemed to support my overclocks prety well)
DDR2 OverVoltage Control:
PCI-E OverVoltage Control:
FSB OverVoltage Control:
(G)MCH OverVoltage Control:
CPU Voltage Control: Sits around 1.36-1.38v according to everest

Well, I couldn't set the memory clock any lower, and the cpu was going slower than my usual stable overclock, so I can only assume it's an fsb thing - I was kinda just wondering what the limits of the board are, from anyone who might have the same

The FSB is nowhere near it's limit at only 400 MHz, regardless of the P35 board being used, or because of the fact you're running a 65nm quad. Post the VID of your chip using Real Temp--> "Settings" page--> Max VID, and also post the rest of your voltages. By dropping the FSB from 400 to 380 MHz, you decreased the unstable clock of 3.2 to a stable 3.04 GHz. This in itself doesn't mean that it's "an FSB thing", but more than likely a voltage issue (lack of). At a clock of 3.2 GHz, that's a 800 MHz overclock from the default 2.4 GHz. So depending on the VID of your chip, the loaded Vcore while running both cores at 100%, and Vdroop if any... the CPU Voltage Control setting of AUTO (1.36 - 1.38 Vcc at idle) is probably not sufficient for that kind of increase in clock speed.