New Ram, overclock gone

Hello!

I had an E5200 on an ASUS P5KPL-AM with 2 GB of PC2-6400 OCZ Platinum. 3258mhz, 12.5 multi, 260 mhz bus speed, stock HSF.

Tonight I put in 4GB of PNY XLR8 PC2-6400 ram and I can't get any sort of OC. I've tried it at both 667 and 800 and various combinations of multi and fsb but I'm getting it to run at no more than 2.6-2.7 ghz

http://www.morecomputers.co.uk/extra.asp?pn=kcdimm4gbn/6400/2-xl

Is this RAM bad for OCs? Please help, I want my fast CPU back!

Sorry I'm not too knowledgeable on o'clocking, I manage a bit of a boost whenever I build a new system but as I do that about once a year I forget what I have learned and what I did perviously.

Welcome to O/C Forums

I hate to say it, but PNY ram is not overclocking friendly at all. It's not bad for the stock speed/average joe, but not intended to be oc'ed. You might be able to try some more voltage to them, but I doubt it. I never had any luck with PNY products, much less their ram. My suggestion is to return it and get something else. It looks to be you had better results with OCZ.

You might want to consider looking into these brands:

Gskill
OCZ
Corsair
Crucial
Kingston
Patriot

Temporarily adjust the timings from 4-4-4-12 to 5-5-5-15 at 1.9V. Or at default timings bump the Vdimm to 1.95 - 2.0V, and the NB voltage 0.1V. As you increase the FSB from the default of 200MHz to >210MHz (840MHz DRAM freq. on a 1:2 FSB : DRAM ratio), the default SPD timings are obviously too tight at those higher frequencies. Like Neb pointed out, PNY RAM isn't really made for overclocking, but more for systems that will be run at stock.

redduc900 said:

Temporarily adjust the timings from 4-4-4-12 to 5-5-5-15 at 1.9V. Or at default timings bump the Vdimm to 1.95 - 2.0V, and the NB voltage 0.1V. As you increase the FSB from the default of 200MHz to >210MHz (840MHz DRAM freq. on a 1:2 FSB : DRAM ratio), the default SPD timings are obviously too tight at those higher frequencies. Like Neb pointed out, PNY RAM isn't really made for overclocking, but more for systems that will be run at stock.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the replies, does anyone know where in the BIOS I can adjust the timings and the ratio on this board? I got the vdimm to 2v and I can get a relatively stable 2.77 Ghz.

DRAM Frequency is under JumperFree Configuration--> Ai Overclocking, and Configure DRAM Timing by SPD is located under Chipset (set to Disabled for available timings options).

A big thanks to both of you guys, changed the timings (cant find northbridge voltage) and I've now got 3.012ghz, 240 bus speed seems to be the limit, 56c under prime 95 (no errors as yet 1hr).

Once again, very very grateful to you both, I was well fed up with the alternative of getting another 4GB of new RAM with prices rocketing (the PNY I bought last week has already gone up £30 and the OCZ I replaced I ebayd for what I paid for new 1 year ago)

Just out of interest, can anyone recommend a replacement cpu for the e5200 that would give a bit of a performance boost on the current rig within a £100 budget

There are a number of faster processors that are compatible w/ that board (depending on BIOS revison), many of which are available within your £100 budget (click on the CPU Support List tab)...

http://asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=xs6iinKxu0y5agcg