Testing Memory

Hey guys I just picked up this set of ram the other day.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145345

I thought it was 1600mhz ram but its 1333 that overclocks to 1600mhz. I set the ram to the xmp profile, all timing options show as correct 9-9-9-24-41-2t.

So last night I downloaded memtest and ran 4 copies because I have a 2500k. This is in windows by the way. 3 copies were just fine with 0 errors but 1 copy had an error saying that it had trouble storing information in the ram or something and that it needed to be fixed.

Is 1 error something to worry about on 1 test or was this just a fluke? I could probably RMA the ram if I needed to and grab something else, but I would rather not be without a system.

If there are other programs to test for stability or a better way please let me know, thanks.

I'm not sure what you mean by memtest for windows, most people here would use Memtest86+ and burn the ISO to a CD and boot to it to run the test...

Here is the link to the program I used.
http://hcidesign.com/memtest/

Let me know if this is the wrong way of doing it.

http://www.memtest.org/

Is the one that most people here would use. download the ISO and burn it with imgburn and boot to it and let it run through its tests.

Great thanks. I manually set the timings instead of them being at auto and gave the voltage a small bump so we will see what happens. Plan on running the program tonight when I head to bed. How long do people run it for usually?

I let it make a single pass through all tests, if its good, then I'm happy.

killerkid said:

Great thanks. I manually set the timings instead of them being at auto and gave the voltage a small bump so we will see what happens. Plan on running the program tonight when I head to bed. How long do people run it for usually?

Click to expand...

I usually run it for at least an hour to an hour and a half, that's normally enough time to get through 2+ passes with eight tests. If it makes at least two passes without any errors I'm usually satisfied with that.

Also, you should know that the program "Memtest" is only intended for scanning 1024MB (1GB) of memory or less, or at least that's what I've heard. I've tried to run Memtest with more then 1GB of memory before, and it's never worked out, usually the test fails to run at all and I get an error message. Memtest86+ on the other hand can be used to scan any memory capacity AFAIK.

I used the memtest to scan ALL of my ram. I ran 4 applications because each one can be set to a specific amount. 8109/4= 2027 and each uses 25% cpu so it works out perfectly. I believe I had to do 2,000 on each program to give the system enough memory so that it didn't lock up.

I ran prime 95 blend for like 12hrs last night roughly, its still running now with stock cpu speed just to see if it would error out. No errors and everything looks good.

It's either the memory or the board, but one or the other is extremely picky. If I load optimized default settings it goes to 1333mhz because its "xmp" ram. So I set all the timings manually and CORRECT lol and she will not post. But if I select the "xmp profile1" and leave everything exactly the way it wants aka auto for everything, it posts and I have no errors.


Here is another weird thing. If I go into my bios, set the ram timings myself and set the command rate to 2t, it will show as 1t in the bios and 2t in windows. If I leave it on the auto default turbo xmp profile its 1605mhz, 9-9-9-24-41-2t just like it should be!

It's strange and annoying but if it has to be done via auto, whatever. I am going to run memtest86+ tonight while I sleep. If it errors out so be it, I will rma the ram and get something much better.

Last question, sorry for the book lol, but is there much difference between 1333 and 1600mhz ram, and then is there a big difference between 1600mhz and expensive ram, aka like the 2133mhz ram?

EDIT: One more question, when you guys run prime95 to test ram, do you guys do a custom and then set the amount of ram to like 8000 if you are running 8gigs, because otherwise it only tests like 3gigs?

I would just test with mem86.

I am downloading imgburn and memtest86 as we speak, I will have the results shortly

Edit: Dumb question but what burning speed do you guys usually use? I just used max on a regular cdr

max on cd-r, if it is something important I will drop it down to 2.4x-4x on a DVDR+DL but that's about it.

Thanks for all of the help guys. Well I ran memtest86+ for about 7 1/2 hrs and it did 6+ passes with 0 errors on the "default" xmp settings for 1600mhz with auto timings of 9-9-9-24-41-2t so I guess everything is fine with the memory.

I get my new case and cooler tomorrow so I will put everything together and see what this 2500k can do .

PS: I don't think the chips very good though because it LOVES voltage lol. It will boot/post at 47/48/49 multi but wants more and more voltage to stabilize it. Personally I wont run over 1.4 voltage 24/7, no more then 1.5vcore for a benchmark / screenshot of 5ghz lol.