Never got my rig to run as intended

Hello there,

Recently I purchased 2GB extra RAM because I felt that my nearly 4.5 year old gaming desktop was running a little slow. I have not used it for gaming for quite a while now but now that I do, I have some things that are bugging me. I have been searching the internet for hours and hours but I cannot find a solution to my problem. These forums have been a great way to gain more knowledge so I decided to sign up and hopefully learn something at last

I will post the complete desktop setup to show you exactly what I'm working with. I'm a complete newb still since I never got around to actually seeing positive change after messing with the BIOS settings.

Processor: E6850 3.00Ghz (9 * 333)
Motherboard: Gigabyte EP45-DS3
RAM: 2x1 GB GEIL PC2 8500 1066Mhz CL 5-5-5-15
freshly added RAM: 2x1 GB GEIL PC2 8500 1066Mhz CL 5-5-5-15 (GX22GB8500PDC)
Videocard: XFX 8800 GTS (640MB)
Power supply: GameXStream (600 Watt)

Ever since I got this set up I was interested in overclocking but I never had much success with it. I've read guides and tried to alter BIOS settings in general but I always ended up with not even getting past POST and having to reset CMOS. I didn't really have the knowledge to tamper with it further, nor did I want to risk frying any parts so I just used the standard (AUTO) settings ever since, but now that I have added more RAM it seems that my system runs even slower than before. I couldn't think of any other reason than BIOS settings not being what they should be.

So I got into the dreaded BIOS setting screen again and noticed that my RAM is running as DDR2-800, while it should be at 1066. But whenever I change it to 1066 it of course won't get past POST again.
I have no idea as to why, but it occurred to me that the RAM modules have a suggested 2.2-2.4v sticker on them, yet when I check in programs like Everest, CPU-Z or Speccy they are all at 1.8V. Thinking this might be the problem I tried to manually change this in the BIOS, but just changing the DRAM voltage doesn't do anything it seems. All these programs still show the modules at 1.8V, and changing anything else will result in not getting past POST.

Now I have been searching and reading all day but I can't find a solution to my problem. I found a compatability list of my RAM and it lists my motherboard as: "Does not support DDR2-533 Mhz". Does this mean my motherboard can't run these modules at 1066 Mhz? On their site it says it should support up to DDR2-1333+.

I am just trying to find an optimized setting for my system. I bought this gaming system with overclocking in mind but because I never had any success with any alteration of settings I quickly forgot about it. Now it's not so much the overclocking but just trying to get the components to work as intended, which I cannot seem to do. Even if I cannot use the ram at 1066 Mhz, I'd still like to know what the settings should be. I've read that using BIOS defaults with 4 modules of RAM is never a good idea and the settings (voltages) should probably be adjusted, but I have no idea what to do.

I hope someone can point me in the right direction!

Thanks in advance.

The speed on memory is how fast they can run. Running them slower or with looser RAM timings will be fine.

With all the memory you have installed, what are the exact settings are you using? If the voltage is the same between the two kits, you should be able to run 1066 MHz at 5-5-5-15 timings. With the extra sticks in, you may have to up the voltage on the chipset so it can handle the extra load.

You might want to pull two sticks to see if it will run 1066MHz then switch and see if the other 2 will run 1066MHz and run mem86 if you can get the ram to post.

thideras said:

The speed on memory is how fast they can run. Running them slower or with looser RAM timings will be fine.

With all the memory you have installed, what are the exact settings are you using? If the voltage is the same between the two kits, you should be able to run 1066 MHz at 5-5-5-15 timings. With the extra sticks in, you may have to up the voltage on the chipset so it can handle the extra load.

Click to expand...

I have just left it at the default settings for now, as every change I try with voltages only results in me having to reset the CMOS again. Also as soon as I put the RAM divider at a rate to match 1066 speed, I will not get past post.

I just tried to put the FSB at 1.45V which is close to the suggested max (1.5)
and the northbridge to 1.27V (1.10 stock) which I saw was around average for the threads posted about my motherboard. Was just a wild shot but again I couldn't boot. It just keeps restarting until I clear CMOS.

Here is what CPU-Z says:




@wingman99
Switching them to 1066 in BIOS has never worked for me. I guess either because it doesn't support my RAM or because I'm completely lost with voltages. I have ran memtest for all modules separately because I was having boot problems earlier, but it seems to be fine now. Just not really an improvement over my original 2GB ram.

Ok so that is the wrong tab in cpuz for ram speed. That gives us the designed speeds but not the current speed. The memory tab shows us what speed your memory is actually running at.

Alright sorry, just confirms I have no idea what I'm doing

Ok so we can see you are infact running at ddr2-800. Im looking at GBs page for your motherboard right now and it should support that ram at 1066. You should be able to set all of your memory configs manually to those timings listed there and bump the speed to 1066 divider and set the voltage to 2.4v. The other option that I see would be to go ahead and start raising your bclk speed. You will increase the ram speed 6mhz for every 5 to the baseclock at that divider.

ssjwizard said:

start raising your bclk speed

Click to expand...

Just a side note, Core2 processors don't have BCLK, they use FSB. We don't want to confuse the OP.

Welcome to the forums!

With DDR2/DDR3, there is less perceptible gain in performance after overclocking DRAM. You would be better off keeping the DRAM at stock (DDR2 800) and overclocking the CPU instead. To do this, you may have to lower your CPU multiplier and increase the FSB.

The net frequency is given as f= M x FSB. Most good P35/P45 boards can easily breach an FSB of 400MHz. Just ensure that the RAM is forced to operate at stock when you do this, otherwise your system may become unstable. Each board has its own quirks when it comes to "FSB holes", so you just have to experiment a bit to see what works.

Post a few screens of your BIOS and your target frequency and we can help you out.

BTW, the SPD in your screenshot stands for serial presence detect (i.e a table of timings and voltages the manufacturer certifies the RAM will run at).

Cheers!

S-N