SmokinMr2 Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 Hi all. First a bit of history... I had a Gigabyte 939 board that burnt up 2 sets of Corsair XMS matched 1 gig sticks that I bought from "Fry's", and the board isn't available for a replacment anymore. It had already been replaced 1 time for the same issue Instead of RMA I decided to "discuss it" with Fry's. I really didn't want another. They actually made good due to their usual "ad", and I ended up with this ECS C51GM-M board, an AM2 dual core 4200 and 2 gigs of the new style ram. So I've been doing some reading both on these forums and any others I can find. Like I have read here, I also can't get this board to run this memory at 800. Maybe it's operator error, but the bios sure has changed since my 939 board. I'm not interested in overclocking it, at the 400 it's running it is already faster than my last board, I'd just like to get the memory running where it should be. I read here in another thread the board voltage is a little weak for this memory... It looks identicle to a PC Chips board that seems to have better voltage settings. Maybe their bios would work? Doubt I'll risk it. So I guess my questions are this. Anything going to get hurt if I can't get the memory up from 400? Will it be "compatible" even if the board runs it underpowered? I wonder if the settings that go to "auto" are wrong? There's a spot in the Dram configuration area of the bios that appears to let you set it to 800 but it didn't change anything according to what I could see on cpu-z. I can post up some pics if anyone is interested. Maybe I'm reading it wrong. The bios also has an area to make some changes to the CPU but I still have to learn what those setting are, as I'm not familiar with the AM2 yet. I may also post this over on the Hexus/ECS forum which also seems to have a Corsair forum, but frankly there are more post about this board over here... Any ideas on what I can do with this board would be appreciated. I may at some point replace the board if needed but right now it's not an option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekT Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 Hi SmokinMr2, Please post your CPU-z CPU, Memory and SPD tabs. Thanks, Derek Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmokinMr2 Posted January 4, 2007 Author Share Posted January 4, 2007 http://www.sektion8.net/ECS/cpu1.jpg http://www.sektion8.net/ECS/memory1.jpg http://www.sektion8.net/ECS/spd.jpg I shut off computer for a while, changed settings to MAX/400 and increased ram voltage to the board maximum. It got better but still not right and not matching SPD. Funny thing is then I reset it to default and it kept the max settings. Very odd... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmokinMr2 Posted January 5, 2007 Author Share Posted January 5, 2007 I just bought a Corsair 520 power supply to replace my 500 watt "no name". Hopefully it will help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employees RAM GUY Posted January 5, 2007 Corsair Employees Share Posted January 5, 2007 Please let us know how you make out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmokinMr2 Posted January 5, 2007 Author Share Posted January 5, 2007 Didn't help, but didn't hurt either. I was going to buy it anyway :) Another question to add to the mix. The memory I have is supposed to be 800. It shows 400 on the SPD picture posted in my above post. Maybe that means 400 x 2=800? Near as I can tell, the SPD pic shows the "Tested at EPP SPD numbers" and the memory is actually running at the "EPP Standard" numbers (or close) that are listed on the product documentation here: http://www.corsairmemory.com/corsair/products/specs/TWIN2X2048-6400C4.pdf I doubt there is much to be done since the board doesn't seem capable. One interesting thing I did find out. I looked into "modded" bios in hopes that someone could perhaps unhide some hidden memory settings. Turns out there aren't any to unhide from what I have read. Maybe ECS will come up with something on that other forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekT Posted January 5, 2007 Share Posted January 5, 2007 So I guess my questions are this. Anything going to get hurt if I can't get the memory up from 400? Will it be "compatible" even if the board runs it underpowered? I wonder if the settings that go to "auto" are wrong? There's a spot in the Dram configuration area of the bios that appears to let you set it to 800 but it didn't change anything according to what I could see on cpu-z. I can post up some pics if anyone is interested. Maybe I'm reading it wrong. The bios also has an area to make some changes to the CPU but I still have to learn what those setting are, as I'm not familiar with the AM2 yet. I've downloaded your manual. There's not much you can really do with this board. Another question to add to the mix. The memory I have is supposed to be 800. It shows 400 on the SPD picture posted in my above post. Maybe that means 400 x 2=800? SPD shows the timings at that speed. It does not mean that you are at that Speed, just that this is what that DRAM will do at that Speed. 400MHz X 2 (Dual Channel) = 800MHz at 4 - 4 - 4 - 12 When you are running in Dual Channel the CPU-z Memory Tab is to be multiplied by 2 for the Dual Channel mode. Thus if it says 400, then your memory is running at 800MHz. If you enter the setting "NPT FID Control" you can slowly raise the increments and check with your memory tab. When you see the 368 make 400, then you are at 800MHz on your DRAM with a light overclock on your CPU. This is a very light overclock and will have you running your Ram at it's rated speeds. You do not have the ability to set the DRAM latencies to 4 - 4 - 4 - 12 on that board so you will have to let the board do what it wants. Very likely it will not follow SPD as ECS is not very good at that kind of thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmokinMr2 Posted January 5, 2007 Author Share Posted January 5, 2007 Thanks very much for your time and answers. I figured there wouldn't be to much to do for it. I may try that slight OC idea, but so far it seems to work a whole lot better than the board it replaced. Maybe end up buying a better board I can play with down the road a little. Thanks again. Jon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekT Posted January 5, 2007 Share Posted January 5, 2007 ECS are known for rock stable motherboards that run their defaults very well. I would only move to another board if overclocking is your desire as otherwise the ECS board will give you very little issues at stock or close to stock as I advised. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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