Gigabyte DQ6 & Dom 8888 Problems

[.Spartan]

Aloha!

 

I have spent months trying to figure out to OC my very, very expensive system and I simply cant get it to do so. Everyone I ask tells me it is the Dominators but they work. So I must be missing something fundamental to what is going on.

 

In short all the hardware view sites I have read have said the DQ6 can be "easily without any tweaking" OC on the FSB 360 with a 1440 speed. On the higher end to 520 on the FSB with a 2080 speed. I simply cant get it to boot at over 300 with a speed at 1200 - stably no matte what I do.

 

With that said I am by no means an expert with OC but this is really ticking me off. Can some one who knows what is going on give me config specks that they know for a fact work.

 

My specks are as follows:

 

Purchase/Build Date: 2/15/2007 - 3/15/2007

Chassis: CM Stacker 832 (modified)

OS: Vista x64 Ultimate

MB: Gigabyte 6-quad N680I-DQ6 (BIOS v3)

CPU: QX6700 (Quad Core) OCed to 3GHz

RAM: XMS2 Dominators 4GB OCed to 1200 Mhz

GPU: 2 Calibre 8800 GTX P880+ OC 768MB OCed to Core:660, Shader:1750, Memory: 1100 (TEC active cooling)

SLI Enabled: Yes @Highest quality settings (Drivers v169.25)

SPU: SB Xi-Fi Fatal1ty

HDD: 4 WD Raptor 150GB (Raid0)

NAS: 6TBs Hitachi DS T7K500 (Raid5)

DVD: Plextor B900A

PPU: NONE

VDD: 2 Dell 30" 3007WFP-HC & 2 Dell 20" 2007FP monitors

PSU: Antec TruePower Quattro 1000watts

KB: Logitech G15

WC: Logitech QucikCam Fusion

SS: Altech 5.1 THX Theater System

TB: Kensington Expert Mouse

[RAM GUY]

RAM: XMS2 Dominators 4GB OCed to 1200 Mhz

If you have them running at 1200 Mhz I am sorry but I dont understand the question, they are over clocking pretty well if they will hit 1200 MHz.

[.Spartan]

Maybe I dont understand something. When I purchased everything for my God Box the Doms at about $1,500 for 4GBs were the best RAM in the market from what I was told at every shop I went to. At the same time the following mobo reviews were released:

 

Hardwarezone

TweakTown

NeoSeeker

TechReport

 

There are about a dozen others I can list however these should suffice. In all of them the FSB was well over anything I can apparently achieve and I have a far better CPU to boot which also cost some major money since it was brand new at the time.

 

I simply want to know how it is that using the best RAM and CPU as well as mobo that I cant get anywhere near the results of what every review site I have found posted with lessor hardware. Everyone I have asked about this issue (not that any are experts on RAM) has told me it must be the memory since you know for sure it is not the mobo or CPU.

[bigbuck08]

If you are overclocking the RAM like that much Ram Guy said it is obviously working great. You need to remember that every PC is different and every PC will have different results. Just because you have the most expensive system doesnt mean it will be as good as others. The only thing I could suggest is that if your not happy with the RAM is send it back, but from what youve posted the RAM is running better than it was tested too.

[Wired]

RAM: XMS2 Dominators 4GB OCed to 1200 Mhz

So, you have TWO packs of TWIN2X2048-8888C4DF, which would be 4 sticks, correct?

 

In the TweakTown and TechReport articles, they had 2 sticks of memory. Couldn't access the NeoSeeker one from work, and the Hardwarezone one didn't have memory specs, but in their original article, they only used 2 sticks.

 

So, I'd test your rig's OCing limits with ONE pair of memory, and compare that to the articles. That should be a better comparison.

 

 

BTW, bitchin' system :)

[RAM GUY]

I agree and I have not seen any review with more than one set of modules as that would not be supported.

[.Spartan]

Thanks for the feedback guys. Sorry I did not respond sooner. I did not receive any emails telling me someone had replied.

 

Yeah I have four (4) sticks.

 

Regarding the testing, maybe since I'm not a hardware guy it does not make sense to me to remove half my hardware to get better performance.

 

Sadly I''m at the point now where If any one offered me $7k I would give them the system in a hot minute. I spent well over $12k on this and I must say it has been nothing but a PitA since day one. I think next time I will just get a maxed out Dell or Voodoo system again. I only got this stuff piece meal because when I sent the specks to Voodoo they told be they dont do stuff that high-end and Dell told me the same thing oddly enough. I thought it was rather strange and at the time and to make matters worse L computers was off-line so I had no choice.

 

As it stands now I also have an extra Striker mobo and RP 850 Pro PSU as well as fiber router and switcher sitting in the closet. All of it used maybe five minutes for testing purposes. The humanity of it all...

[RAM GUY]

I don't think it's that bad, maybe you just did not do enough research or just missed a few small things and as you have found out the hard way like a lot of us have sometimes it's really easy to over look the basics like chipset limitations especially when trying to over clock for the first time. Or if you are fairly new to over clocking. So don't be to hard on your self and know that you have a system 99% of us wish we had and that you are in the top 5% of systems as far as performance and configuration. Ask your friends just to compare what you have and then I think you will start to see most are not even close to what you have or the performance that your system is capable of.

[Wired]

Regarding the testing, maybe since I'm not a hardware guy it does not make sense to me to remove half my hardware to get better performance.

Testing with 2 sticks will enable you to better compare your OC to the links you posted, as that's how they tested.

 

The more sticks you have, the more load is present on the memory controller in your rig, and because of this, your OC won't be as high.

[.Spartan]

I'm just frustrated with it and not being an expert on the hardware side makes matters worse. Also when I posted on a few forums to get help people shredded on me for having such a system and not know what to do tweak wise. So I got no help. In fact this is the only forum where anyone has posted anything constructive. All that plus being in a country where I dont do the local language and dont really know anyone personally ads insult to the injury. I have no one to look at things to make sure I have everything set correctly.

 

Currently I have the following settings:

 

Mem:

 

tcl: 4

trcd: 4

trp: 4

tras: 12

cmd: 2T

trrd: 4

trc: 25

trw: 6

twtr: 10

tref: 7.8uS

 

System:

 

SLI - Ready Memory: Disabled (this is the kiss of death when on)

FSB Mem clock - Linked

FSB Mem ratio - Auto

CPU Host - 300 (If I go above 305 the system get unstable)

PCIE x16 slot 1&2 - 125Mhz

PCIE X8 slot 1 - 100Mhz

 

Voltage:

 

On this I'm aspect of things I'm 100% in the dark. If I set everything to max the system just wont boot correctly. The "auto" for everything says "Normal" except for the CPU Vcore which shows as 1.43750v

 

So when I read that someone had to boost the voltage to 2.4v I think they are referring to the the CPU Vcore -yes?

 

The list is as follows:

DDR2 (I can go +0.275v before the color turns red)

NB (I can go +0.20v in 0.05 increments)

SB (I can go +0.55v in 0.05 increments)

FSB Voltage (I can go +0.35v in 0.05 increments)

HT-Link (I can go +0.35v in 0.05 increments)

SB Standby (I can go +0.20v in 0.05 increments)

CPU Voltage ( I can go from 0.68750v to a max of 2.37500v)

 

In short I dont know what to set these things at.

 

Additionally, for general system settings I have all the spectrum control disabled as well as the virtual stuff. The graphics booster is set to "turbo" and the clock ratio is set to "10x".

 

So any ideas on how to improve things?

 

@Wired - yeah I figured it was "load" but that is what I'm trying to figure out now without having to open it back up and take things apart. The wiring is a nightmare and I already broke some stuff and had to replace it except for my case latches which I can live with due to duck tape. I guess I should tell you I have very little feeling in my right hand due to it being crushed about two decades ago and I'm a fairly large guy. Typing is a major effort my fingers always hit two or three keys. So hardware does not like me especially delicate stuff so I like to keep my hands off as much as possible.

 

@RamGuy - I did do a lot of research. Just look at the SLI God Box project link in my signature. I spent a couple months on this project. I simply wanted the best system on the market that money could buy - a simply enough goal or so I thought.

[RAM GUY]

I am sorry I cannot tell you how to over clock, but I can answer direct questions!

But I would try and keep an open mind while you are learning and yes I see you read the article but you missed some key points I think. And I am sorry up front I don't mean to be insulting just an observation. And like I said we all have been there trust me. I have been there many times. Try to be thankful for what you have not what you have not is the thing that comes to mind and more will come your way! That attitude has been the best for me, granted some of the people who have worked for me might argue I am a hard liner. But I work and have worked in a fast paced industry where there is not much support from the manufacturers I have represented and had to lean a lot on my own. You do have a unique opportunity and that would be how I would look at it. Our memory has a life time warranty as long as you don't go over 2.4 Volts you can try anything you like. I would suggest checking the BIOS optimization Guide at Techarp.com as it will help you understand the BIOS settings and what they actually do.

Hope that helps and please let me know if you have any direct questions! ;):