Dominator 8500 - Mixed version

[Sylvainp]

When I built my PC 2 months ago I bought the Dominator 8500 C5D 2GB at 5-5-5-15 2.1V and version 2.2

 

During christmass special I order an Extra 2GB of Dominator 8500 C5DF (fan unit)

 

Today I received them and they are different from the previous i bought.

Now they are at 5-5-5-18 2.2V and version 1.2 (old version)

 

My question is: Will they work together in my PC ?

What timing I should used ? 5-5-5-15

 

What voltage ? 2.2

 

I bought these online so they are no way to control the version we are going to received and why Corsair is making 2 version of these memory ?

[Sylvainp]

Call Corsair Tech support and the guy suggest me to try them with my other RAM. I set the DRAM voltage to 2.2V and leave all other settings the same since my 2 GB is working perfectly as the EPP.

 

It didn't take too long to get some errors in Memtest86+ v1.70

 

 

On test 3 I got 4 errors and on test 8 the errors was going so fast I stop it.

All the error where above 2048MB. So I remove them and test my 2GB of RAM (v2.2) I put back the DRAM Volt to 2.1 and test them for 4 hours without any errors.

 

Their is 3 possibility for the errors

 

BAD Ram

incompatibility in the RAM between version 1.2 and 2.2

Motherboard chipset or BIOS that cannot support 4GB RAM at 1066 @ 5-5-5-15

 

Anyway i'm returning the RAM for a full refund because the online store cannot guarantee me that I will received Dominator 8500 C5D version 2.2 as a replacement.

 

Also i don't want to go thrugh the hassle to get my RAM replaced from Corsair. Tech support suggest me to replace all my 4 RAM to make sure i'll get all the same version.

 

What I will do without any RAM in my pc ? What about getting bad RAM as exchange ? (In the past I had received bad RAM replacement from Corsair).

 

No thanks, the pair I have right now are working great but i wanted to increase my total amount to 4 GB. I though it will be a simple upgrade but it turns out to be a real joke and getting into some issues witht the RAM.

 

I don't have time to loose testing and testing....

[KentuckyRanger]

Mixed RAM shouldn't be a problem, just make sure everything is set to auto detect. That way the BIOS will match everything up to the best settings for what you have. Yes, it will default to the slowest FSB and the Voltage will fall somewhere between the 2 sets but everything should work OK.

 

One thing, are you running WinXP 64bit or Vista 64bit?

The 32 Bit versions won't let you go over 3 GIG of Ram without issues so this might be a problem as well, just a thought.

Also, If you're running Vista 64bit you might have to update it like I did with the extended RA drivers to accept more than 3 GIG of RAM.

I know that Vista 64bit will accept up to 8GIG of RAM but the version of Vista I got had to have the drivers updated before it would.

Hope this might help shed some light on your problem.

[Sylvainp]

My RAM are set at 1066 and with CAS 5-5-5-15 the way they should work.

All the rest of the RAM are at AUTO

 

With the 2 gig of ram I have now it is working 100% As soon I put the other 2 GB i bought then I got errors in Memtest86 and the only thing I change was the DRAM voltage to 2.2V as the one i got was version 1.2 and need to have 2.2V

 

I have Vista Ultimate 32 bits and I know that it will use about 3.2 GB of my memory. But I never startup my PC to go in Vista because the first thing I tried is testing the memory with Memtest and it didn't pass....

 

So no reason to go further and I remove the RAM.

 

These RAM are supposed to work at 1066 with CAS 5-5-5-15 so I will never put the FSB lower to make them work at a lower speed. I wanted to have 4 gig but 4 gig running at full speed and with no errors.

 

Now I still use my Dominator 8500 C5D (version 2.2) at full speed and no problems. I got problem and errors in Memtest as soon I had put the new one I bought which are an old revision (1.2)

 

So for me they are defective because I never had errors in Memtest before until I put these in my PC. This is the reason i'm sending back for a full refund.

[KentuckyRanger]

Have you tried adding just One Stick to make it 3 GIG?

I know you're in Memtest but it still could be the Chipset on the M/Board isn't set up to handle that much RAM.

 

I don't think you can do a manual setup when you mix RAM because of their inherent differences. If it where me I'd try going with 3 GIG auto detect and see where that got me before sending it back.

After, if it worked then I'd send it back and get an extra 1GIG Stick to add to my system.

With Win 32bit you will have bad Bottelneck problems with the extra RAM it doesn't know what to do with so you'll have allot less headaches if you stick to 3GIG or below.

Anything over 3GIG is a waste of money and resorces that confuses the O/S as well as the M/Board if it's not set up to handle it.

[KentuckyRanger]

I just checked your M/Board and I've read some things about the Maximus SE.

You might look into updating the BIOS and like I said before 32bit O/S just don't like playing with more than 3 GIG of RAM.

You might know People who've made it work but if you really want to jump into the 4GIG and above RAM market you really need the 64bit O/S.

Even with that said the Chipsets on even the latest M/Boards are having a really hard Time dealing with 4GIG and above. They're really being taxed with the new DDR3 Sticks because they just don't have the data pipeline to handle it all. If you try putting 4GIG of DDR3 RAM on a new M/Board you'll have to underclock it to keep the Bottlenecks down.

[Sylvainp]

Well i already have update the BIOS to the latest version.

 

I decide to send them back for a refund and maybe I will get 2x512MB

So i will get 3gig

 

just need to check if Dominator 8500 C5D are available in 2 x 512MB.

 

Why 2 x 512MB because i want to stay in Dual channel

 

Update: Well Dominator 8500 are not available in 2 x 512 MB

 

Then I will live with 2 GIG !

[Xtreeme]

Honeslty your better off with 2 sticks of ram no matter what. ITS NOT RAM co's fault. ITs the mem controler in the a64 or for INtel the NorthBridge controler on the mobo. 4 sticks will usually slow the system mem address speed down. 4 banks is twice the amount to address as 2 its pretty simple it adds two times the latency due to increase distance for signal to travel. if it were seriel ram this would be diff, but its not.

 

So why 4 banks then? With 4-8gb support? File servers, work stations etc that Need 4gb + do not mind reducing speed to get it......course they also dont buy special overclocking ram either (knowing about the speed concerns).

 

Your gonna face this same issue no matter the vendor. And no vendor I know of sort ram for you.....why diff revision, cause they cahnge things to improve the ram, get diff chips in, use diff pcb layout many reason there are more then one version. Again your gonna face that with any manufac. even cpu makers have serveral revisions.

 

 

In the end its best to get the ram you need ALL at once, or face having to give some up to get more (I removed my 2x512mb for my 2x1024 sticks). Being upset with the manufacturers due to tech limitations BOTH major cpu manufacturers are against is going to get us no where. If it were simple problem one of them would have fixed it- thats proof enough. They would sell more products then IE be a selling/marketing point. They arent just passing this off as no biggy, they know its a huge problem. In fact if you know how to make electrons pass through a solid object at near or faster then the speed of light they would like to know that too (major problem with todays faster cpus coming up)