Snaxo Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 Hi Folks My desire is to move from my 32-bit XP setup to a 64-bit Vista setup. My first step in that is to upgrade to 4GB ram from 2 GB My current 2GB setup is overclocked to 3.8Ghz (which I believe is fairly modest for the E8500 cpu) on an Asus Maximus Extreme and has been rock solid for 9 months. I purchased 2 x 2GB of a competitior product and installed and the system will run fine with all Bios settings @ default. However, trying to achieve the previous 3.8GHz overclock is proving fruitless so far. Much tweaking has taken place but still errors in Memtest86+ within 15 minutes. Games start showing screen corruptions within a few minutes of playing. I wondered if it's time to try some Corsair memory (very pleased with your power supply!) and so I wondered if you could recommend 2 x 2GB of RAM that might give me a better time in reaching 3.8GHZ with the E8500 / Asus Maximus Extreme. Thanks in advance for any advice :) Damian PS I have used your memory config page to get an idea on what's compatible and then searched and found quite a few threads on the Maximus Extreme with issues - so I wondered if at this point there was some collective wisdom on what might work best to get me to my goal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wired Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 What was the speed of the original memory after being overclocked? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snaxo Posted January 16, 2009 Author Share Posted January 16, 2009 Hi - Speed was 1600Mhz Bios settings were as follows: CPU Ratio: 9.5 FSB - 400 FSB Strap - 266 DRAM Freq - DDR3-1603 DRAM Command - 1T Dram Timings - 7-6-6-20 (changed to 7-7-7-24 for current ram) DRM static read / write - disabled AI Clock Twister - Light Ai Transactioon booster - disabled / relax level 4 CPU Volt - 1.325 PLL - 1.5 Northbridge: 1.51 DRAM: 1.9 FSB Term: 1.4 Southbridge 1.1 Tried various tweakings of the above (following various recommendations from other manufacturers support) - but no joy so far Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekT Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 I have found nothing but problems with high density DDR3 and X38, X48 and P45. Finally I moved to 4 X 1024 of 1600Mhz for my Rampage Extreme motherboard. This allowed me to run a good overclock of the CPU @ 4.2GHz. The issue I believe is that these motherboards do not accept high DRAM speeds with high capacity DRAM. I could never make more than 1500Mhz with stability on my 500(CAN) Extreme and 2GB 1600Mhz DRAM modules. Once down to 1GB 1600Mhz DRAM modules, the problems went away. I was so pissed off that I sold the Extreme and bought a P6T Deluxe. Guess what? No issues with the modules and I am running them at 1600Mhz 8-7-7-20 with 1.65v on the P6T. All the forums I go to I see these issues (Extreme Systems, Asus Forum). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snaxo Posted January 16, 2009 Author Share Posted January 16, 2009 Thank you Derek - now that's an interesting reply. Makes me feel I'm wasting significant time trying diff settings in the hope of getting something to work. So you say that 4 x 1024 may be better (unfortunately the 1GB sticks I have are no longer available - am I asking for trouble by mixing?). This is interesting as I had read elsewhere that the boards were better able to handle 2 x 2gb than 4 x 1 gb - but you are saying your experience is the opposite? Buying a new motherboard / cpu is not what I wanted to do :( only bought these 10 moths ago and they were 'cutting edge' at the time so I thought there may be at least a little potential to upgrade components like RAM moving forward. The board and CPU are water cooled so the thought of replacing them and draining etc the system is not what I had in mind at all! What do you think my best options are? Thanks again - really appreciate your advice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekT Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 I agree with 2 X 2048 of any DDR2 is better than 4 X 1024. However, with the new DDR3 (high speed and large capacity) and the high end chipsets (X38/X48/P45) running at high speeds it seems that 2 X 1024 is good and 4 X 1024 works well also. Just read through this thread. Look at all the people using 2 X 1024 for their overclocks. Read about all the people having issues with 2048MB modules. http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=196683 Thank you Derek - now that's an interesting reply. Makes me feel I'm wasting significant time trying diff settings in the hope of getting something to work. So you say that 4 x 1024 may be better (unfortunately the 1GB sticks I have are no longer available - am I asking for trouble by mixing?). This is interesting as I had read elsewhere that the boards were better able to handle 2 x 2gb than 4 x 1 gb - but you are saying your experience is the opposite? Buying a new motherboard / cpu is not what I wanted to do :( only bought these 10 moths ago and they were 'cutting edge' at the time so I thought there may be at least a little potential to upgrade components like RAM moving forward. The board and CPU are water cooled so the thought of replacing them and draining etc the system is not what I had in mind at all! What do you think my best options are? Thanks again - really appreciate your advice. If I were you, I would either run the DRAM at a lower speed or purchase 4 X 1024. Had I not purchased a new platform to transition my DDR3 with, I would just have kept the DRAM at ~1500Mhz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snaxo Posted January 16, 2009 Author Share Posted January 16, 2009 Thanks Derek - looks like my best bet is to try and get it stable @ 1500MHZ and accept the slight loss in performance. Guess it's not too much but annoying all the same. The board / cpu are too new IMO for me to consider replacing them at this point viable / justified - though I can understand how you did out of frustration! Cheers! Damian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snaxo Posted January 16, 2009 Author Share Posted January 16, 2009 Well you were so right Derek., Running at 1500Mhz the system seems stable immediately - with little effort. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekT Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 Well you were so right Derek., Running at 1500Mhz the system seems stable immediately - with little effort. What I found was that I could also set the DRAM I had to 7-6-6-16 1T with these settings as well. The system ran very quickly. As well, I found 1.8v was more than enough. Northbridge to 1.34v and Performance level of 8. Download Everest Trial Version from here -->Here Install Everest and right click on the (i) icon in the system tray. Choose Tools --> Cache and Memory Benchmark. Run the Benchmark and post the finished screenshot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snaxo Posted January 16, 2009 Author Share Posted January 16, 2009 Thanks for the advice - 7-6-6-16 attained no problem. Though not show what you meant by performance level 8. If you meant AI transaction Booster with level 8 - then tried that but system would not boot with Det DRAM error. Changed back to Auto and no problem. Screen shot attached. So, do you think it's the case that I'm going to see that same story whatever DDR3 2 GM modules I use? I.e. not worth trying some from Corsair or another manufacturer etc? CHeers! Damian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekT Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 All the 2G 1600 modules I tried had the same issue. I tried from 3 different packaging and binning companies. No go with any of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snaxo Posted January 18, 2009 Author Share Posted January 18, 2009 All the 2G 1600 modules I tried had the same issue. I tried from 3 different packaging and binning companies. No go with any of them. Interesting progression to this. The settings you provided Derek that I thought were rock solid (they do seem to be during gaming) are failing longer period memtest'ing. Interestingly, I've noticed that over all the various settings I tried - noting down the memtest errors it always seems to involve the following memory address - 000a8ec1768 listed as 2702.1 MB memory. Sometimes others as well - but this one is always listed. I've not done a longer term memtest on purely bios defaults yet - I'll do that overnight tonight. But I wondered - could this indicate a faulty RAM stick? Damian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekT Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 Test the modules singly. Test them at 7-7-7-20 1T. Test them in the second slot and fourth slot. Also, disable Legacy USB during Memtesting as Asus has a bug in their BIOS with USB caching and memtesting. Interesting progression to this. The settings you provided Derek that I thought were rock solid (they do seem to be during gaming) are failing longer period memtest'ing. Interestingly, I've noticed that over all the various settings I tried - noting down the memtest errors it always seems to involve the following memory address - 000a8ec1768 listed as 2702.1 MB memory. Sometimes others as well - but this one is always listed. I've not done a longer term memtest on purely bios defaults yet - I'll do that overnight tonight. But I wondered - could this indicate a faulty RAM stick? Damian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snaxo Posted January 18, 2009 Author Share Posted January 18, 2009 Once again - thanks Derek - you've been extremely helpful! I shall do that. Gonna take me a while now but I'll post back when I've done. I wondered about slots 2 & 4 actually. Had not tried them yet but I know that for certain MB's either 1&2 or 2&4 are better (certainly was the case on a previous system with a DFI MB). Is 2&4 known to be better for Asus? Cheers Damian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekT Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 With the modern chipsets, the second and fourth (Core 2) and third, sixth and ninth (Intel i7) slots are tuned for high output DRAM. Once again - thanks Derek - you've been extremely helpful! I shall do that. Gonna take me a while now but I'll post back when I've done. I wondered about slots 2 & 4 actually. Had not tried them yet but I know that for certain MB's either 1&2 or 2&4 are better (certainly was the case on a previous system with a DFI MB). Is 2&4 known to be better for Asus? Cheers Damian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snaxo Posted January 19, 2009 Author Share Posted January 19, 2009 Derek - I reckon I have a faulty RAM stick. These are the results of my testing: (Legacy USB support disabled) 2GB RAM Stick 1 - Test 1 - Slot 2 Multiplier 9.5 FSB 375 DDR3-1501MHZ 7-6-6-16 Memtest Run for 2.5 hours - No Errors 2GB RAM Stick 1 - Test 2 - Slot 2 Multiplier 9.5 FSB 333 DDR3- 1333Mhz 7-7-7-20 Memtest run for 2.5 hours - No Errors 2GB RAM Stick 2 - Test 1 - Slot 2 Multiplier 9.5 FSB 375 DDR3-1501MHZ 7-6-6-16 Memtest Failure: 39 minutes - Test 6 - 00547606a8 - 1351 MB Errbits: 00000040 Further failures followed 2GB RAM Stick 2 - Test 2 - Slot 2 Multiplier 9.5 FSB 333 DDR3- 1333Mhz 7-7-7-20 Memtest Failure: 4 minutes - Test 4 - 00547616d0 - 1351 MB Errbits: 00000040 + further failures on Test 4 ---------------- The one slightly confusing part of this is that with both sticks loaded - if I run the BIOS at absolute defaults - I don't seem to get errors in Memtest. I can't really explain that. Damian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekT Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 The one slightly confusing part of this is that with both sticks loaded - if I run the BIOS at absolute defaults - I don't seem to get errors in Memtest. I can't really explain that. That's because the DRAM is running at 1066Mhz at defaults. I would advise you to move to RMA with the information given. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snaxo Posted January 19, 2009 Author Share Posted January 19, 2009 Cheers Derek - yes that's my plan I've posted this detail on the manufacturer forum and am awaiting their view to confirm though I have to say they have not been great at responding so far :/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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