4 sticks DDR3 1600mhz question

[Cyber-Mav]

hi all, i got a question regarding the compatability of running 4 sticks of ddr3 ram at full 1600mhz speed in a gigabyte p35t-dq6 motherboard. i cant seem to get the ram to work stable at stock 1600mhz speeds, i get errors in memtest. i have backed down the memory speed by using a divider to run the ram at 1280mhz. i get no errors in memtest when running at the slower speed. im guessing the memory controller cant handle the 4 sticks running at 1600mhz even when slackening the timings. any 2 stick combination runs fine at 1600mhz.

is this something i will just have to live with or does anyone have experience in getting 4 sticks of ram to run at full speed in a p35 mobo?

system specs are;
ga-p35t-dq6
q6600 @ 8x400 (3.2ghz)
ram is corsair xms3 7-7-7-20 1600mhz, 4 sticks

here is pic of the ram for more details:
http://w7abnq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1paK9cHaqCMIH5th1JNAsIjXQOOnuYDllt1CwXFCl4bhQ8hoO 7sTJBQolwc4IN9fQ5FmHGzV_mguU/xms32.JPG

thanks

[dengyong]

You will need more voltage on the north bridge and possibly a small bump in vdimm.

[Cyber-Mav]

ahh thanks for the reply, i gave the chipset a + 0.050v increase and the ram i run at 1.80v using the +0.30v option in bios. this combination allows me to pass memtest now for 8 hours, on the 209th loop of test 5 i got 2 errors, memtest is still running and its on the 221 pass with only the 2 errors from pass 209 still showing.
timings im running are stock 7-7-7-20. any idea in what more i can do to make it fully stable?

[Cyber-Mav]

come to think of it the +0.050v increase i gave was on the (G) MCH voltage setting. is the (G) MCH voltage option a setting that controls the northbridge voltage or the southbridge voltage?

any idea what the fsb overvoltage option does in bios?

[dengyong]

MCH is the southbridge, SPP is the northbridge.

[Cyber-Mav]

thanks for the reply again, i cant see any option for spp voltage in the bios, but thanks for confirming that the (g) mch voltage option is for the southbridge so i will have to check for the northbridge voltage control option.
here is a pic of the voltages in the bios, pic takes from hardocp p35t-dq6 review:
http://hardocp.com/images/articles/1181506033FUhIIINMY9_3_25_l.gif

i just re-read that review again on hardocp and it looks like it cleared up what i was looking for:


The FSB OverVoltage Control option sets the Northbridge chipset voltage, with a +0.35V maximum. The Southbridge voltage is configured through the (G)MCH OverVoltage Control setting

looks like that FBS Overvoltage option is for the northbridge. question is how much is a safe amount to increase it by?

[dengyong]

I,ve been looking for more info and was about to tell you that you won't find an spp setting in your bios.

You should start with 1 step up from normal for the fsb overvolt then test, if that fails move up another step and so on.

You shouldn't need to go past the mid point and I would stay well clear of .35

[Cyber-Mav]

cool i will try tonight with a voltage bump on the fsb of +0.025v

[dengyong]

You will probably get better answers posting in the intel section. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

[Cyber-Mav]

no problems you have been a great help. i will post my results later on tomorrow when i have left the system on doing memtest overnight. for some added info this is the memory settings i was using before:

http://w7abnq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pzGe_Y26J4K3OrW2KoZqzO6_Y58KviD4WKwHQjMgZl0T9GBK V4sCnzFBOgiAIazDs27LL2tyn_Ws/ddr3%20bios%20timings.JPG

this this was the memtest result during an 8 hour run:
http://w7abnq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pnGgjaa2wjQIgNOXnkiDB74rRzHQZZBhtc8xq2upfwLTUhDl 7E-KGH4Fys6V_J-qiqSXzA1DBVHQ/memtest%20ddr3%20fail.JPG

i got 2 rogue memory errors on pass 209 of test 5 in memtest i did let it carry on till 221 passes and it got no more errors, i guess it could be possible that it was a memory controller error and the extra northbridge voltage may solve the problem. wont know till i try i guess. will have to test overnight.

[Cyber-Mav]

forgot about this thread, iv been running the ram at 6-6-6-18 1280mhz now for the last 4 months and have had no problems with it.


its odd that im running the 3.20 multiplier on the ram , 400fsb with ram multiplier on 3.20 gives me 1280mhz ram speed and works 100% fine.
however if i try the 3.33 multiplier to get the ram to run at 1333mhz then the system doesnt post and goes into boot cycle and resets the bios settings even if i use 9-9-9-24 timings.
its a shame i cant get the extra 50odd mhz out of the ram. does anyone have any idea why it does this on this mobo? im using the latest official f6 bios for my board. iv been happy with the 1280mhz ram speed, its just weird why it wont post at 1333mhz using the 3.33 multiplier.
iv noticed there is a beta F7a bios out for my board but not sure if its worth risking using that bios since there is nothing listed about its changelog from the f6 bios.

[Cyber-Mav]

just a question here, does anyone else run this p35t-dq6 board with 4 sticks of ram? if so what speed is your memory,fsb and cpu running at? thanks