ASUS P5E3 Problems with 1600Mhz 4GB DDR3 :-(

[JohnZS]

Hello

I am a long time lurker here on these here xtreme forums, but this is my first post.

This weekend I am hoping to upgrade from my old and trusty Pentium 4 S478 Northwood @ 3.4Ghz to my new and troublesome QuadCore Extreme QX9650 system.

Basically this is what I have

Intel Quad Extreme QX9650 12MB Cache C0 stepping
4x1GB Patriot PC3-12800 Low Latency 1600Mhz 7-7-7-18 DDR3 (all identical)
ASUS P53E Motherboard
nVidia Geforce 8800GTS 512MB
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi
Seagate 500GB 7200.11
Pioneer DVD RW
Enermax Infinity 720W

Initially when I plugged everything in and was ready to go I kept failing memtest (loads of horrible errors all over the place). I upped the voltage on the DIMM's to 1.80v but I was still getting errors.

In the end I dropped the speed of the RAM from 1600Mhz to 1066 and then flashed to the latest BIOS (0703). The new BIOS seems pretty good and let me pass memtest

However it all goes downhill from there onwards as I cannot install Windows or Run Seagate's version of Acronis (Discwizard), both hardlock.

Finally I was able to install Windows and Run Discwizard by downlocking the RAM to 1333Mhz. and upping the voltage from AUTO to 1.74V

The system seems pretty stable and gets 15sec super pi and 142xx in 3dmark06 but I want to run the system @ 1600Mhz (as this is why I purchased that particular RAM).

Most of the settings in the BIOS are set to "AUTO" with the exception of the DRAM Volts which I have now upped to 1.80 and the Patriot spec timings of 7-7-7-18 but even with the SPD set to AUTO I cannot boot windows @ 1600Mhz (yet it pases Memtest with no problems).

Have you got any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks for your help.

John

[JohnZS]

Update

I have took 2 sticks of RAM out and the system is stable @ 1600FSB (rated RAM Speed), I have swapped the sticks over, so the 2 I took out were swapped with the other 2 I took out, again, system still stable @ 1600FSB

I just can't get it stable with all 4 sticks (even 1333Mhz DDR crashes sometimes!)

Please help

John

[StimulatedBoy]

Try to give it a tad more volt on your sticks. Read somewhere here in an earlier post that 4 sticks require more volts to be stable. Running my Cellshock 14400 sticks @ 2,1 volt 24/7... Good luck!

[JohnZS]

Try to give it a tad more volt on your sticks. Read somewhere here in an earlier post that 4 sticks require more volts to be stable. Running my Cellshock 14400 sticks @ 2,1 volt 24/7... Good luck!

Thanks for the advice, I'm thinking you are right as voltage does make sense, however I have recently run into stability with just 2 sticks, I am now pondering if this is an ASUS and Patriot compatability bug....or something else could be amis?

It's fustrating

I think I might e-mail ASUS and Patriot as I have only just purchased this system.

John