Live MB OC Report :: ASUS Rampage Extreme

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@ AndreaEG6

not sure which OCZ Plats you have but my OCZ 2x1GB 1800's need a fair bit more VDIMM (1.987V) for 900Mhz / CL7. It's taken me a while to get stable with CL7 - finding the 'right' DRAM CTL and NB skews was the key. No stability for me without them.

Just finished Priming for 900 / 7-7-7-20 / PL6, so will post up screen and settings next. I guess you'll need more VNB than I did with 2x1GB and E8600 (though mine seems highish @ 1.444V). I doubt my skews will work for you either (but they might).

Agree with RLM that getting the mems stable first, looser or lower clocked, will be best. DRAM Skews will help at some point but I've found you need to be 'near' stable before you'll see any benefit.

Generally OCZs on this board seem quite hard work but with enough time, should be OK

HTH

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OCZ3P18002GK
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Overall I'm quite pleased with the way these sticks have worked out - apart from being 2N only and seeming to need quite high VDIMM and VNB to stabilise, they've not caused any trouble. For a cheap kit (mine were £75 or $135 approx), just to get up and running with on this board, I think they were pretty good. For what it's worth, I'm not sure I could have hit 1000Mhz any cheaper.

However, when pushed (a bit) both the NB and the memory needed skews to remain stable, and a lot of time since getting the RE has been spent finding and testing for the 'right' DRAM Skews for my kit - even for these modest clocks and timings.

With a 'better' kit, I would also expect decent results (eventually) from finding the best skews, so the last six weeks spent staring at the blue MemTest+86 screen feels like time well spent

1000 / 8-8-8-24 is as far as I think I'll get them without going over 2V, and memory performance (with PL7) is about the same as 900 / 7-7-7-20 (with PL6), which also needs a notch under 2V. Neither is quite what I'd like for a good 24/7, so I've decided to retire the OCZ and try another kit. Over 2V, I don't think any gains would be significant, and no doubt I wouldn't stop until I fried them. They'll do as decent backup sticks now

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Unfortunately it's just down to trial and error to find the best combination for individual kit/board/clocks. Over time patterns can emerge for 'good' skews, but to make sense of it, you need to keep notes, change one thing at a time, and test and retest.

Found Memtest86+ very useful for DRAM skew testing and came up with this simple 'method':

If you run a deliberately low VDIMM, so that you get freezes in Test 3, you can see (quite) quickly which skews have the most benefit - for given clock and timings, certain skew combinations will pass multiple Test 3 runs, while others freeze instantly. I found the results were repeatable, and with the correct VDIMM (and VNB etc) applied later, memory was stable for full Memtest runs and then Prime etc, where it hadn't been before.

Trying, say, 25 skew combinations, I might get four which appear good and don't freeze - these tended to follow a pattern. The good skews all had the same offset between A and B, and differed only in the overall Advance or Delay from Normal (example: A2 DEL 25 / B2 Normal might work similarly to A2 DEL 75 / B2 DEL 50). At this point you then have a few 'good' skews to test properly and find which works best.

Don't know if this is really meaningful but it worked well for me. Adjusting CTL Skews gave me best results and I left all the others on AUTO.

Also, as setting DRAM SKEWS requires a full restart (IE your hard disks go off and on), I disconnect mine since Memtest86+ runs off a floppy or USB stick. That way you save your disks plenty of unnecessary spin ups

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Just got these today

2x1GB Transcend aXeRam 1800MHz PC3-14400 (8-8-8-24) XMP (TX1800KLU-2GK)




No idea what ICs they are and don't know if they'll even POST, but hopefully...

[coral11]

Intel burn no problems, Vantage no problem.

Super PI Mod 1.5 passes all the to 16M (16M also fails sometimes) but on 32M gets either a total system freeze or program stopped working appcrash message, the most loops I made it to was 14.

Any suggestions? (Vista 64)

[Stelios]

Just got these today

2x1GB Transcend aXeRam 1800MHz PC3-14400 (8-8-8-24) XMP (TX1800KLU-2GK)

No idea what ICs they are and don't know if they'll even POST, but hopefully...

Samsung IC's in there .

[Mezzro]

not to mention the fact that the NVIDIA chipset doesn't have an internal thermal probe, so temps on that chipset are arbitrary at best.

It may be apples and oranges, but it sure seems like the Intel chipset is working towards/obtaining that same objective much more efficiently -- unless those probes are way off. If the latter is true, why bother with probes? If they are that inaccurate they do more harm than good. Speaking of which, where exactly are the probes that provide CPU temp measurements on the 790i boards (say, using Everest UE)?

This Board have Problems with 2x2GB RAM.
And when you are the 1:2 dividier for the RAM have it was very strong for this MB.
With the new Bios 0601 i can run with my E8600 and 2x2 GB CSX Diablos FSB@540x8 and the RAM works @1800 (3:5 400 Strap) fine with 7-7-7-21 2T.
My NB works at 1,46V.

I think most are finding this board has problems with RAM compatibility, period. LOL. One of the first kits we found to work well on the board was the G.Skill 2x2GB PC3-12800. I've had good luck with Cell Shock Blue, but others can't get the board to boot at any clock speed with this RAM. I think this will improve with subsequent BIOS releases, but 0601 didn't seem to offer much relief.