ASUS Striker II Extreme

[Trigger5521]

Well I broke down and decided to stimulate the ecomony, snagged 8GB's of the Patriot, doing the math on the triple channel Corsairs was not making sence. Might as well have gone core i7 if I was going to pop for the Dominator GT's.

Anyways..some pics. So far I can run memtest x86 2.01 at all kinds of FSB and timings and the mem will not spit out any errors. Ex 1800 Linked & Synced at 9-9-9-24. Thing is in Vista prime95 fails almost instantly. Got a little frustrated and went back to my tried and true 1702 FSB but set the vipers at 8-8-8-22. Prime is ok for now..30mins need to do more testing

[neo mike]

Hey Trigger, nice set of ram, i have a few questions about it. Can you getting it running over 2000 ? and will it do cas 8 ? even though its listed at cas 9 could do cas 8. My crucial ballistic 2000 cas 9 kit does 2000 easy at cas 8, it will pass memtest at 2050 cas 8, can you try cas 8 ? i maybe interested in that kit, those GT dominators are really exspensive.

[Trigger5521]

Hey Trigger, nice set of ram, i have a few questions about it. Can you getting it running over 2000 ? and will it do cas 8 ? even though its listed at cas 9 could do cas 8. My crucial ballistic 2000 cas 9 kit does 2000 easy at cas 8, it will pass memtest at 2050 cas 8, can you try cas 8 ? i maybe interested in that kit, those GT dominators are really exspensive.

I doubt it will, having trouble getting stable linked & synced @ 1800 9-9-9-24. What pisses me off is I don't get RAM errors when booting memtest x86. I have to get into Vista and run Prime95 to have it fail(takes a ton of time to try diff settings).

I think I may be at my CPU wall.. 1702 L&S @ 8-8-8-22 P1&P2 enabled is all I can get to pass Prime95. Not bad for 8GB's I think...going to try and sneak it up to 1780 next....wasted too much time trying 1800.

I'll try CAS8 @ 2000 in memtest for ya, it will probably pass, but I know for sure it will not pass prime95 in Vista linked and synced. My CPU can't do it. Let me know if you want me to try it unlinked.

[Sangrak]

Congrats on the new ram, Trigger. They'll do you right.

The 8-8-8-22 settings seem more stable than the 9-9-9-24 settings on my system, too. Was running into Prime problems when I had them on 9 for some reason.

[Trigger5521]

Congrats on the new ram, Trigger. They'll do you right.

The 8-8-8-22 settings seem more stable than the 9-9-9-24 settings on my system, too. Was running into Prime problems when I had them on 9 for some reason.

Hey Sangrak, have you messed with your mem sub timings?

for me 8-8-8-22 is stable at 1702 whereas 9-9-9-24 is not stable at 1702.

Seems daft but I'm thinking it's the sub timings. I had to manually set the TRRD to 8 instead of 7 to get 8-8-8-22 stable.

[Trigger5521]

Humm 9-9-9-24 maybe stable by adjusting tRC,tRFC & tWTR. see pic. Note it's only 20 mins in Prime95 at this point. If it holds I'll bump the FSB upto 1780 again.

[neo mike]

You should be able to get 1800 linked and synced i would think, but then again could be your cpu holding you back. I always set the subtimings myself, never leave on auto, use memset in windows to play with them. I think if i just get another 2 gig kit of my crucial will probally run with my current settings, but i really want to run 2100 linked, cpu and board will do it no problem, memory wont. The trc is very touchy on this board, 1 number to low, and board wont boot, but it has a pretty big impact on performance, i really dont like running unlinked. Anyway good luck i hope you hit 1800 stable, prime 95 not passing is more than likely cpu related, if you pass memtest before hand.

[Trigger5521]

You should be able to get 1800 linked and synced i would think, but then again could be your cpu holding you back. I always set the subtimings myself, never leave on auto, use memset in windows to play with them. I think if i just get another 2 gig kit of my crucial will probally run with my current settings, but i really want to run 2100 linked, cpu and board will do it no problem, memory wont. The trc is very touchy on this board, 1 number to low, and board wont boot, but it has a pretty big impact on performance, i really dont like running unlinked. Anyway good luck i hope you hit 1800 stable, prime 95 not passing is more than likely cpu related, if you pass memtest before hand.

I let the bios detect the SLI mem to pick-up the epp settings. It sets RAM at 9-9-9-24 2000 but leaves CPU stock(ie not linked and synced). It failed memtest in less than 5 mins. Not much else I can try with this CPU, really starting to think my CPU is max stable @ 1702.

Any suggestions for 1800 attempts, I bumped the vcore as high as 1.38(1702 is fine w/1.33) it blue screened. Vtt went as high as 1.38 blue screened as well.

I think I might pull 2 sticks and try 4GB's at 1800 for a s and giggles.

[neo mike]

Have you played with the GTL voltages at all ? What processor you have q6600 ? What nb voltage you running for 1702 ?.

Problem is Trigger is that if you run 1800 linked, your cheating yourself out of 200 mgz of memory speed, so with that processor you have to go unlinked, i found unlinked tough action, to me linked is much easier to overclock, i think your going to have a hard time getting 2000mgz and getting your processor to 3.6, hate to say it, you need a q9650, it will do 4+ ghz, then you could run 2000 linked and be flying.

Your processor is killing your ability to run that ram at full speed. If you run unlinked the best you will probally get is is 1800 on the memory, defeats buying 2000 ram. I dont use the sli enabled memory thing, cause all it does is put your ram at 2000, but leaves your cpu stock. I think to really make use of that memory, you need a new cpu. I dont have a quad, i have a e8500, i can do 2090 linked, so up to you, or get some 1800 cas 7 ram.

[Sangrak]

Hey Sangrak, have you messed with your mem sub timings?

for me 8-8-8-22 is stable at 1702 whereas 9-9-9-24 is not stable at 1702.

Seems daft but I'm thinking it's the sub timings. I had to manually set the TRRD to 8 instead of 7 to get 8-8-8-22 stable.

I set my tRRD manually to 1 and tRC to 10. Runs great with p1 and p2 enabled.

[Sangrak]

I let the bios detect the SLI mem to pick-up the epp settings. It sets RAM at 9-9-9-24 2000 but leaves CPU stock(ie not linked and synced). It failed memtest in less than 5 mins. Not much else I can try with this CPU, really starting to think my CPU is max stable @ 1702.

Any suggestions for 1800 attempts, I bumped the vcore as high as 1.38(1702 is fine w/1.33) it blue screened. Vtt went as high as 1.38 blue screened as well.

I think I might pull 2 sticks and try 4GB's at 1800 for a s and giggles.

Those epp settings in the bios are rubbish. Don't ever use those.

[Trigger5521]

I set my tRRD manually to 1 and tRC to 10. Runs great with p1 and p2 enabled.

tRC 10??? really. Thought it was not supposed to be less than tCL + tRAS + 2 which would be 8+22+2=32. Auto is setting it to 44 at 8-8-8-22. I'll try it at 10 but I just want to make sure you didn't typo.

EPP = suckage no question.

Neo, my CPU is a X3350 XEON aka 9450 it's just binned diff pretty much the same chip. Not crazy about the idea of changing the CPU just yet, I know I'm loosing bandwidth available in the RAM but I had planned on it as a sacrifice to go to 8GB stable. I would love to believe it's possible to run 8GB of RAM linked and synced but I doubt it's possible with a quad core, maybe a dual core.

[neo mike]

Yeah not possiable with a quad core. TRC 10 is not correct, im running mine at 40, with 8 gigs you probally need more, you can lower the trc in windows with memset alot lower, but i found lowering lower than 40 in the bios for my setup results in no boot, i get a dram error on my lcd poster, 10 is crazy.

[Trigger5521]

Yeah not possiable with a quad core. TRC 10 is not correct, im running mine at 40, with 8 gigs you probally need more, you can lower the trc in windows with memset alot lower, but i found lowering lower than 40 in the bios for my setup results in no boot, i get a dram error on my lcd poster, 10 is crazy.

I tired it at 10 and it booted fine, Prime95 failed quick tho.

[Sangrak]

tRC 10??? really. Thought it was not supposed to be less than tCL + tRAS + 2 which would be 8+22+2=32. Auto is setting it to 44 at 8-8-8-22. I'll try it at 10 but I just want to make sure you didn't typo.

EPP = suckage no question.

Neo, my CPU is a X3350 XEON aka 9450 it's just binned diff pretty much the same chip. Not crazy about the idea of changing the CPU just yet, I know I'm loosing bandwidth available in the RAM but I had planned on it as a sacrifice to go to 8GB stable. I would love to believe it's possible to run 8GB of RAM linked and synced but I doubt it's possible with a quad core, maybe a dual core.

Whoops, I meant I set tWR to 10 and tRC is set to 31. I was pretty loopy when I typed that. Too much vino...

Sorry about that.:-P

[slim142]

Dont set TRC at 10, thats insanity.
I ran 30 with 2Gbs of RAM, and with 4Gbs of RAM it also runs ok.
For 8Gbs, maybe 34-38?

Also Trigger, have you set the timings to what Anandtech mentions on their article? I remember there are some recommendations for +4Gbs RAM.

[Sangrak]

I tired it at 10 and it booted fine, Prime95 failed quick tho.

Hah, it's funny that you actually tried that and it actually booted fine. I'd be like: "what the f---, that guy's nuts."

Someday I'll stop my late night wine tasting session and just go to bed.

[Trigger5521]

Dont set TRC at 10, thats insanity.
I ran 30 with 2Gbs of RAM, and with 4Gbs of RAM it also runs ok.
For 8Gbs, maybe 34-38?

Also Trigger, have you set the timings to what Anandtech mentions on their article? I remember there are some recommendations for +4Gbs RAM.

Indeed, I have been referring back to the anand article but still no prime95 stability.

They said NB 1.52 for 8GB..NFG for me.

It's gotta be my CPU dos memtest does not spit out any errors running 8GB at 1800 8-8-8-22. I tried that with my 4GB OCZ and memtest locks up in the first test.

[Sangrak]

Indeed, I have been referring back to the anand article but still no prime95 stability.

They said NB 1.52 for 8GB..NFG for me.

It's gotta be my CPU dos memtest does not spit out any errors running 8GB at 1800 8-8-8-22. I tried that with my 4GB OCZ and memtest locks up in the first test.

Most likely your cpu is holding you back. With my Q9450, I couldn't get it to Prime stable over 1710.

My Q9450 has a VID of 1.15, so I thought I had a good one, but never could get it to go any higher than that. Once I moved to a Q9650, I got it past 1710 with little difficulty. The voltage on my Q9650 is much higher, though.

[Trigger5521]

Most likely your cpu is holding you back. With my Q9450, I couldn't get it to Prime stable over 1710.

My Q9450 has a VID of 1.15, so I thought I had a good one, but never could get it to go any higher than that. Once I moved to a Q9650, I got it past 1710 with little difficulty. The voltage on my Q9650 is much higher, though.

I thought I was stable with 8-8-8-22 @ 1702, but last night Prime95 failed after 59mins on one core only. That was a major disappointment, I don't think I want 8GB if I have to run at less than 1702. Trying a few more tweaks tRRD 1 maybe 1.96 volts for example to see if I can get it 100% stable @ 1702. If not I may return it or go to a new CPU...grrr more $$$ on this rig. Oh the joy's of overclocking.

[slim142]

I thought I was stable with 8-8-8-22 @ 1702, but last night Prime95 failed after 59mins on one core only. That was a major disappointment, I don't think I want 8GB if I have to run at less than 1702. Trying a few more tweaks tRRD 1 maybe 1.96 volts for example to see if I can get it 100% stable @ 1702. If not I may return it or go to a new CPU...grrr more $$$ on this rig. Oh the joy's of overclocking.

Dont stress out man. How high have you gone on the NB? Try 1.56v with +30 on the GTL ref. Set P1 and P2 to Auto and see if you get any improvements.

Also, you can get an E8400 pretty cheap (E0) and Im pretty sure that will let you overclock better.

[Trigger5521]

Dont stress out man. How high have you gone on the NB? Try 1.56v with +30 on the GTL ref. Set P1 and P2 to Auto and see if you get any improvements.

Also, you can get an E8400 pretty cheap (E0) and Im pretty sure that will let you overclock better.

Looks like I have the 8-8-8-22 stable in prime again. tRC=31 tRRD=1 tWR= 10
mem 1.94 volts.

I was just reading the Q9450 thread and guys are saying this chip doesn't need alot of vcore but needs lots of vtt and vNB.

I think I'll go silly and crank the NB to 1.56 RAM to 1.96 and Vtt to 1.5 see if it'll hold @ FSB 1780. My whole board is under water so probably not an issue.

[Sangrak]

Looks like I have the 8-8-8-22 stable in prime again. tRC=31 tRRD=1 tWR= 10
mem 1.94 volts.

I was just reading the Q9450 thread and guys are saying this chip doesn't need alot of vcore but needs lots of vtt and vNB.

I think I'll go silly and crank the NB to 1.56 RAM to 1.96 and Vtt to 1.5 see if it'll hold @ FSB 1780. My whole board is under water so probably not an issue.

Nice!

[Trigger5521]

Nice!

Hey Sangrak...would you mind running everest mem bench and post the pic for me. I'd like to see the what kind of bandwidth the MEM & Q9650 gets at 1780 CS8.

Need to do a cost benefit analysis

Side note: all the high NB and VTT tests failed.

Right now I'm running a test on the stable 1702 settings at 1720. 10mins prime stable right now. fingers crossed.

[Sangrak]

Hey Sangrak...would you mind running everest mem bench and post the pic for me. I'd like to see the what kind of bandwidth the MEM & Q9650 gets at 1780 CS8.

Need to do a cost benefit analysis

Side note: all the high NB and VTT tests failed.

Right now I'm running a test on the stable 1702 settings at 1720. 10mins prime stable right now. fingers crossed.

I've got a deadline to hit, so I can't do it during the day. I'll run the memtest tonight and post some pics.

Oops, mis read your post. let me run it really quick now.