X2 550 Unlocking & Overclocking Consolidated

[Maregg]

On an unrelated note, does anyone notice these cpus have a weak IMC, or did I just get an unlucky one? It won't run 1600mhz no matter what I try, even as dual or quad.

Hi, I had a very simillar problem with a set of G.skill ddr3-1600 C8 1.65v.
Couldn't run them at their rated speed. Setting the ram to Auto in the bios was fine but it was setting them at 1333 C9 1.6v.

It took a while to figure out the problem. Then I got a hint while trying to force the voltage to 1.65. Apparently, Gigabyte tought it funny to confuse us with the supplied voltage to ram. On the 1.5v rating, it actually set the ram to 1.6v. Innitially, I manually set the bios to supply 1.65v. It actually crashed the ram even faster. Then I realized that setting the ram voltage to 1.65v in bios actually made the board supply 1.76v to the ram, effectively overvolting it !!/$"/%?

I had to guess the number to set in bios so that the board would phisically supply 1.65 volt to the ram. Since then, those sticks have been rock solid at their rated speed in both memtest86 and Prime95 blend.

I'm on latest bios besides. Still confused how they implemented the ram voltage on these boards....