ASUS Striker II Extreme

[Lonely_Warrior]

Moved up from a Q6600 G0 + P5n32-E SLI

Current Rig:

Striker II Extreme 790i Ultra
Intel Q9650 / VID 1.25 / Revision E0 / Arctic Freezer Pro 7 / OCZ Freeze
2* 2GB DDR3 OCZ FLEX EX PC3-16000 2000MHZ
Thermaltake 750W Modular
MSI 280GTX (Factory OC)
Antec 900

I've currently got the CPU sitting at 3.6Ghz (400*9). This is linked and synced with the RAM at 1600Mhz (7-7-7-24-2T 2.0v) and working flawlessly. What I am trying to do is get the RAM to run at it's rated speed. No matter what I do I cannot get the system to boot if the RAM is set at 2000mhz. This was on BIOS 1106. I've since flashed to 1203 but still no go. Can I actually get the RAM to run at 2000MHZ or is that just marketing gibberish on Asus' part?!

The manufacturer timings state 8-8-8-30 at 2000mhz at 2.0v, but could these be improved? I've got a couple of Antec spotcools, one pointed at the ram, the other towards the SB to help cooling. I've tried the RAM in A1/B1 and A2/B2. Here are some brief voltage settings i've got:

CPU: 1.2625-->1.3
Mem: 2.10
NB: 1.40-->1.46
SB: 1.50-->1.55

I've bumped up CPU/NB/SB and tried to experiment to see if I can boot but it always freezes on the LCD poster saying 'DET DRAM'. I've had trouble with OCZ and Asus before so I even tried some Patriot Viper 2000MHz RAM. Same here it was no go. Works no problems at 1600MHz even if I tighten the timings from standard, but will not POST at 2000MHz. Should I have just bought 1600MHz RAM and saved the money? Or is my board a bit weak? Any help appreciated guys.

[slim142]

You are giving the NB a lot of stress with OC quad and 2k memory. I wouldnt be surprised if u needed more NB voltage.

[Lonely_Warrior]

hi thanks. ho wmuch would you say 1.50V? Also my temps for NB/SB seem to be quite high. Coming from the 680i I thought there was supposed to be a drastic drop. Curently the ambient temp is 21 degrees celcius and it's quite muggy. NB is 55 degrees, SB is 59 degrees. I've even got a spotcool pointed at the SB but it's not doing much it seems.....

[slim142]

Yeah I have to agree the stock cooling is pretty bad once you pass certain voltages. Maybe you could change the thermal paste and see if it improves (if you havent done so), but after market cooling would be way better (the reason why Im planning to put water on them).

Yes, definitely 1.50 or more required for what you are asking. If by 1.60 (real) is not stable, then just leave it on what the motherboard will allow you to. Sometimes its the motherboard other times is the RAM, but from what you are writing, thats a lot of stress and I would say its definitely the motherboard that will be holding you back.

If you want to check, do a quick run at 1.52-1.54v on the NB (dont stress it), just see if you boot. If you do, that means you might be able to achieve those high clocks with good cooling.

[Lonely_Warrior]

Thanks will give it a whirl tomorrow and report back.

[Trigger5521]

Moved up from a Q6600 G0 + P5n32-E SLI

Current Rig:

Striker II Extreme 790i Ultra
Intel Q9650 / VID 1.25 / Revision E0 / Arctic Freezer Pro 7 / OCZ Freeze
2* 2GB DDR3 OCZ FLEX EX PC3-16000 2000MHZ
Thermaltake 750W Modular
MSI 280GTX (Factory OC)
Antec 900

I've currently got the CPU sitting at 3.6Ghz (400*9). This is linked and synced with the RAM at 1600Mhz (7-7-7-24-2T 2.0v) and working flawlessly. What I am trying to do is get the RAM to run at it's rated speed. No matter what I do I cannot get the system to boot if the RAM is set at 2000mhz. This was on BIOS 1106. I've since flashed to 1203 but still no go. Can I actually get the RAM to run at 2000MHZ or is that just marketing gibberish on Asus' part?!

The manufacturer timings state 8-8-8-30 at 2000mhz at 2.0v, but could these be improved? I've got a couple of Antec spotcools, one pointed at the ram, the other towards the SB to help cooling. I've tried the RAM in A1/B1 and A2/B2. Here are some brief voltage settings i've got:

CPU: 1.2625-->1.3
Mem: 2.10
NB: 1.40-->1.46
SB: 1.50-->1.55

I've bumped up CPU/NB/SB and tried to experiment to see if I can boot but it always freezes on the LCD poster saying 'DET DRAM'. I've had trouble with OCZ and Asus before so I even tried some Patriot Viper 2000MHz RAM. Same here it was no go. Works no problems at 1600MHz even if I tighten the timings from standard, but will not POST at 2000MHz. Should I have just bought 1600MHz RAM and saved the money? Or is my board a bit weak? Any help appreciated guys.

I cannot post with RAM @ rated speed of 2000mhz linked and synced either...I believe I'm CPU limited there. Highest I can post L&S is 1860...but it's not stable.

It maybe possible with only one stick installed but I never tried as I have no intention of running Vista 64 with 2gb of RAM

Note: I'm under water. 8GB takes the following with my board
NB=1.62 (-0.08 NB gtl)
SB=1.55
CPU=1.34(Bios) 1.42 Everest :O
RAM=2.06

[Francko1979]

Hey guys!

I've been a proud S2E owner for a while now and an avid reader of these forums also.
Now, I'm posting here today, cause I need help to solve an issue that's been driving me nuts and that I can't seem to get pass thru.
My setup is an S2E obviously, a C2D E8600 E0, 4 gigs of Dominator XMS31600C7DHX. On top of that, 2 BFG GTX 285 OCX SLI, Creative XFI Fatal1ty PRO and I recently removed for testing purposes a third card, an EVGA 8800 GTX KO ACS3 that was processing physx.
My setup is watercooled with swiftech apex ultra kit, cooling the NB and the CPU with a Swiftech GTZ WB.
Ok, I had my setup 100% stable with this settings:

Lync & Sync'ed with 1700 Mhz
RAM 7 7 7 20 2T at 1.9V
CPU: 1.25 V on BIOS LLC ENABLED
NB: 1.3 V BIOS
SB: AUTO
PLL: AUTO
VTT: 1.2 V

working like a charm!
So I went further

4.5 Ghz
FSB 1800 Mhz Unlinked
RAM at 1680 Mhz
7 7 7 20 1T at 1.9V
CPU: 1.375 V on BIOS LLC ENABLED
NB: 1.3 V BIOS
SB: AUTO
PLL: AUTO
VTT: 1.2 V

I think I'm really close to get it 100% stable, right now got Prime running in the background with small FFT's, an hour gone by an lookin' good!
Had some problems here in the past, cause at the beggining it was fine and dandy at 1.3687 Vcore LLC enabled (orthos large FFT's mixed test for more than 2 hours), but after some time, that didn't do it, so I had to put it up a notch.

Now looks good, seems to do the work.
I noticed that if I go up with the NB or the VTT or both, is unstable, but most people needs much more voltage to get it to work, mine is fine at those settings.

Well, now, I wanna go further, my goal would be 4.72 Ghz (FSB 1889 Mhz) and ram at 1700 Mhz 7 7 7 20 2T unlinked. But, it's just imposssible! I mean, I tryed everything for the last 4 months and I can't get it!
Soon as I go over 1800Mhz, tests fail. I tryed to set it at 1842 Mhz, to get 1700 Mhz on ram (wanna round number there) but nothing, even less that that, no matter what, nothing works over 1800Mhz
I know u must be thinking, Dude! that's more than enough, leave it there! but u know how that is, I wanna squeeze it till the last Megahert

So, any advice, setting, question or answer u may have or some way to enlight me, it would be more than welcome!
I tryed Lots of NB over 1.6, lots of VTT 1.36V, even 1.5 Vcore for a little period of time but nothing, no matter what.
Also tryed every BIOS available, the best for me is 0901, and that's what I have currently set up.

So, there it is, sorry for such a long post, but I run out of ideas

Thx in advanced!


Franco

[slim142]

Have you tried more ram voltage, cause your sticks might not be getting enough power.
Also, keep it at 2T, you will get more stability.

Remember some times too much voltage = inestability. I would say your NB might need between 1.4-1.56

[Francko1979]

Have you tried more ram voltage, cause your sticks might not be getting enough power.
Also, keep it at 2T, you will get more stability.

Remember some times too much voltage = inestability. I would say your NB might need between 1.4-1.56

Hi Slim!

Thx for your reply. I'll try that ASAP and let you know how that came up.
I never touched the ram voltage cause I thought that if it works at those settings before, it should work now too. But like u mentioned, that might be exactly the problem, I mean, I messed around with everything else, except the RAM voltage.

Thx again, I'll be back soon

[Francko1979]

Update.

Unfortunately that didn't do it. Still unstable. Anything over 1800MHZ FSB fails.

[Trigger5521]

Update.

Unfortunately that didn't do it. Still unstable. Anything over 1800MHZ FSB fails.

I posted all my settings for 8GB's at 1800 FSB in this thread a few months back...give them a whirl.

This board is tricky. I found if I increased NB for example my previous stable CPU voltage needed to be increased. There is a magic combo for your board cpu and ram combo, but don't get stuck thinking one voltage change is going to cut it.

Is heat an issue?..RAM will spit errors if it gets too hot, tape one of the temp sensors that came in the MB box to the RAM's heat sink. Better yet get a corsair triple channel RAM fan.

This may help as well... Post #11 in this thread http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=223177
helped me alot.

Good luck let us know.

[slim142]

Dam Trigger thanks for that post. Now I know how to stress my system and finally get it stable. No wonder L4D failed the other day I was playing it (yes AGAIN)

[Trigger5521]

Dam Trigger thanks for that post. Now I know how to stress my system and finally get it stable. No wonder L4D failed the other day I was playing it (yes AGAIN)

There is SO much expertise and knowledge in these forums it's crazy..I stumbled on that info but as I said it really helped me. Knowing which voltage to change for which type of error is really hard to find info...I think most overclockers just do trial and error.

[slim142]

There is SO much expertise and knowledge in these forums it's crazy..I stumbled on that info but as I said it really helped me. Knowing which voltage to change for which type of error is really hard to find info...I think most overclockers just do trial and error.

Agreed
One can think that they ha 100% estability with linx and memtest, but then you find people who can really show you estability. Will surely keep that in mind when I start overclocking my system to the max.

[Francko1979]

I posted all my settings for 8GB's at 1800 FSB in this thread a few months back...give them a whirl.

This board is tricky. I found if I increased NB for example my previous stable CPU voltage needed to be increased. There is a magic combo for your board cpu and ram combo, but don't get stuck thinking one voltage change is going to cut it.

Is heat an issue?..RAM will spit errors if it gets too hot, tape one of the temp sensors that came in the MB box to the RAM's heat sink. Better yet get a corsair triple channel RAM fan.

This may help as well... Post #11 in this thread http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=223177
helped me alot.

Good luck let us know.

Hi Trigger, thx so much for that info. I'll get into it later (installing 7 right now)
Heat on the ram is not an issue, I gotta dominator fan blowing right into them.
I wanna squeeze that CPU to 4.72Ghz! I'll be back later to let u know how it came up the testing

[Sangrak]

I posted all my settings for 8GB's at 1800 FSB in this thread a few months back...give them a whirl.

This board is tricky. I found if I increased NB for example my previous stable CPU voltage needed to be increased. There is a magic combo for your board cpu and ram combo, but don't get stuck thinking one voltage change is going to cut it.

Is heat an issue?..RAM will spit errors if it gets too hot, tape one of the temp sensors that came in the MB box to the RAM's heat sink. Better yet get a corsair triple channel RAM fan.

This may help as well... Post #11 in this thread http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=223177
helped me alot.

Good luck let us know.

That thread is a good find, Trigger. According to that post, It seems my vtt/vdimm ratio was off. I ticked the vtt down a notch and have prime running at 1 hour 10 minutes so far.

Are you running prime with min/max mem at 4096 or for the whole 8 gigs? Right now I have prime set to what was in that post (4096.)

[Trigger5521]

That thread is a good find, Trigger. According to that post, It seems my vtt/vdimm ratio was off. I ticked the vtt down a notch and have prime running at 1 hour 10 minutes so far.

Are you running prime with min/max mem at 4096 or for the whole 8 gigs? Right now I have prime set to what was in that post (4096.)

Yeah I primed min/max 4096 for 4 hours. I even tried 6144 at some point.

[Sangrak]

Yeah I primed min/max 4096 for 4 hours. I even tried 6144 at some point.

I let it run for only 2 1/2 hours, but it generated no errors. This board overvolts the VTT +0.06-.07. I have VTT set in the bios at 1.26 and it hovers around 1.32-.33, actual.

[slim142]

Hey Trigger

For prime95, should I put 4096 for min/max right?
What about for Memory to use (in MB)? 1600?
Time to run leave in 15mins right?

[Trigger5521]

Hey Trigger

For prime95, should I put 4096 for min/max right?
What about for Memory to use (in MB)? 1600?
Time to run leave in 15mins right?

Yeah 4096 min 4096 max. Use as much mem as you have left, I set mine to 6GB because I have 8.

Couple hours and you should be good for that test.

[slim142]

Oh ok I see
Im going to test that after Im done with "regular" 10-12 hour test.

For some reason, I need more NB voltage (with Diablo D9GTS) than with my previous G.Skill D9JNL. I used to need 1.38v, now I need ~1.50

Anyways, 1203 doesnt look that bad. Im still in the process of achieving stability, but Im pretty sure Im almost there. Back to 3.6Ghz!!!. Once I get this stable, I will go for my water stuff and go for the magic 1800 Linked

[Sangrak]

Oh ok I see
Im going to test that after Im done with "regular" 10-12 hour test.

For some reason, I need more NB voltage (with Diablo D9GTS) than with my previous G.Skill D9JNL. I used to need 1.38v, now I need ~1.50

Anyways, 1203 doesnt look that bad. Im still in the process of achieving stability, but Im pretty sure Im almost there. Back to 3.6Ghz!!!. Once I get this stable, I will go for my water stuff and go for the magic 1800 Linked

I had a similar experience when I moved from OCZ Gold sticks to Vipers. I only needed 1.32v on the OCZ, but never could get past 1500 with them. The vipers required 1.40+ at the same speed.

Nice to see you're starting to OC the board again.


On another note, I'm getting odd behavior with Superfetch in Vista 64. I changed my logitech and nvidia drivers the other day. Now Superfetch is alot more active and accessing the hard drive for much longer when I get to my desktop. My stability isn't affected at all (ran Prime, OCCT, and burn without issue), but it's kinda annoying seeing the hard drive light on for so much longer. I fell back to the older drivers but it's still doing it. Dunno how to stop it other than turning off Superfetch all together. Have any of you ever experienced that?

[slim142]

I had a similar experience when I moved from OCZ Gold sticks to Vipers. I only needed 1.32v on the OCZ, but never could get past 1500 with them. The vipers required 1.40+ at the same speed.

Nice to see you're starting to OC the board again.


On another note, I'm getting odd behavior with Superfetch in Vista 64. I changed my logitech and nvidia drivers the other day. Now Superfetch is alot more active and accessing the hard drive for much longer when I get to my desktop. My stability isn't affected at all (ran Prime, OCCT, and burn without issue), but it's kinda annoying seeing the hard drive light on for so much longer. I fell back to the older drivers but it's still doing it. Dunno how to stop it other than turning off Superfetch all together. Have any of you ever experienced that?

I guess the RAM ICs make a lot of difference.

If I was you, I wouldnt be touching the nvidia drivers. Me for example, if I know I will NOT have time to uninstall/drive sweeper 2.0.5/restart/drive sweeper/install, then I prefer not to mess with them.
Also, whenever a new WHQL comes out, I like to wait a little to see if there is going to be a new revision (190.36->190.64 or something like that)

But most importantly, DO NOT mess with your nForce drivers, NEVER!.
I have had nightmares with it before. If you have the lastest version and is working, there is absolutely no reason to upgrade. Trust me, nforce becoming a pain in the @ss when it comes to upgrading/reinstalling.

I cant really help here since I dont have Vista but when those weird things happen you can try a complete reinstall and by this I mean uninstall your logitech, nforce, geforce (and anything you touched before the problem), use drive sweeper before/after restarting. Then use CCleaner to clean your registry and start again. If that doesnt fix it, I would say a clean install would be the best option (or go for an SSD and forget about that )

UPDATE: Btw, Prime95 25.11 Build 2 ran for 12 hours yesterday/today. If anybody needs my settings I will gladly post them. Im back to 3.6Ghz

[Sangrak]

I guess the RAM ICs make a lot of difference.

If I was you, I wouldnt be touching the nvidia drivers. Me for example, if I know I will NOT have time to uninstall/drive sweeper 2.0.5/restart/drive sweeper/install, then I prefer not to mess with them.
Also, whenever a new WHQL comes out, I like to wait a little to see if there is going to be a new revision (190.36->190.64 or something like that)

But most importantly, DO NOT mess with your nForce drivers, NEVER!.
I have had nightmares with it before. If you have the lastest version and is working, there is absolutely no reason to upgrade. Trust me, nforce becoming a pain in the @ss when it comes to upgrading/reinstalling.

I cant really help here since I dont have Vista but when those weird things happen you can try a complete reinstall and by this I mean uninstall your logitech, nforce, geforce (and anything you touched before the problem), use drive sweeper before/after restarting. Then use CCleaner to clean your registry and start again. If that doesnt fix it, I would say a clean install would be the best option (or go for an SSD and forget about that )

UPDATE: Btw, Prime95 25.11 Build 2 ran for 12 hours yesterday/today. If anybody needs my settings I will gladly post them. Im back to 3.6Ghz

Most of my issues early on with this board were caused by nforce drivers, namely the IDE driver, so I hear you. They were pretty bad when this board came out. Old nforce IDE drivers and even the new ones, have a bad habit of still working in the background even with newer versions installed. I suspect that was the cause for alot of peoples problems with the Striker II.

The only time I usually change my drivers is to solve a problem with a game or something. 190.36 was working fine, but I impulsively installed 190.64 and installed new logitech set point drivers for no reason:-P Everything works well, it's just that Superfetch is alot more active now for some unknown reason. Just thought maybe someone has experienced this before. Gonna switch to windows 7 soon anyways.

I use Driver Cleaner after uninstalling any drivers. Works pretty well I think. Which means: it's never screwed anything up.

What are your temps like with stock cooling?

[slim142]

Most of my issues early on with this board were caused by nforce drivers, namely the IDE driver, so I hear you. They were pretty bad when this board came out. Old nforce IDE drivers and even the new ones, have a bad habit of still working in the background even with newer versions installed. I suspect that was the cause for alot of peoples problems with the Striker II.

The only time I usually change my drivers is to solve a problem with a game or something. 190.36 was working fine, but I impulsively installed 190.64 and installed new logitech set point drivers for no reason:-P Everything works well, it's just that Superfetch is alot more active now for some unknown reason. Just thought maybe someone has experienced this before. Gonna switch to windows 7 soon anyways.

I use Driver Cleaner after uninstalling any drivers. Works pretty well I think. Which means: it's never screwed anything up.

What are your temps like with stock cooling?

I wouldnt worry about superfetch that much then. I hope you are going for an SSD soon too. I have heard so much good stuff about them I just want one NOW

Driver Cleaner, havent heard about it but IMO driver sweeper its really good and has worked fine for me everytime I have used it.

NB: ~50 SB:~55 CPU idle: 48-49 CPU load: 68

Yes my system gets pretty hot (stock cooling with MX-2) and it would be hell if it wasnt for the Sanyo Denkis I have. Those NB/SB temps are after running Memtest for 10 hours so they are actually pretty lower during idle.
Since I have reached limit, I have to wait for water cooling to keep pushing but so far. Im really happy with 1203 and the board which seems to be working nicely and better than with 0901 (at least so far).