What do you guys think

[mitchy24]

Hi all i need a bit of help here.. After selling my DFi ultra -d :sad: and my Amd X2 [email protected].. I thought it was time to try these core 2 duo what everyone is raving about.. Anyway i went ahead and bought a gigabyte P35C-DS3R, E6750 and some corsiar xms2 DDR6400 (2GB).. To be totally honest im not very familiar with these boards as i spent so much time getting to know my ultra-d..Anyway i went ahead and done the usual test to check everything was stable at stock memtest , prime etc..Anyway it was:):

So i went ahead and tried some overclocking , to cut the long story short im able to get 3.32 8 hours stable prime so far(still running) all voltages stock. The thing is i was hoping for a little better, but when i go above 415 mhz prime fails straight away , no matter what volts i pump in. I think its the ram , i wish i bought crucial ballistix:mad:.. I would like to know what you people think, do you think i should buy some more ram or should i be happy with what ive got now... Thanks for your help !!

P.s I dont think ive put the right prefix in , I think it should be P35

[Branjo]

You may have to relax the timings a little or get them on a better divider. Do you still have to hit CTRL+F1 in the BIOS to access the timings with the P35C?

[mitchy24]

yeah the timings are decreased anyways 5-6-6-19 . Your right you do have to press ctrl and F1 to get to the timing settings.. The thing is , the dividers are really strange on this board, i can only increase the dividers , i cant make the ram run slower like i did on my dfi to get a higher fsb.. You see on this chip it only has a multi of 6,7,8. Thats why im thinking i need better ram to get a higher fsb... Im confused now lol

[Branjo]

I get ya, well if your still within the return period for your RAM, you might want to try and get some with the D9 Micron chips in them The G.Skill HZ's,Buffalo Firestix, and I think the crucial Ballistix also have them. They can pretty much hold a good overclock at 1:1.

 

I have the XMS3200 and although they are good ram they don't OC very well at all. Would it make a difference raising the CL from 5 to 6? If its good OCing ram your after then the D9's are the way to go. I have heard them compared to the TCCD chips of DDR1 era

 

Is there maybe a later BIOS for the P35C or are you on the latest already, sometimes they might add a few more dividers, shot in the dark ya know

[mitchy24]

Thanks mate, i must of wrote that right, because ou understood what i meant.. the Motherboard is on the latest bios, thats one of things i checked .. I just bought the ram last week , i didt think you can return stuff just like that , i thought only if they were goosed ...Ill have a look ,either that or stick on the bay... How can you tell if they are D9,s ? By the way mate THANKS for you help..

[Branjo]

Not a problem bro, I'm no expert when it comes to memory I just read a lot..lol

I just picked the info up from reviews on the various types of RAM while shopping for my new builds. I opted for the Buffalo Firestix they are DDR800 but will gladly hit DDR1100 without anything else but a few notches of voltage. Usually if RAM is gonna clock like that then D9 micron chips are usually why but not always, Im sure other chips are quite as good, but these ones are what people know for sure will clock well so they are a big selling point.

 

Maybe where you bought them from will let you exchange them for another brand, just say they weren't compatible with your board and if you pay the extra can you get something else, worth a try.

[mitchy24]

Yeah mate i just read the rma info on there site and it says i have 10 days to let them know if i want to return them.. So i think ill give it a try, maybe ill have to send this board back too , its acting really strange . Ive put everything back to stock and gunna start testing again. Keeps restarting , gettting bios corruptions?.. Why me..Anyway Thanks Again Fella

[Branjo]

Cool, if your gonna return your board too and your not gonna be going DDR3 which really no one is then the P35 DS3R would be a good choice, I just bought 2 of them myself. I figure DDR3 is way too expensive and I really can't see DDR2 dying out any time soon.

 

The restarting is a gigabyte thing when it doesn't feel that the settings you have chosen are stable it will restart and try a different setting on each reboot until it finds one that it likes or it gets back to default.

 

For me I opted for the DS3R because a ton of people have got them already and any problems I may run into have more than likely being addressed by someone so the knowledge is already out there ya know.

 

What kind of RAM are you looking at if you decide to change it?

[mitchy24]

Yeah mate thats the board ive got rev 1.1 , i dont know what the differences are between the revisions. Im thinking about some crucial ballistix 6400, i cant really get anything better, as im totally skint. Do you know of any better ones my price range is about 60 pounds (uk).. Cheers..

P.s this is why i love Diy street , because of people like yourself , who go out there ways to helps other that arnt quite as in the know... Respect!

[Branjo]

We all have to start somewhere bro, glad to lend a hand. I have a mate in leeds that buys all his stuff at cclonline.com and gets a good price too. In the performance DDR2 drop down menu they have the Corsair's with the crazy heatinks and I think some of them are reported to have the D9's we were talking about or OCZ of which some also have the D9's.

Good thing is in the memory section here there are reps from Corsair and OCZ that will steer you in the right direction. Just make a post in there with a few links to the ones you are considering and they will give you rock solid advice as to compatibility.

[mitchy24]

Cheers Mate great site and some kanny prices too