Bought my system and...

[andrusk]

Hey guys,

 

I just got the system in my sig and put it together yesterday. It was an adventure from the start. After many hours of troubleshooting and finicking with the memory timings I've just come to the conclusion that my motherboard does not like my ram. My system will constantly blue screen on boot and freeze during operation, this is without overclocking at all mind you. Apparently my motherboard only "qualifies" specific ram modules to be used with the system, but from what I can tell, that's BS because I bought this ram based on the list and it does not like it. The corsair ram that I bought will not run stably in this system at the specified factory timing of 4-4-4-12 2t. I have to let the mobo auto choose the speed and it comes up with 5-5-5-18 1t, which is the only speed that is acceptable.

 

I'll get to the point. I've decided I'm going to return this ram and get a different pair. From what I've read in reviews, these two brands of memory work well with the p5n32-e sli. But what is the difference between the two? One is only $10 cheaper than the other, but the cheaper one looks like it has faster factory timings. What do you guys think about these two ram modules?

 

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?...N82E16820231065

 

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?...N82E16820231114

 

Thx for your input guys

[Kash]

Based on the specs, it looks as though the cheaper one is the better choice. Unless, of course, you like the look of the heatspreader on the more expensive one

[BTSchnarfy]

First off, what's your VDimm set at (memory voltage)? I think Corsair reccomends at least 2.1V, so bump it up a notch.. If that doesn't work, try to RMA the memory. If you don't want to deal with that process, I'd absolutely go with the G. Skill HZ (your first link). Those are known to OC like crazy and still keep good timings.

[kingdingeling]

What voltage are you running your RAM at? I know of a few cases where running the RAM at the boards default voltage of 1.8v caused problems. Have you tried upping the voltage to the rated 2.1v? That would most likely be Elpida chips on those sticks, which are pretty good at OCing. I would suggest you continue to fiddle with the board for a bit and see if you can't fix that issue like that.

 

[Edit] typed whilst he posted, had this window up for a while.

[Celcius]

The mem in the first link is better for overclocking.

 

As for that corsair ram, it looks like you have the same mem as me. Don't forget that the mem has EPP; that means when you let the mobo set the defaults (by choosing auto), it sets the ram to 5-5-5-18-2T and a lower voltage, but when you do something intense like playing a game it lowers the timings to 4-4-4-12-2T and raises the voltage to 2.1v. I just manually set mine to the timings and voltage I wanted and they worked fine. If you have to let the mobo choose the voltage, it will choose the lower epp voltage (which isn't enought for the mem to do 4-4-4-12-2T stable). I run mine at 2.1v.

[andrusk]

Thanks for the comments guys. I've tried entering the timings manually and setting the voltage to 2.1v, and even a little extra to 2.2v and it didn't seem to help any. I got it to run for a while at 4-4-4-12-2t, but when I started to overclock the system it became really unstable. I don't know if I'm just doing it wrong or what, but I was overclocking with the cpu fsb unlinked from the memory fsb so I wasn't even trying to push the memory but it was still unstable.

[kingdingeling]

I suggest changing the RAM out for the G.Skills then! The 4-4-3-5 look good, but for OCing I would recommend the HZ (the other ones you linked), as they have D9GMH chips on them, which OC well at low timings.

[andrusk]

Ok, a little update. I've been finickingwith my computer the last few days, and I think maybe I was just doing it wrong. I finally got my system to overclock at a decent rate for stock cooling E6600 @ 3.0ghz, and the ram is even stable oced to 888mhz @ 5-5-5-15-2t.

 

The question is, should I stick with the corsair since it seems to be working now, or should I still switch it out for the Gskill? Cause if I could get better timings with the gskill oced then the corsair that's what i'd prefer to do. Either way I've gotta send one of them back and pay the restocking fee, so what do you guys think I should do?

 

Also, it looks like I'm running at 56c load on my cpu, is that a fine temperature? Or should I clock it down a bit until I get my aftermarket heatsink?

[kingdingeling]

temp for the CPU is fine on stock cooling. I would still suggest a switch to the G.Skill's, as they offer better overclocking with the D9 chips.

[andrusk]

alright, gskill it is then Can't wait till tuesday to try that stuff out!!