Memory: G.Skill F2-C8500CL5D-4GBPK
2 sticks (2x2G=4G) recently purchased
2 sticks (2x2G=4G) purchased for original machine build ~4 years ago.
DDR2-1066 CL-5-5-15 2.0-2.1v
Mobo: GA-EP35C-DS3R
Bios=v4
CPU: Intel Q6600 B3
Couldn't find my model on this forum's MOBO recommendation list.
Thought it would be simple to add another 4G of memory, particularly since all specifications on the motherboard and on the memory seem to allow this and all memory was the same brand and model, but no love.
Original symptoms were random blue screens and reboots as soon as I installed the memory. Now trying to troubleshoot and get a clean pass through memtest86+ before going back into the OS.
Any two sticks in the appropriate slots pass Memtest86+, but as soon as I put all four sticks in, Memtest86+ pukes out (usually somewhere around test 5 or test 8).
Original BIOS was using no overclocking and a lot of auto settings for the various bus frequencies, voltages, and DRAM timings. Since then I've tried all kinds of variations, including boosting the mem chip voltage a couple points, loosening the memory timings (but unfortunately having no idea "how loose" to make "which timings").
So far the only thing that has gotten me a clean pass with all 4 sticks through MemTest86+ has been to drop the memory bus multiplier from 4 to 3, which drops the the memory speed from 1066MHz to 800MHz. If this is the best I can do, then so be it, but it offends my sensibilities to have to run memory rated at 1066MHz at 800MHz.
I'm relatively tech savy, but I'm not a hardware geek or an overclocker, so I thought before I try every combination of memory timing settings known to man, maybe I'd check here and see if anyone has any familiarity with this board.
Any particular settings I should be using or trying in order to get this memory to play nice with this motherboard?
I'm presently testing Memtest86+ with a slight FSB overclock (300 rather than 266) with the memory multiplier set to 3 instead of 4, auto DRAM timings, and auto voltage settings. This brings the memory bus up to 900MHz. Memtest86+ shows the auto CAS settings as 5-6-6-17. So far it's made it about 80% of the way through the test without failure, so maybe I can push the memory back up close to 1066 with overclocking. And maybe it's good that I'm being forced grudgingly into the world of overclockers, BUT... it raises the question:
IF I am ultimately not able to simply plug in my 8G of 1066MHz memory on my 8G/1066MHz MOBO and have it run 8G at 1066MHz, what is the best approach to make the system as fast as I can?
Should I keep pushing the boundaries of FSB clock while dropping the mem bus multiplier while keeping timing cycles short? Or is it better to keep the memory bus speed up and loosen the timings until things work? Or something completely different?
Thanks in advance for any insight you can offer.
2 sticks (2x2G=4G) recently purchased
2 sticks (2x2G=4G) purchased for original machine build ~4 years ago.
DDR2-1066 CL-5-5-15 2.0-2.1v
Mobo: GA-EP35C-DS3R
Bios=v4
CPU: Intel Q6600 B3
Couldn't find my model on this forum's MOBO recommendation list.
Thought it would be simple to add another 4G of memory, particularly since all specifications on the motherboard and on the memory seem to allow this and all memory was the same brand and model, but no love.
Original symptoms were random blue screens and reboots as soon as I installed the memory. Now trying to troubleshoot and get a clean pass through memtest86+ before going back into the OS.
Any two sticks in the appropriate slots pass Memtest86+, but as soon as I put all four sticks in, Memtest86+ pukes out (usually somewhere around test 5 or test 8).
Original BIOS was using no overclocking and a lot of auto settings for the various bus frequencies, voltages, and DRAM timings. Since then I've tried all kinds of variations, including boosting the mem chip voltage a couple points, loosening the memory timings (but unfortunately having no idea "how loose" to make "which timings").
So far the only thing that has gotten me a clean pass with all 4 sticks through MemTest86+ has been to drop the memory bus multiplier from 4 to 3, which drops the the memory speed from 1066MHz to 800MHz. If this is the best I can do, then so be it, but it offends my sensibilities to have to run memory rated at 1066MHz at 800MHz.
I'm relatively tech savy, but I'm not a hardware geek or an overclocker, so I thought before I try every combination of memory timing settings known to man, maybe I'd check here and see if anyone has any familiarity with this board.
Any particular settings I should be using or trying in order to get this memory to play nice with this motherboard?
I'm presently testing Memtest86+ with a slight FSB overclock (300 rather than 266) with the memory multiplier set to 3 instead of 4, auto DRAM timings, and auto voltage settings. This brings the memory bus up to 900MHz. Memtest86+ shows the auto CAS settings as 5-6-6-17. So far it's made it about 80% of the way through the test without failure, so maybe I can push the memory back up close to 1066 with overclocking. And maybe it's good that I'm being forced grudgingly into the world of overclockers, BUT... it raises the question:
IF I am ultimately not able to simply plug in my 8G of 1066MHz memory on my 8G/1066MHz MOBO and have it run 8G at 1066MHz, what is the best approach to make the system as fast as I can?
Should I keep pushing the boundaries of FSB clock while dropping the mem bus multiplier while keeping timing cycles short? Or is it better to keep the memory bus speed up and loosen the timings until things work? Or something completely different?
Thanks in advance for any insight you can offer.
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