Needing BIOS settings for 4BNGQ and Asrock M3A785GXH

[Gratton]

Greetings.

I am in need of the best BIOS settings for installing two pairs of F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ into my Asrock M3A785GXH/128M motherboard. I have a 955BE socketed, and unfortunately, it is a C2 version, so I have pretty much resigned myself to the fact I'll not see 1600 with 4 DIMMs in place, and may well not be able to achieve 1333 either.

My first attempt at increasing the memory from 4 to 8 gigs netted me constant BSODs and system locks, and as the Windows Memory Diagnostic indicated I had hardware problems, I RMA'd them back to Newegg for a replacement set. Since that time, I've found out that in all likelihood, the problem lie on my end, and I'd like to be certain of my settings before installing the replacement pair, and hitting the same brick wall head on again.

Any suggestions would be most gratefully accepted.

[Grimmett]

I've been reading that using all four DIMM modules and C2 revision AMD CPU's is risky. One G. Skill Tech advised a person to ask AMD for a replacement CPU with a C3 revision. Even if you get the RAM to work at lower speeds, you should really get what you paid for. It SHOULD run at 1333Mhz.
It would be hard to troubleshoot your problem further until you get a C3, in my opinion. It's a well documented problem, and they shouldn't give you any hassles in replacing it. ( As long as it's under warranty, I guess)

[Gratton]

Yep, I've discovered that the $10 I saved by opting for the C2 stepping over the C3 wasn't one of the better purchasing decisions I've made over the years.

I'll probably just opt to upgrade the CPU as opposed to being without the system for the time it would entail to get the chip swapped out, if they even will - I've replaced the stock HSF with a Corsair H50, and rumor has it, this voided my warranty forthwith.

If in the meantime, I can get all four DIMMs to play nicely running at 1066, I'll call it a lesson learned, and deal with the consequences. 1333 would be nice, and 1600 just downright awesome, but ya get what ya pay for, it seems.

Planning to pop in the other pair a bit later and seeing how benevolent the Bit Gods are feeling.

[Grimmett]

That's cool. I doubt you really see a performance difference between 1066 and 1333 Mhz anyway. I'm using the same cooler you are! I couldn't stand the noise of the stock fan. Good luck with the other pair. You shouldn't have much trouble. You may have to up some of your motherboard voltages using all four sticks, but maybe not since they're running at 1066. Just something to keep in mind. Have fun!

[Gratton]

All four sticks appear to be happy with the 1066 setting, at least, so far, so good. I might push my luck and go for 1333 here a bit later. One thing I noticed right off the bat, the 1066 setting puts CPU-Z memory and SPD settings right on the button by simply changing the speed to 533 in the BIOS, I didn't have to tweak the timings. With the 1333 setting, with either a single pair or both, the timings were way off those specified in the SPD.

The H50 is a pretty decent setup, I like mine just fine - using a push/pull intake installation on a Sniper case, and have seen a rather impressive drop in both idle and load temps since putting it in. Flipped the upper side 120 to be an exhaust, and left the bottom one as intake to help flow to my 5770. The front is still intake, and I kept the top 140 as an exhaust as well. Hand lapped the stock 955 HSF, and installed it on my wife's rig, hers is an older dual core, think a 4450E, or something along those lines. Quite an improvement there, but it left a lot to be desired on the 955. Not bad at idle, but under load, was like having a rabid banshee in my case!

[Grimmett]

LOL, nice. I want to get a new case for my system. I'm using a Raidmax Smilodon, which is nice, but doesn't play well with the Corsair H50. I had to buy a exhaust fan that mounts in the PCI slot on my case since they recommend the 120mm fan being intake. I have like 2 side intake fans, 1 front intake fan, the 120mm intake for the push/pull of the H50, and only the 1 exhaust! I haven't had any temp problems yet, but I feel like I need more exhaust.
Banshee is right! I thought a mouse had found it's way in my case and was blow drying its hair!

[Gratton]

I am well pleased with the Sniper, plenty of room overall, good airflow, cable management and even tool less design works well, unlike some others I've worked with. Things are a bit tight at the top due to the 140 exhaust fan, but that's about my only gripe with it.

I flipped the uppermost side fan around as an exhaust, it's adjacent to the CPU, so it seems to be helping pull the hot air out well enough, mobo temps haven't risen above what they were with the stock HSF in place. My PSU is also bottom mounted, so that probably helps a bit with temps as well. I installed a duct from the side of my computer desk to the intake on the back of the system, it pulls cool air from the room into the rad, that alone dropped my temps another 3 degrees or so.

On the memory... I've noticed that there are a new set of timings showing up, but only in slots 1 & 2, even though all four slots are populated with the same type of DIMM. These are lableled "XMP-1600" and specify a 9-9-9-25-40 2T setting, with 1.500V as the voltage. I presume these would be the ones I'd use to attempt getting 1600 out of all four? Kinda bugs me that these settings only show in the first two slots, though. I've also read somewhere that bumping up the voltage to 1.6 is recommended, but have been unable to verify it.

No joy with those settings, POSTed fine, loaded Windows fine, went to check settings with Speccy, BSoD. Sigh. Back to the drawing board, or more tweaking. I didn't alter the voltage or any other timings; a bit leery of letting all the smoke out of things, and it's a real bear to get that smoke back in.

[GSKILL TECH]

Try raising CPU-NB Voltage +0.1V, NB Voltage 1.30V, HT Voltage 1.40V, and see how that goes. If still no go, you may have to downclock them to 1333 with 8-8-8-24 timings.

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

[Gratton]

I'd thought about bumping the CPU NB up to 1.2, but hadn't thought of the others. What I have read also mentions that the speed should be upped there as well, to 3X the freq of the memory, which would be 2.4G I've also seen mentioned that the memory voltage might need bumped from 1.5 to 1.6

If this has any bearing, the system will boot fine and load Win7, but gets random BSODs and lockups with the speeds at 1600, using a 9-9-9-25-40 2T, indicated by the XMP-1600 profile shown in CPU-Z's SPD tab. All my other settings have been left as is, no other speeds upped, or voltages tweaked. This tells me that I need to either (a) increase the speed of the CPU NB, and/or bump it's VID, or perhaps give the memory a bit more voltage to coax the stability out of it.

My MB uses passive cooling on the chipset, and the DIMMs are passively cooled as well. Case has plenty of airflow, and I use a Corsair H50 CPU cooler. Kinda want to keep all that high tech smoke on the inside of the components, less expensive, and keeps the wife much happier. She's still bent over my last fiasco, where I learned that teflon tape is my friend on high flow WC rigs, and yes, things that heat up WILL leak.

Thanks for the insights and patience alike, and sorry for the wall of text.

[GSKILL TECH]

The stability is most likely the memory controller on the CPU, so you want to tune voltage for the CPU. You can try 1.60V, but that should be the max it will need.

Thank you
GSKILL TECH