F3-16000CL9T-12GBRM & GA-X58A-UD3R Fails MemTest

[Access57]

QPP/Vtt Response

I am not seeing much affect from changing the QPP/Vtt voltage.

At one point in my trials, I had a bclock of 163, CPU Mult 19 (3.04GHz), Mem Mult 12 (DDR3 1920) at CAS 9-9-9-24-2 with DRAM 1.648V (actual) and QPP/Vtt of 1.475V. The system "beeped" and rebooted.

So I increased the QPP/Vtt to the max of 1.595V and Memtest+ gave 133 errors in 10:00 minutes.

Then I backed the bclock down to 160 and checked various QPP/Vtt values for 10 minutes to find the sweet spot:

QPP/Vtt Errors
1.595 2
1.575 3
1.555 0
1.535 1
1.515 0
1.495 1
1.475 6
1.455 2
1.435 0
1.415 2
1.395 4
1.375 2
1.355 1
1.335 2
1.315 2
1.295 system rebooted

The DRAM is maxed at 1.648V actual, so the QPP/Vtt did not stablize it or improve it. As far as I can tell, the best I can do at 9-9-9-24-2 is DDR3 1920. and the QPP/Vtt can be between 1.315 and 1.595.

Am I missing something?

[GSKILL TECH]

Post some BIOS pictures so we can see exactly what settings are being used.

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

[Access57]

Raising DRAM and QTI/Vtt Voltage

Based on these settings, raise BCLK, DRAM Voltage, and QPI/VTT Voltage to reach DDR3-2000.

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

As indicated in the above frame, I have tested up to a DRAM Voltage setting of 1.66V (actual is 1.648V) and a QPI/Vtt of 1.595V and the best I can do is DDR3-1920 and the system fails.

I started low and worked the Memory frequency up till it failed. I will set the bclk at 200 and try various levels of DRAM Voltage and QPI/Vtt to make sure I am not hitting a "block hole" / "ridge" and report back shortly.

Should I try above the DRAM 1.65V level (Intel max) and the QPP/VTT 1.595V level (is blinking red in the BIOS settings)?

Thanks again

[GSKILL TECH]

Did you try a different BCLK? A different QPI Voltage is needed for each frequency, so the idea is to set your targets, then find the voltages that stabilize. This voltages varies from CPU to CPU (even of the same exact model), which is why I can't help much. This is the "overclocking" part that is difficult for many.

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

[Access57]

Eureka!

Okay, I am in the process of gathering pics to send you and I discovered something that is working, so I thought I would send a quick note rather than waste time finishing the pics.

Based on the forum, I have always used 9-9-9-24-2 (Cmd Rate) and I could not go above DDR3_1920. If I set a bclck of 200 and a Mem Mult of 10, it would either beep at boot or just not boot.

As I was preparing the pics, I was thinking of adding a pic of the modules to show the product ID, etc. Well, I immediatley noticed the CAS is different on the label!

The sticker on the module has F3-16000CL9T-12GBRM, DDR3 2000 CL 9-10-9-28 1.55V.

So I tried bclck 200, mem mult 10 (DDR3 2000), cpu mult 20 (4.0GHz), 9-10-9-28 with cmd rate of 2. Not sure of the DRAM Voltage, I think it is still 1.648V actual and the QTI/Vtt is still 1.595.

But it booted and I am now at 38%, 12 minutes into memtest+

Not sure why the 9-9-9-24-2 versus the 9-10-9-28 (should I use cmd rate of 2 or 1?) and if I will hit the 1.55V; but I suspect that I am better off at CAS 9 then CAS 10.

Any comments? In the meantime, I will thoroughly test the current configuration and see how low I can go on the DRAM and QTI/Vtt Voltages and report back in a couple of hours.

Thanks!

[Tradesman]

Stay w/ CR of 2, let us know how the test goes

[Access57]

Initial Testing Complete

Well, I finally have my initial configuration:

Memory - F3-16000CL9T-12GBRM
MotherBoard - Gigabyte X58A-UD3R, FE1 (Beta BIOS)
Processor - i7-950 (3.06GHz)

Basically,
Clear CMOS
CPU Clock Ratio - 20X
Base Clock Control - Enabled
bclk Frequency - 200
XMP - Disabled
System Memory Multiplier - 10
DRAM Timing Selectable - Expert
Channel A (B and C) Timing Settings 9-10-9-28
(Command Rate is Auto)
QPI/Vtt Voltage - 1.435
DRAM Voltage - 1.58 (1.568 actual, the closest that I can be over the 1.55V spec)
Everything else is Auto / Original BIOS settings

Which gives me a 4.0GHz system with Memory running at DDR3-2000, awesome!

This is my initial configuration based on memtest+; now I am ready to load Win 7 Ult 64-bit and will do stress testing and system balancing.

FYI, my fail points using memtest+ v4.10
QTI/Vtt is 1.395
DRAM Voltage is 1.50
I initially had my CPU Core set at 1.25, but was able to drop it down to 1.150 so I just set it back on Auto.

Thanks to everyone that helped, I appreciate it.

Lessons learned - it is not always a hardware problem, software has glitches too. And use common sense when it comes to tuning your system; if it is not working, take a step back and look at the whole picture.

In closing, after about 100 tests/trials, I have come full circle. My hardware is finally tuned and ready; I am very pleased with DDR3-2000 memory which is working within specification (DDR3-2000, CL 9-10-9-28, 1.55V).

Time to find out what an i7 can do!

Thanks

[Tradesman]

Have fun, sorry it took so long.........store your settings for fall back,

Have a gud 1 !

[Access57]

Final thoughts

Tman,

It was a huge learning experience, so it was well worth the time for me. Fortunately, I was able to work it into my schedule pretty easily this time of year.

But knowing their are resources like this forum makes it much easier to deal with - you saved me a tremendous amount of time, energy and frustration!

Thanks again and keep up the good work! This is my first exposure to G.Skill and it worked out very well.

Take Care and Happy New Year!

P.S. It took three attempts to get Win 7 64-bit Ult installed, so I still have some tweaking to do. I am sure the memory is solid, just need to work on the CPU Core and QTI/Vtt some more.

[Tradesman]

I like helping out here, it helps me keep up with the various hardware...and just helping people out, might see you at a couple of other forums I help at.....as said

Have a gud 1 !