Trying to get stable at stock settings: 8 GB Patriot DDR3 + ASUS P5E3

[Digitalfiend]

Haha that's funny. I'm not sure how I'd respond to that.

So far, I haven't been able to get 8 GB rock solid on my system. My wife's is fine with 8 GB at stock timings (7-7-7-20), stock NB volts, etc. It's very frustrating.

With my NB voltage set to 1.45 and RAM at 1.78, static read disabled, etc, the system appears stable except for the occasional BSOD in a game. At first I was willing to believe it might be an nVidia driver issue but after looking at some of the memory dumps, they all seem to suggest a memory issue.

I've pulled two sticks from my system to try and see if 4GB is stable at stock settings (except from dram volts set to 1.74v). So far no crashes, no BSODs, etc.

I've got a Thermalright Ultimate 120 Extreme on the way as my CPU temps under Prime are 70C (other two cores are in the 60C), which is way too hot. The heatsink probably isn't seated perfectly, but I figure I'll wait until I get the new cooler before trying to work on my 8 GB issue. I'm also going to rig a 120mm fan to point at the NB/RAM and see if that helps.

Out of curiosity, does anyone know what a safe voltage is for the NB on this board, with the stock NB heatsink? I see a lot of people recommending 1.51+, which seems pretty drastic for a non-overclocked system.

Originally Posted by ANZAC_ELITE

Good luck mate, I've given up, just bought a Foxconn Blackops.

As a side note:

Asus Tech Support has requested that I send (at my expense) my memory modules to them so they can test a P5E3 board with them.

Say what??

[Digitalfiend]

I just installed a Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme to get my CPU temps under control (70+C in Prime95/OCCT from two of the four cores @ stock speeds). Instead of idling at 39C-27C-36C-36C, the system now idles at 30C-26C-30C-30C. The best part is that under load, the system barely breaks 44C, versus 72C. I suspect the stock OEM cooler wasn't seated very well or something but I'm starting to wonder if that could account for some of my issues while playing games with 8GB installed.

It'll be interesting to see what happens now.

[ANZAC_ELITE]

The extreme is a top grade cooler, did you check the base for flatness? I had to lap mine as it was very convex.

Which thermal compound did you use?

The oem coolers themselves are actually OK providing you can get the mounting system to work correctly, I would suggest that one (or more) of the push pins had released giving you elevated temps.

I'm still having problems with 4*1GB modules even with the new board, testing in progress at present running Memtest86+ v2.01.

Bad memory is about the only possibility left.

[Digitalfiend]

Originally Posted by ANZAC_ELITE

The extreme is a top grade cooler, did you check the base for flatness? I had to lap mine as it was very convex.

It seemed pretty flat, though I didn't put it on a piece of glass to check or anything. It seems to be doing one hell of a job though. The base wasn't mirror like and I could definitely see some machining marks but I didn't want to get into lapping the base.

Originally Posted by ANZAC_ELITE

Which thermal compound did you use?

I used Arctic Cooling MX-2. I had some AS5 kicking around but I've always been concerned about its potential for causing a short if it got onto the mobo, etc.

Originally Posted by ANZAC_ELITE

I'm still having problems with 4*1GB modules even with the new board, testing in progress at present running Memtest86+ v2.01.

Bad memory is about the only possibility left.

I was shocked yesterday when I got a BSOD in Fallout 3 while running 2*2GB modules. I've upped the DRAM voltage to 1.78 (from 1.74) and will see if it is stable. If that fails, I'm going to swap the other 2*2GB modules in and give that a shot at 1.74v. The only time I get a blue screen is when playing games and it doesn't happen very often (even with 8GB installed), though the bug checks do point to the memory system.

The most annoying thing is that my wife's machine is running 4*2GB modules (exact same memory and motherboard) and it is rock stable at 1.78v and 7-7-7-20/1333 settings. I didn't even have to disable "static read" or fiddle with NB settings. Argh. Very frustrating.

[ANZAC_ELITE]

Lapping isn't that hard, it gained me ~5°C iirc

MX-2 is my compound of choice too, love the stuff.

I sympathise with the frustration of the memory configuration, I hope you can make some progress, I have a result with mine

My memory issue turns out to be a bad dual channel kit, more detail and memtest fail pic here

[Digitalfiend]

I finally got around to installing the other 4 GB again and this time decided to try a little more voltage in the DIMMs. My BIOS settings are now:

Memory Frequency: 1333
Memory Voltage: 1.84v (previously 1.78v)
Timings: 7, 7, 7, 20
TRFC: 82
NB voltage: Auto
Static Read: Disabled
Static Write: Disabled
PL: 7

I ran MemTest for 2 passes, Prime95 for 14 hours (including browsing, copying data, and listening to music while running Prime). I've been able to play games for hours at a time now and, best of all, have been successfully able to create/install 4 VMs (which is the primary reason for 8 GB). The computer has been heavily used for a week now and - cross my fingers - appears to be stable.

I would hazard a guess that I could even re-enable Static Read/Write and it would still be OK. It looks like I had to pump 0.06 more volts through the RAM than on my wife's machine but this could be due to processor differences, etc.

Either way, if this holds up I'll be very happy. :)

[ANZAC_ELITE]

That's a good result mate, glad to see you got it sorted, fingers crossed that it holds.

I ended up clocking my 1375MHz memory to 1600MHz at 1.725V, this allows me to run 4.0GHz at 400*10 with a 1:4 divider, instant stability, running 7-7-7-20-2N, PL: 7, TRFC 60 (on the Black Ops)

I believe my problem was the old divider, 1:2.665 with a 500MHz FSB x 8 multi.

At 333MHz FSB x 10 multi and a 1:4 divider everything was fine but I wanted 4.0GHz

[Scuzzy2010]

I constantly had blue screens on Windows 7 and applications randomly crashing after I added another 2x2GB to the motherboard (bringing the total to 8 GB). Initially I thought the new modules were faulty and was ready to send them back, but I though I'll test some more, so I took all the modules out and put in only the new ones in the first two available slots. The systems ran fine on that so it ruled out faulty modules. After the put back the old ones into slots 3 and 4, the blue screens came back.

After hunting around the net, I came across the solution, which was to reduce the RAM speed to 1066 from 1333 (it was either that or increase the voltage, but I would rather not play the with voltage setting as it may affect the CPU and motherboard stablity). After that, the system became stable and I haven't had any problems in the last 24 hours running on 8 GB.

I am using all Corsair TW3X4G1333C9 2x2GB DDR3-1333 CL9 modules on GIGABYTE GA-EP45T-UD3LR motherboard and Q8400.

Hope this helps!