What is fastest RAM for 680i SLI ?

Mark228 · 5 Jan 2009 at 02:24

A while ago I bought all my parts from OC and put my machine together and its working, although Ive always had problems with the ram not running at the proper speed :rolleyes:

I had bought 2 GIG 8500 of OCZ nVidia SLI-Ready memory thinking I may as well get something fast. Its rated at 1066 but the bios always keeps booting it automatically at 800mhz and now Ive had to take one stick out because I am getting beeping, and am in the process of RMA with OCZ.

My question is, which I have asked BFG twice in 2 weeks using their email support (and with no reply yet), does my mobo support this RAM? I had read that "With select SLI-Ready memory with EPP you get automatic access to special memory performance. So of course I bought the OCZ 8500 "SLI ready" ram. In fact I bought all nVidia compatible components at the time (board, card, ram)

But elsewhere I have now read that the board only takes PC2-3200, PC2-4300, PC2-6400, PC2-5300 ... could one of you kind OC compter geniuses please put me out of my misery and tell me if I have the wrong ram for my board please? Which is a BFG nForce 680i SLI.

Many thanks for any help or advice,

Mark

Mark228 · 5 Jan 2009 at 02:28

And if it isn't the correct RAM, which is the best/fastest RAm to get for this board (I want to upgrade to 4Gig). Or can I just keep using it and running it at 800mhz?

Mark228 · 5 Jan 2009 at 03:14

Just double checked and it says this at the BFG website (although I had to find the cached version of where it says it because they now seem to have removed the link to my exact board only showing the LT version).

Cached Link

"Extreme DDR2 speeds
NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI MCPs support high-speed SLI-Ready memory of DDR2-1200 and beyond to keep pace with overclocked system components. "

Comments ideas on what this means for my setup please?

Er MODS, move this to the RAM thread if its incorrect for here, I am not sure if this is a mobo or ram problem so stuck it here?

MeatLoaf · 5 Jan 2009 at 09:16

You just need to set the RAM/CPU thing to unlinked, then you can manually run your ram at 1066Mhz

Mark228 · 5 Jan 2009 at 09:31

MeatLoaf said:
You just need to set the RAM/CPU thing to unlinked, then you can manually run your ram at 1066Mhz

Hi thanks, yeah Ive done that but it kept resetting it because... just found out.. my nVidia control center profile was doing so everytime my pc boot up. At least i think that is what was happening. So this RAM is compatible with the board then (i.e. by setting it manually I'm not overloading something I shouldn't?)

MeatLoaf · 5 Jan 2009 at 09:50

It may be the 680i chipset because on my 680i board i cant run it at 1066Mhz as it bluescreens the system. I know its not the memory at fault as it ran great at 1066 on a different mobo

Mark228 · 5 Jan 2009 at 13:15

MeatLoaf said:
It may be the 680i chipset because on my 680i board i cant run it at 1066Mhz as it bluescreens the system. I know its not the memory at fault as it ran great at 1066 on a different mobo

Hmmm, well, the 1 stick seems to be running ok at 1066 at the moment, I have installed some updates but cant find whether I have the latest BIOS as BFG seem to have deleted my mobo from their site! And I can't find bios versions for BFG boards on nVidia site either, grrrrrrrr

Also I think I had tried the other stick on its own and that worked also.... maybe a problem with both sticks in there that has just started up? Not sure what that could be

jasonmorris · 5 Jan 2009 at 13:17

I had problems on this board with Dominator 8500 (2x2gb). Change the settings in the BIOS, reboot and it would just put them back

EPP didn't seem to work with 4 sticks.
Just left it to run @800 and it works fine with 8gb.

Mark228 · 5 Jan 2009 at 13:37

jasonmorris said:
I had problems on this board with Dominator 8500 (2x2gb). Change the settings in the BIOS, reboot and it would just put them back
EPP didn't seem to work with 4 sticks.
Just left it to run @800 and it works fine with 8gb.

What version OS were you using to get 8gig to work, Vista 64?

There is a profile thing in nVidia control panel where you can set rules upon bootup for most settings, I'm messing with that and it appears to be staying at 1066 now

Mark228 · 5 Jan 2009 at 13:41

MeatLoaf said:
It may be the 680i chipset because on my 680i board i cant run it at 1066Mhz as it bluescreens the system.

Out of curiosity, what voltage were you running the RAM at when you were getting the BCs ?

jasonmorris · 5 Jan 2009 at 15:15

I run XP (32bit) and Windows 2003 Server dual boot so having the 8gb for the server is great and useless for XP.

MeatLoaf · 5 Jan 2009 at 16:24

Mark228 said:
Out of curiosity, what voltage were you running the RAM at when you were getting the BCs ?

Tried it with 2.0 and 2.1v.

MeatLoaf · 5 Jan 2009 at 19:46

Well ive been playing again, and ive managed to get it stable at 1066Mhz.

Instead of running unlinked ive set it to linked with a 3:2 ratio, so the CPU runs at 3.6Ghz ( 400FSB ) and the RAM is now at 1066Mhz. Running fine at its stock timings of 6-6-6-18 for my HyperX stuff.

Mark228 · 5 Jan 2009 at 20:19

MeatLoaf said:
Well ive been playing again, and ive managed to get it stable at 1066Mhz.

Instead of running unlinked ive set it to linked with a 3:2 ratio, so the CPU runs at 3.6Ghz ( 400FSB ) and the RAM is now at 1066Mhz. Running fine at its stock timings of 6-6-6-18 for my HyperX stuff.

Interesting thanks, Ive been thinking about messing with those settings such as the FSB but havent a clue where to start to be honest, Ive never tried overclocking yet.

E6600 Dual Core
Ram as stated
plenty power
BFG 680i

btw BFG replied and said the following:

"I know that the motherboard requires a BIOS update to work with some of the
faster RAM speeds. I would recommend updating the BIOS on the motherboard to
P32 or P33.

I have not heard of any problems with that speed RAM running on the
motherboard. It will have no problems running 4Gb of RAM.

Thank you,
Tim S
BFG Support"

I'm sure I am on P32 but will have to check (will reboot now), do I update BIOS with the nVidia Update software ya think?

memphisto · 21 Jan 2009 at 08:36

hey mark ive got almost the same system as you except i have geil ram, did you manage to get this overclocked etc ?

Im currently running my e6600 at 356 * 9 = 3.2ghz so if you need anyhelp giv eme a shout

Mark228 · 21 Jan 2009 at 22:19

memphisto said:
hey mark ive got almost the same system as you except i have geil ram, did you manage to get this overclocked etc ?

Im currently running my e6600 at 356 * 9 = 3.2ghz so if you need anyhelp giv eme a shout

You may regret that offer! lol I have been having problems setting bios and stuff but would definitely like to start trying some overclocking. But need to get it stable at stock first! I have some new OCZ installed I bought while waiting to RMA the others. They have the 2.1volt sticker on though, unlike my others, not sure if this is a bad thing?

Anyway, I am getting BSOD every so often when I run them at full mhz :mad:

can't figure out why. If I Enable the SLI ready in bios the auto puts them at the 1066 (whereas my old bad ram got set to 800mhz :confused:

), or I could obviously do it in "Expert" and unlink etc. But if I disable the "SLI Ready" option and on auto it is putting my RAM as 666.7mhz, which is what I am running on at the moment until I figure out what the problem is. Not sure if it is the memory and can't handle how I have set it in BIOS at 1066, but am going to use at 666.7 for now to see if it stops the BSOD problem (I saved the tech info on them if anyone knows about that kind of stuff). Am running them at 2.1volt. Should I lower that you think, even though they are meant to be 2.1v ?

Also bought a RAM cooler that should be arriving soon as I definitely think this might be part of the problem. My two problems have been the 8800gts gfx (mostly drivers) and this RAM that the first two are definitely dead, with these new two playing up (maybe?) as well.... I must have something set wrong somewhere.

So what have you got your settings at and what did you change to overclock?

Mark228 · 21 Jan 2009 at 22:24

p.s. I am currently looking at how to upgrade BIOS to, is it P33 or something, as dont think mine is up to date, although I am SURE I DID update it.... but Tune-Up says it is version 6.00PG dated 09/04/2008?? I tried the Phoenix website but they want me to PAY for a bloody update ??? :mad:

Mark228 · 23 Jan 2009 at 08:29

memphisto said:
hey mark ive got almost the same system as you except i have geil ram, did you manage to get this overclocked etc ?

Im currently running my e6600 at 356 * 9 = 3.2ghz so if you need anyhelp giv eme a shout

What voltage and other settings did you change to get to 356 * 9 ?

Mark228 · 23 Jan 2009 at 08:43

Mark228 said:
p.s. I am currently looking at how to upgrade BIOS to, is it P33 or something, as dont think mine is up to date, although I am SURE I DID update it.... but Tune-Up says it is version 6.00PG dated 09/04/2008?? I tried the Phoenix website but they want me to PAY for a bloody update ???

Never mind, I DID update bios and it IS P33

Mark228 · 23 Jan 2009 at 08:46

MeatLoaf said:
Well ive been playing again, and ive managed to get it stable at 1066Mhz.

Instead of running unlinked ive set it to linked with a 3:2 ratio, so the CPU runs at 3.6Ghz ( 400FSB ) and the RAM is now at 1066Mhz. Running fine at its stock timings of 6-6-6-18 for my HyperX stuff.

OK would it be advisable for me to try this as well with my OCZ RAM and stated settings (2.1v ?), as I too am getting the BSOD when I try set the RAm to 1066? Did you ever see what temps the RAm was running at ?