After building

nwgilbert

nwgilbert

nwgilbert

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Joined
14 May 2015
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162
I've just built my first PC shown below:

•Intel Quad-Core i7-4790K
•MSI R9 390 8GB
•EVGA Super NOVA 850W PC Power Supply - Gold
•Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7 Intel LGA1150 Z97 ATX Motherboard (4x DDR3, 6x USB3.0, 6x USB2.0, HDMI, DVI-I, DSUB)
•Crucial BX100 250 GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal Solid State Drive
•WD 1TB 3.5 inch Internal Hard Drive - Caviar Blue
•Alpenfhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler 120 mm
•NZXT H440 Mid Tower Case with Side Window and 4 Quiet Fans for PC - White/Black
•Team Group TLRED316G2400HC11CDC01 - TeamGroup Vulcan RED 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual
•Dell UltraSharp U2515H 25" 2560x1440 60Hz Monitor
•Windows 10 Pro


I am just curious if there is anything I need to do in terms of bios and drivers.

I have obviously installed my motherboard drivers (included on the disk), graphics drivers and monitor drivers but a while back someone mentioned to me about setting an XMP Profile in the bios for the ram (please see model above). Do I need to do this and if so how? My other question would be is there any other bios settings or any other adjustments I should make? Please note, I do not currently plan on overclocking.

Generally my motherboard has come up with the 'AO' code which has been said to represent 'All Okay', although earlier today it showed '04' and I have no idea what this means? Does anyone know in respect to this mobo?

One last question... it would be nice to do a physical check on all the hardware. Is there some software I can use that will check and give me results on all my hardware within one interface?

Any general advice is welcome too!
 
I have had the Gigabyte Z97X-SLI for 4 weeks along with the same ram as you. I have had 1 system hang and one "memory management issue" in that time (both on the desktop). I had a solid week of gaming without issues initially too.

I didn't realise that my mobo had the DRAM set to 1.5v, and the RAM needs between 1.55-1.65v, so I have manually set it to 1.56v (lowest in range option available). It's only been 2 days so hard to tell if this has fixed the problem.

*edit* with regards to the XMP profile, I think this is for overclocking purposes but would like to know either way though as I haven't enabled this on mine. I don't plan to overclock my CPU yet.
 
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I don't even know how to do that or check what my mobo has the dram set to? Are you or someone able to help with that - I'm a newbie when it comes to bios..
 
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Frequency tab > Set Extreme Memory profile (XMP) to Enabled > Save and Exit (click whatever is needed there to save BIOS and reload/exit).

Then go back to BIOS, and inspect the Memory Status on the left for Frequency and voltage.
 
Okay thank you. What frequency and voltage am I looking for? I assume I shouldn't worry - XMP will set this correctly as though its an automatic over clock? Tell me if I'm wrong?

Can this effect the life of the ram or any other components around it?
And will I really benefit from this XMP profile if I wasn't to over clock anything else?

One more thing, are there any other simple automatic OC's I could benefit from?
 
nwgilbert said:
Okay thank you. What frequency and voltage am I looking for? I assume I shouldn't worry - XMP will set this correctly as though its an automatic over clock? Tell me if I'm wrong?

Can this effect the life of the ram or any other components around it?
And will I really benefit from this XMP profile if I wasn't to over clock anything else?

One more thing, are there any other simple automatic OC's I could benefit from?
Click to expand...

They're all good questions, mate. Thing with RAM frequency is it's hard to say how much benefit, as it will depend on the application. Much of the time there's hardly any benefit in running @ 1600 or 2400MHz.

What it will do is run the memory at its rated speed (2400MHz) which you (presumably) bought it for. And it will certainly help in benchmarks. Maybe give you 1-2 extra FPS in some games.

So you'd be looking for 2400MHz and (I'm guessing) 1.65v. Yes, XMP should set this automatically.

Can it affect the life of the RAM? Think of it like a car that has a "sweet range" of 75-100kph, for example. You can drive it at 75kph if you're really bothered about getting the maximum life from it, but 100kph is still within its rated sweet range. This is similar to using 1.5v or 1.65v for memory. As long as you don't exceed 1.65v, it's fine.

Ultimately, my advice is - go with what your own experience indicates to you and what you feel comfortable with. Switch between 1600MHz/1.5v and 2400MHz/1.65v (i.e. XMP), and you decide.

As for other simple overclocks... I wouldn't bother really, unless you became interested in finding the max frequency your CPU or GPU can be stable at. Because 4.4GHz (Turbo) is a very nice speed already.
 
I am a totally newb with UEFI as I have never used it before (I used the old bios menu to setup my system). I have finally figured how to get in to the screen you posted above. I can see with my setup it changes the DRAM voltage to 1.65v when using the XMP option. It is strange that on defaults it detects it as 1.5v though, when the range is 1.55v - 1.65v.
 
Ok thanks @Danny75 appreciate the advice. I will give XMP a ride! Away from gaming, I use a lot of adobe software so the extra bit of memory speed could even benefit that.

So now I'm seeing the '04' displayed on the LED lighting of my mobo again..
Still unsure as to what this means - anyone have any idea?
 
nwgilbert said:
Ok thanks @Danny75 appreciate the advice. I will give XMP a ride! Away from gaming, I use a lot of adobe software so the extra bit of memory speed could even benefit that.

So now I'm seeing the '04' displayed on the LED lighting of my mobo again..
Still unsure as to what this means - anyone have any idea?
Click to expand...

Could be to do with sleep states. If you disable hibernation (advisable for your SSD anyway - more room and less writes) and sleep (set to never - prevents some issues that still affect PC's) you should only see AO from now on. The former is more important than the latter. Do the former first anyway, then if needed you can turn off sleep too. Or just ignore the code if it still shows.
 
Okay, that is a little reassuring. Although I have disabled hibernation and sleep already.. probably one of the first things I did once I had installed Windows 10.
 
nwgilbert said:
Okay, that is a little reassuring. Although I have disabled hibernation and sleep already.. probably one of the first things I did once I had installed Windows 10.
Click to expand...

No idea then, sorry. Did find this though:

https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?...om4aolta70&topic=170327.msg1259892#msg1259892

Different motherboard and brand but might be related. A Clear CMOS or BIOS update may help.

Also newest Intel Rapid Storage/Management Engine drivers. Grab the latest from the Gigabyte website for your motherboard and OS.
 
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Humm it was an interesting read but no one really diagnosed the problem.
I'll give the Bios all an update through the Gigabyte website and do a clear CMOS.
I will let you know I get on..
 
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