AM2 and 800Mhz DDR2

mrochester · 12 Aug 2006 at 23:05

Is there a known problem running DDR2 RAM at 800Mhz in a socket AM2 platform? I ask because the only way I can get the RAM from my friends PC to work is by dropping the RAM speed in the BIOS to 677. At 800, the PC either doesn't work at all, or spits out various error messages when trying to install Windows. I've had a look through the BIOS for any ram voltage settings, but couldn't see any. It is an Asus M2N-E motherboard.

Regards,

Michael.

Minstadave · 12 Aug 2006 at 23:16

Have you tried setting the command rate to 2T?

What RAM are you using?

mrochester · 12 Aug 2006 at 23:20

The RAM is the GSkill 2Gb DDR2 PC6400 stuff. I haven't tried lowering the command rate, but I certainly will (it was set to auto in the BIOS).

Minstadave · 12 Aug 2006 at 23:22

mrochester said:
The RAM is the GSkill 2Gb DDR2 PC6400 stuff. I haven't tried lowering the command rate, but I certainly will (it was set to auto in the BIOS).

I think AM2 struggles with 1T at higher speeds, but I could be wrong, I'm not properly upto speed with DDR2 yet.

Jokester · 12 Aug 2006 at 23:25

I didn't have any issues with my DDR upto 550MHz on AM2, my bet would be on the voltage being wrong, there should be an option in there to manually set it I would have thought, on the same page as the Vcore option?

Jokester

james32 · 12 Aug 2006 at 23:47

what cpu do you have?
if your using a single core athlon you wont get ddr 800

AM2 FX-62 DDR2-800 or DDR2-1066 (PC2-6400 - PC2-8500)

AM2 Dual Core X2 DDR2-667 or 800 (PC2-5300 or PC2-6400)

AM2 Athlon 64 DDR2-533 or 667 (PC2-4200 or PC2-5300)

AM2 Sempron DDR2-533 or 667 (PC2-4200 or PC2-5300)

mrochester · 13 Aug 2006 at 00:27

Hi for some reason I didn't get an email saying there were more replies...

It's an X2 3800+ so it should be able to support the 800Mhz RAM. I've had a look in the BIOS and the board defaults to 2t command rate, so still no go at 800Mhz. All is totally fine at 677mhz, but clearly that's not good enough since this stuff is supposed to be able to run at 800. I'll have a hunt around for some voltage settings, but I couldn't see any before. The OCUK description for the GSkill says 1.9-2volts for this particularl RAM.

mrochester · 13 Aug 2006 at 00:50

Found the ram voltage option in the bios and jacked this up from Auto to 1.95. Still won't run at 800Mhz.

james32 · 13 Aug 2006 at 01:23

bios update
iam sure i read that someone had to update bios to get
ddr 800 to work

mrochester · 13 Aug 2006 at 01:33

I'll certainly try a BIOS update, but the latest one only mentions supporting extra CPUs as the update, no mention of RAM.

mrochester · 13 Aug 2006 at 01:50

I'm pleased to report that a bios update seems to have fixed it up nicely

Many thanks.

james32 · 13 Aug 2006 at 19:35

yes the new cpu's was problay for your athlon X2 to run
@ ddr 800 and fx60 to run @ 1066

Jokester · 13 Aug 2006 at 19:39

Regardless of the CPU, you can overclock the FSB to whatever speed and reduce the CPU multiplier if required.

Jokester