Bios setting advice on OCZ Reaper Ram

Rev Wright · 25 Nov 2008 at 23:52

Over the last three months I've been having serious issues with my first build. The machine began failing to post after I overclocked the FSB from 266 to 350. It was stable in several tests including OCCT but after replacing the motherboard, testing the other components and scouring forums it appears that the ASUS range of boards requires precise bios settings for the ram to enable the post sequence to run without interuption.

I'd be grateful if anyone can advise what bios settings I can use for the ram?

Vista Home Premium
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
Asus Rampage Formula
4 x 1GB OCZ PC2-8500 Reaper HPC Edition
Tuniq Tower 120
BFG NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS OC 512MB PCIe 2.0
Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 650W
Samsung SpinPoint - 250GB
Samsung SpinPoint - 750GB
Antec P182
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi extreme Gamer

Nitristion · 26 Nov 2008 at 09:39

Nudge the RAM voltages up to around 2.0-2.2, possibly nudge the nb volts up 0.1

Dicehunter · 26 Nov 2008 at 16:07

Currently i have my ram V set at 1.8v, try that as i had similiar issues and its now rock solid.

Reality|Bites · 26 Nov 2008 at 16:57

Sometimes Asus and OCZ don't mix well. Which I don't really understand, as most of the time the only difference between each manufacturer is the heatspreader used. They all mostly use the same PCB's and IC's

Rev Wright · 27 Nov 2008 at 00:32

Thanks for the advice so far. I'll be trying some adjustments tomorrow

gordan · 27 Nov 2008 at 00:52

My experience on Asus boards is limited to the Maximus Extreme (DDR3), but here goes:
1) FSB up to 400MHz is fine at minimum VTT (1.20V). At 450 FSB you will probably need to up that to 1.40V.
2) PLL at minimum (1.50V) is fine for as far as an average Q6600 will go, usually about 425-450MHz. If you need to up the PLL voltage, you're pushing too far, as you're in the top 1-2% of speed you're likely to get, so stick with what you an get at 1.50V
3) NB (X38) is good for 450FSB at 1.49V with 4x DDR3 DIMMs at 1500MHz. My RAM is Patriot, and rated for 7-7-7-18@1600MHz, but this seems downright impossible to achieve with 4 DIMMs, and even for 8-8-8-21@1500MHz required a voltage bump on the RAM to 2.20V (rated for 1.80V!!!). But this will vary depending on your RAM, nothing to do with anything else.
4) SB voltages can be at minimum, the only time you'll need to bump those up is if you try to overclock the PCIe bus, but that seems to yield no performance benefits at all, and the possibility of data corruption is very high since SB is the SATA controller. So don't bother.

So, to summarize, the only voltages that actually help seem to be: Core, VTT, NB, RAM.

GTL refs that work best for me on the 3rd setting from the bottom on the Maximis Extreme, but I cannot remember for the life of me what they actually are. IIRC, one of them only has 4 settings, so 3rd from the bottom is 2nd from the top. You'll definitely need to tweak those if you are aiming for 400+MHz FSB.

One of my friends has a Maximus Formula (basically the same as Maximus Extreme only with DDR2), and his optimal settings (apart from RAM timings/speed/voltages) are pretty much identical to mine.

HTH

Rev Wright · 27 Nov 2008 at 12:59

I have got the PC up and running today, with a FSB of 350Mhz. I've set the Ram voltage to 1.8 after initially trying 2.0.

As I gradually raised the FSB in Manual, I noted that the RAM Mhz kept changing to a higher value, even though I had it set in manual. This caused the overclock to fail. I kept re-adjusting this back to an optimum for the sticks and it seems to be running fairly stable. I will run some tests later, although my idle temps are now (43, 37, 34, 35), slightly higher than before. I suspect that this is due to all the handling and working on components has compromised the seating of the heatsink a little. Will address this matter once I'm happy with bios settings.

Thanks again for the replies so far

Rev Wright · 2 Dec 2008 at 12:01

Horror story

The computer ran fine for 3 days and then started to play up with posting. I adjusted the Ram voltage from 1.8 to 2.0, in case it was this. But no

I cleared CMOS, nope

I pulled RAM and reseated, yes. Adjusted BIOS,no post

I cleared CMOS again

I pulled RAM and reseated, yes, kept tried adjusting BIOS, no post

clear CMOS again, reseat RAM, no post

any advice?

is it my RAM?

Pneumonic · 2 Dec 2008 at 13:27

X48 boards have linked multipliers so as you raise the FSB the RAM speed also increases... You will need to set the RAM to the manufactures recomended voltage which I think is 2.2v (although worth checking), also running 4 sticks you will probably need more NB voltage 1.45v should be enough, you may need to increase your FSB Termination Voltage as well.

Edit:
Its also worth seting your FSB to Northbridge to 333mhz or 400mhz

Rev Wright · 2 Dec 2008 at 16:33

thanks for the response

I've tried the settings, although I'm unsure what to raise the FSB Termination Voltage from or to. I played with the settings a couple of times, with post failures each time.

I tried setting the FSB to Northbridge to 333mhz or 400mhz but it then changed the DRAM frequency to levels that were either too high or low. Only at a setting of 200mhz did I get 1067mhz for the ram

I've now cleared the CMOS, but its not posting yet.

Would the Ram be giving me such issues with posting as the LCD poster never gets off CPU INIT?

Rev Wright · 8 Jan 2009 at 12:04

OK, I'm back

I RMA'd the memory and PCU. The PCU came back after passing tests and the ram was changed from 4 x 1GB sticks to 2 x 2GB sticks of OCZ Reaper 85000 ram ddr2

I assembled teh machien and it posted first time. This was monday 5th Jan.

Since then the regularity of posting has fallen. It took over 20 attempts to get the machine to post.

I have not been overclocking or adjusting the bios on the machine and have left it on Auto settings throughout

any advice?