Can't overclock with 4 sticks of memory in a GA-EX58-UD3r

[Poohbear]

Basic info
Mobo: Gigabyte EX58-UD3R (Bios not upgraded since I brought it)
PSU: Corsair 650W
Video: ATI 2 * HD 5770

I have an old Titan system (Intel Core i7 920 2.66Ghz D0 Overclocked to 3.40GHz) which only had 6GB (3x2GB) of memory.
I have now brought some
Corsair Vengeance Blue 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual/Quad Channel Kit (CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9B)
( http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-309-CS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat= )


Now the first thing I changed when I added the new memory was to lower the RAM voltage from 1.65 to 1.5

Now if I run my system with just 3 of the new memory sticks it runs fine overclocked. (Note I have also swap the memory sticks about and it still runs fine)

If I add the 4th stick the system backs off and changes the BCLK down to 133 from 170 and the memory speed to 1066Mhz.

So does anyone know how I can run overclocked at 3.4 with 4 memory sticks ?


Many thanks in advanced

Stezza

 

[setter]

Why did you buy a dual channel kit, when you have a triple channel motherboard. Your board requires 3 sticks, (minimum) of matched ddr3, most ram for x58 needs 1.65v. The kit you bought is not ideal for your x58 setup.

 

[bhavv]

First time I've heard of anything like this for X58, I've had no problems overclocking either my X58-UD5 and R3E to 200 BCLK with 12 or 24 Gb.

You should have asked for advice before getting more ram, the best thing to have done in your case would have been a second triple channel kit running with your previous kit.

 

[Nightglow]

First thing I would do is update bios to F11 released 2010/03/12, one change it has is Enhanced memory compatibility.

Secondly I had the same board, rev 1.0, it only supports 4 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM (Dual/ 3 channel) sockets supporting up to 16 GB of
system memory.

bhavv: The board only has four memory slots.

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=2989#sp

 

[Poohbear]

Why did you buy a dual channel kit, when you have a triple channel motherboard. Your board requires 3 sticks, (minimum) of matched ddr3, most ram for x58 needs 1.65v. The kit you bought is not ideal for your x58 setup.

It's dual\quad kit, QUAD meaning 4. The motherboard in question fully supports 1.5v memory and using memory of a lower voltage gives you headroom if you require any extra juice.

First thing I would do is update bios to F11 released 2010/03/12, one change it has is Enhanced memory compatibility.

Secondly I had the same board, rev 1.0, it only supports 4 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM (Dual/ 3 channel) sockets supporting up to 16 GB of
system memory.

bhavv: The board only has four memory slots.

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=2989#sp

I did not update the BIOS due to not wanting to void any warranty issues, however thinking about the warranty will out now so I will look into this fully, thanks.


NOTE: I did back off the system to defaults and enabled the XMP however the system just beeped rapidly and then rebooted in the safe mode bios (basic)....




Regards
Stezza

 

[banger9365]

i upgraded my memory for a ex58-ud5 and got the silly bleeping with a C1 error on the board ,the way i got round it was to reset the bios the old way ,then it started to play how it should

 

[Orcvader]

It's dual\quad kit, QUAD meaning 4.

You serious right? It doesn't matter how many sticks you have, what really determines the mode it runs in is the memory controller itself. The memory controller on the i7 can only run on triple channel max, so with 4 sticks it can only run in dual channel (or single channel depending on how the board manufacturer wired the DIMM slots to the controller.

Since there are more sticks to deal, you may need to crank up the RAM voltage for the controller to be able to support this. I would up the voltage to 1.55v and see how it copes, and keep rising it up to 1.65v. 4 sticks could be one too many for the controller to handle at the standard 1.5v.

 

[Poohbear]

It's dual\quad kit, QUAD meaning 4.

You serious right? It doesn't matter how many sticks you have, what really determines the mode it runs in is the memory controller itself.

The point I was making was the kit was 4 sticks so for the guy to go on about having to have a minimum of 3 sticks was irrelevant etc..

The memory controller on the i7 can only run on triple channel max, so with 4 sticks it can only run in dual channel (or single channel depending on how the board manufacturer wired the DIMM slots to the controller.

This mother board with 4 sticks installed will run in Tri-Channel with 2 sticks having to share one channel.

I have tried up'ing the voltage, in-fact when I first installed the sticks the mobo was set to run the memory at 1.65v with no joy

Note the mobo runs just fine when it is not overclocked.

Also note I'm no hardware expect with regards to meaning of voltages to overclocking etc.

Thanks

 

[Justintime]

The fourth stick will be interleaved i think, so performance won't be quite as high as if you were using three identical sticks, better than dual channel i suppose still. However as i've never overclocked with 4 dimms for triple i can't really comment, except to say it probably introduces some extra complications to the mem controller etc.. that may be the reason it drops the speed down of the modules, its certainly not the ideal setup.

 

[Poohbear]

I've had a bit more time to play around and TBH I'm a little more confussed.

This is with all 4 sticks in...

I changed the BCLK to 133 as I knew that worked fine as that is what the motherboard is doing to start up after a failure.

However when I now up the BCLK I noticed the system is doing a warm boot!! so then the system can run at 3.4Ghz, tested this under CPU-Z and OCCT.

If I then cold boot my system it will fail and then start with BCLK 133, again if I change the bios it use 133 start the system and then change it to 170 the restart is a warm boot and it runs OK.

Any thoughts on that one?