Hi, I'll spit this into two parts. A quick question, and then a longer query if you don't mind reading a bit:
First, my memory (OCZ3P1333LV4GK) is rated at 1333 7-7-7-20 1.65V. Set these stock timings up (actually 1.64V in the BIOS), which actaully proved unstable (OCCT failed after 50 minutes). Noticed the motherboard AUTO base clock was 136.7, so I locked this to manual 133. This seems to have stabilised the RAM, all other settings are the same. As a test, I dropped the memory voltage to 1.60volts, which with the AUTO base clock instantly errors in Prime95 every time. Locked the base clock back to 133 and it survived for almost an hour before erroring.
Is this normal that only a few extra MHz can make that much difference? I presume a small increase in voltage may stabilise the ram at 1367MHz, but I don't want to push outside the recommended limits.
As a note, memtest86+ v4.0 passes every time, even at timings/voltage settings that I know will fail Prime95/OCCT instantly.
ok, and now for the longer query:
I've been testing stability and memory timings without the video drivers installed (using Win7 64bit default drivers), as I've previously been getting a lot of graphics card VPU recovers and random crashing at idle (strangely, not when gaming). This may have been a symptom of my system being unstable, which is why I'm getting it all working before I move on to diagnosing the video card.
I originally had a Corsair HX450W PSU, but since that's pushing it for the Core i5 and 5850, I upgraded to a Corsair HX650W PSU. That's the point when I started getting ramdom freezing, from the very first boot! (i.e. nothing responds, except a hard reset). I hadn't had a single freeze with the 450W, just the VPU recover messages. I have no idea why my system seems more tempremental with the new PSU, perhaps it's just subtle voltage differences.
Before the PSU upgrade, I had been running my memory on auto bios settings (1066MHz, 7-7-7-19 1.5V), and whilst the timings seem fine, I think the voltage was just too low. Perhaps that made it worse over time?
Another possibility is the CPU socket having bent pins. Seeing as I spent such a long time getting a neat and tidy build, I'm reluctant to start pulling out all the components to get at the CPU. And I need some more thermal compound if I do so! I really don't know if my problems could be related to this?
First, my memory (OCZ3P1333LV4GK) is rated at 1333 7-7-7-20 1.65V. Set these stock timings up (actually 1.64V in the BIOS), which actaully proved unstable (OCCT failed after 50 minutes). Noticed the motherboard AUTO base clock was 136.7, so I locked this to manual 133. This seems to have stabilised the RAM, all other settings are the same. As a test, I dropped the memory voltage to 1.60volts, which with the AUTO base clock instantly errors in Prime95 every time. Locked the base clock back to 133 and it survived for almost an hour before erroring.
Is this normal that only a few extra MHz can make that much difference? I presume a small increase in voltage may stabilise the ram at 1367MHz, but I don't want to push outside the recommended limits.
As a note, memtest86+ v4.0 passes every time, even at timings/voltage settings that I know will fail Prime95/OCCT instantly.
ok, and now for the longer query:
I've been testing stability and memory timings without the video drivers installed (using Win7 64bit default drivers), as I've previously been getting a lot of graphics card VPU recovers and random crashing at idle (strangely, not when gaming). This may have been a symptom of my system being unstable, which is why I'm getting it all working before I move on to diagnosing the video card.
I originally had a Corsair HX450W PSU, but since that's pushing it for the Core i5 and 5850, I upgraded to a Corsair HX650W PSU. That's the point when I started getting ramdom freezing, from the very first boot! (i.e. nothing responds, except a hard reset). I hadn't had a single freeze with the 450W, just the VPU recover messages. I have no idea why my system seems more tempremental with the new PSU, perhaps it's just subtle voltage differences.
Before the PSU upgrade, I had been running my memory on auto bios settings (1066MHz, 7-7-7-19 1.5V), and whilst the timings seem fine, I think the voltage was just too low. Perhaps that made it worse over time?
Another possibility is the CPU socket having bent pins. Seeing as I spent such a long time getting a neat and tidy build, I'm reluctant to start pulling out all the components to get at the CPU. And I need some more thermal compound if I do so! I really don't know if my problems could be related to this?