Need advice from the clever clogs... Please :)

Buchanan0204 · 23 Jan 2011 at 02:28

Hi guys,

I'm after a little bit of advice. I've put together a system using a
Gigabyte H55M-UD2H, i3 540 and Geils 1600Mhz 4GB kit.

I've never worked on a system with this new technology before. The BIOS was such a shock to me, what happened to the good old FSB. Life was much simpler then

I have never worked on a DDR3 system or anything beyond my current rig. Basically I am looking to confirm I have setup the BIOS correctly, as there were a tonne of settings and values to input.

The RAM was set to 1333Mhz by default, I knew this would be the case, although I wasn't sure how to go about it. Anyway, I upped the "BCLK" to 160 and lowered the multiplier to 19. This gave me the 1600Mhz I was after on the RAM and lowered my i3 back to 3.04Ghz (3.07Ghz Stock)

Also when in the Ram settings there is Channels A & B. I presume this is for Dimms 1-3 and 2-4? I manually set channel A to 9-9-9-28 as stated on the Geil RAM. It was by default 9-9-9-24
The RAM voltage was on auto at 1.5V, it's rated between 1.4-1.6. I just left this on Auto as middle of the road seemed fine to me.

I never touched the "Advanced A Timing Control" I have no experience with these values and was unsure, so left all on Auto.

I never found an XMP profile in the BIOS. Must not support it.

I updated to the latest F11 BIOS. I also disabled all the power saving facilities that reduce vcore and frequency, for all you would save on the electricity bill anyway. I hope this is alright to do? I know I disable speedstep on my X38 board.

Basically I am just looking for re assurance that this is the correct way of making the RAM run at it's rated speed. Something is niggling away at me telling me this isn't the correct way to do it.

Anyway, if the likes of "Stulid" or "CMNDR_ANDI" want to give me some words of wisdom it would be greatly appreciated.

P.S what's with all the complicated settings, thing's used to be so much simpler, a FSB, multiplier, enter the ram timings, adjust the voltage on the ram and cpu and away you go. Now it's like launching a space shuttle.

Thank's again in advance to those who can offer any advice, much appreciated.

I forgot to mention. Windows 7 user experience index only gives the ram a score of 5.9. I know it's a really poor benchmark utility and should be taking with a pinch of salt. However my Corsair Dominatoe DDR2 at 1066Mhz scores significantly higher at 7.3. Surely DDR3 RAM at 1600Mhz should slaughter that? Am I wrong? (again)

stulid · 23 Jan 2011 at 02:32

put the bclk back to standard, and use a memory divider to get the ram to 1600mhz.

Buchanan0204 · 23 Jan 2011 at 02:45

stulid said:
put the bclk back to standard, and use a memory divider to get the ram to 1600mhz.

ahh you're awake. Brilliant

I've been looking through the mobo manual for the best part of an hour. Where do I find the memory divider?

stulid · 23 Jan 2011 at 02:52

give me a few minutes to get win7 and sp1 reinstalled, using phone at the moment.

Buchanan0204 · 23 Jan 2011 at 02:54

stulid said:
give me a few minutes to get win7 and sp1 reinstalled, using phone at the moment.

No probs. I was reading the thread on SP1 earlier today. What's your thoughts?

stulid · 23 Jan 2011 at 03:01

saves a huge amount of windows updates, its all wrapped up in one package, pc feels better too.

Buchanan0204 · 23 Jan 2011 at 03:03

Cool. I'll wait till the official release personally. Any new features or addons?

... Memory divider, I can't see it anywhere in the BIOS?

Just realised you may still be on the phone... sorry!

stulid · 23 Jan 2011 at 03:09

adjust the yellow arrow untill the red arrow says 1600

Buchanan0204 · 23 Jan 2011 at 03:13

stulid said:
adjust the yellow arrow untill the red arrow says 1600

I don't have that top option in my list. I start at "System Memory Multiplier"

stulid · 23 Jan 2011 at 03:15

thats what the yellow arrow is suppose to point at, my paint skills clearly fail

try a setting of 12

Buchanan0204 · 23 Jan 2011 at 03:16

There's a snap of my BIOS if it helps.

Buchanan0204 · 23 Jan 2011 at 03:17

stulid said:
thats what the yellow arrow is suppose to point at, my paint skills clearly fail

try a setting of 12

Ah right lol. It only goes upto "10" and that sets the ram at 1333Mhz.

Buchanan0204 · 23 Jan 2011 at 03:18

stulid · 23 Jan 2011 at 03:22

does going into advanced frequency settings, and altering extreme memory profile(X.M.P) allow you to go higher?

is the same memory multiplier option there too?

Buchanan0204 · 23 Jan 2011 at 03:24

stulid said:
does going into advanced frequency settings, and altering extreme memory profile(X.M.P) allow you to go higher?

I don't have an XMP option in "advanced frequency settings"

stulid · 23 Jan 2011 at 03:26

does enabling the "BLCK control" open up new options?

Buchanan0204 · 23 Jan 2011 at 03:27

stulid · 23 Jan 2011 at 03:31

system memory multiplier [AUTO], what are the options when set to manual?

Buchanan0204 · 23 Jan 2011 at 03:31

Enabling doesn't do allow anything else unfortunately.

stulid · 23 Jan 2011 at 03:35

I think then that the motherboard probably doesnt allow much overcloking then.

set the BCLK to 160

memory multiplier to maximum of 10 (160X10 = 1600)

set cpu clock ratio to 20 giving 3200mhz, so a tiny overclock

and the performance enhance from turbo back to whatever it was.