Strange ram problem.

Soldato
Joined
30 Jul 2004
Posts
10,573
Location
East Sussex, UK
Howzit Guys,

My friend recently bought some decent ram for his machine. But we're worried that it isn't running at full speed.

Here's his system Specs:

Asus -P5K Delux Wifi - Motherboard
Quad Core QX6850
Crucial Ballistix Tracers 2 x 1GB sticks. These are 1066 chips.
GFX: ( If it matters ) GTX 280.

However in CPU-Z we're getting these readings. PC2-6400...me thinks ram is at wrong speed, right?

CPU-Z.jpg


Any help is, as always appreciated! :cool::D
 
He will need to change the settings in the BIOS for them, as even although they are 1066 sticks you can run them below specification.

If he wants to run them at 1066, he needs to set them to 533fsb clock (533 x 2 = 1066) and of course use the appropriate timings and voltage as stated above. He will also most likely have to have them unlinked (not a direct 1:1) ratio with the cpu
 
Here the other screen shots. Why does his Core speed read so low? Is this that Thermal throttling Intel have?

Capture3-1.jpg

Capture2-1.jpg
 
Thermal throttling is if the CPU is too hot and overheating, that appears to be SpeedStep (lowering the cpu voltage and multiplier) whilst sitting idle. Can be disabled in the BIOS but unless he's doing heavy overclocking or wants his cpu constantly at full pelt voltage wise its safe to leave it.

The ram runs at the specified timings per speed as above, pretty sure thats what the EPP/SPD on them stipulate. The slower the frequency the tighter the timings and vice versa
 
So, how can I get the speed to show 533 or correct ones?

Sorry I am not really ofay with Intel boards, Always been AMD man. ( Although I now have a nice P35-DQ6. :D )

Thanks for the help! :)
 
His motherboard manual should have a relatively simple enough explanation on memory settings within its BIOS.

What motherboard does he have? Oh and for the record, his CPU automatically adjusts, if it sits idle it will underclock itself but when load is called for it goes straight back to full speed. So if he wants to save power, heat etc hes perfectly fine to keep it setup as it is.
 
His board is a Asus -P5K Delux Wifi.

He doesn't have a manual for it. Also, he doesn't know much. But he does know the BIOS. Just not all of the options within it.

I appreciate your help bud :)
 
Ah sorry i missed that bit in the first post, had a look at the manual for it and it just lists the options but doesn't explain them.

His best bet would be to download a pdf of it from ASUS's website and have a read through then read one of the overclocking guides kicking about on here/other forums which will explain in depth how everything relates and can be changed
 
It will run at 533, there is something in the bios that has set it to run at 400, if you look its at a ratio of 5:6, To run at a 1:1 direct ratio it would actually need to be set at 333mhz, to match the cpu and fsb clock. He will need to go in and change it, ive got my new asus p5q deluxe sitting next to me and according to this (if its the same BIOS setup, which it usually is as ASUS have always been similar between each other) it should be in the "AI Tweaker" options listed as "DRAM Frequency" change it to manual mode and set it "DDR2 1066MHz", it should be reading as DDR2 800MHz at the minute.

Once he sets that, the timings SHOULD stay the same but they are probably set to auto and might increase themselves so he should set them to 5-5-5-15-30-2T (as per EPP profile for 533mhz settings in your above screenshot).

He should also check that the voltage is the same as above in the EPP profile, as that will be set to AUTO also.
 
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