A call to Giga DS3 owners with PQI Turbo Ram, others welcome too

And I thought I did my homework before buying parts... specifically, I saw many ppl running DS3 with PQI Turbo-667, bragging about great overclocks, etc. Well, my DS3 refuses to boot with this RAM unless I bump the voltage to 2.4 . The RAM simply cannot take it and about 15-25 minutes after bootup I get black screens, random reboots, etc. (Not that I stubbornly try to run the comp like that, but it happened a couple of times). I updated from F4 bios to the F7.

Can those of you with the same mobo+RAM combo post your bios version and your exact mem settings? I doubt I'm missing anything, but who knows. I'm quite desperate at this point... this has been going on for more than a month now, first mobo was DOA, then replacement not POSTing--had to order cheap 256mb Corsair stick (which ironically is flawlessly running as I type this--it also took 2.4V without flinching), but it seems that the problem is deeper than just adjusting the voltage.

Advice on what to exchange, RAM or mobo, and to what other brand, are also welcome, cause I have a bad feeling that I won't get this combo to work

er "Homework" does not mean reading and taking to heart all the crap in the forums about how "uber my machine is". This includes this piece of crap here.

My advice, get rid of that junk ram and get some Corsair and make sure its specifications say 1.8 or 1.9 volt.

You have updated the bios to the latest. Right ?

LOL by "homework" I meant I was sure the 2 were compatible. Yes, I have the latest stable bios, F7. I know there is F8i leaked out, but it's supposedly very raw still, so I didn't try that.

The thing is, the specs on this RAM say 2.0V for 667 4-4-4-12. I'm not sure that if I get another RAM brand the mobo will run it at default voltage either.

EDIT: honestly at this point I'd gladly exchange both, but I'm not sure newegg will look kindly at that, as the plan is to talk them out of the restocking fee

You might try contacting PQI, and see what they'll do for you.

I would probably RMA the memory myself and see if you get a different set that runs well with the DS3. Not sure what kind of ICC's are on that, but the DS3 has always had issues with the D9 Micron modules which are pretty common.

I had some PQI Turbo ram (ddr2 667 2x1Gb 4-4-4-12) when I first got the board.
It booted up fine and got me going with a mild overclock at first.

But I thought it was holding me back, so I bought some G.Skill ddr2 800 4-4-4-12 stuff, and while I could get a little higher, I think the newer BIOS revisions are what really help.

If you haven't already be sure to update to F7 bios (or later, supposedly F8 is coming out any day now).

I guess I'll try to RMA the memory then. Any recommendation on RAM that definitely doesn't use D9 chips? Because as I understand the chips used are not consistent among batches of ramsticks from the same manufacturer.

I also wrote an email to PQI, and I'll give them a call on Monday as well. I hope they do use e.g. Samsung chips as well, and I can just get a replacement.

but the DS3 has always had issues with the D9 Micron modules which are pretty common.

Click to expand...

Perhaps in the early revisions of the BIOS for the board, but F7 has smoothed out quite a few problems as I had no issues getting my D9GKX to work with the DS3.

Sadly F7 does nothing for me.

Gigabyte said you need to change a capacitor also in order to get the most out of the D9 memory. Not sure which one it is, but I read that around here. Without the capacitor you're limited to around 460-470mhz, but with the new capacitor you can get over 500mhz.

Sadly I won't be doing that before I change the cooling system for the processor, and chipsets.