Why Cant I Get My System Stable at 1200mhz?

C

Cousin Patty

Gawd
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Jul 21, 2005
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I've got corsair dominator 1066mhz, 55515 ram and I'm trying to push it to 1200mhz. It's not stable in games at 2.2v at 1200mhz, and not stable at 2.225v. I bumped it up again to 2.25v and it appeared to be stable in games but now I'm getting random crashes in Windows. Like I
ll open a program or something and the computer will just immediately restart at random times.For example, yesterday I was working on some photo editing and I opened Illustrator or a firefox or something and it just restarted. Then later on, I played DoD for about 45 minutes and it was running great. Then I stopped playing and opened coretemp and the computer restarted. Do I need to push the volts more? Is it a cooling issue? I dont have any active cooling on the RAM right now. My system seems to be only really stable at 1066mhz at 2.2v. My CPU is OC'ed to 3.2ghz and orthose stable at 7+hours when the ram is at the settings I just mentioned. Thanks
 
it's entirely possible that your ram just needs more voltage to do 600mhz stable

what are the settings you are using to get there, and what is your motherboad?
 
I'm using an evga 680i mobo. i'm at work right now and i cant remember what settings i'm using. nothing special. just the basic stuff to get my CPU oc'ed to 3.2ghz.

Basically I followed This guide to OC my processor. I used the settings they recommended. I have since lowered some of the voltages like CPU core and FSB voltage. That guide is not for OC'ing memory though.
 
You will need more voltage then that to get to 1200mhz. The RAM should go to that speed... should be the operative word here, it may not be stable higher then 1140-1180. Don't go over 2.4... evga has put out a warning that people have fried there 680i boards with high ram voltages.
 
Ok I'm at a loss now. I put my ram back to 1066 at 2.2v and my computer's still being unstable. I dont know what to do. I was playing Day of Defeat source for a couple of hours and it was working great. I stopped playing, went back to my desktop and opened Coretemp and it fucking restarted my computer AGAIN. Why would it be stable running an intensive game and then cause crashes by just opening a simple pogram like Coretemp? Now stock timings, mhz, and voltages arent stable. Should I RMA the ram? Like I said before, I know its not my CPU overclock cause that was Orthos stable for 7+hours.

Im so tired of messing with my computer. I just want it to be stable for god's sake...
 
The problem I think is Coretemp... it keeps restarting my computer. Last night I was playing DoD:S again for a while and it ran great, then I stopped playing and went to my desktop. But THIS time instead of opening core temp right away, I opened up Foobar. No Problem. I left the computer alone for about 5 minutes, came back and then started up Coretemp. BOOM. Computer restarts. It was working fine before...
 
I think you just "discovered" the Nforce 6 "kill ram" feature. I expect you will get C1 error at boot soon... That is why I prefer to run my ram at 880Mhz 1T CMD rate with low voltage than 1100+ MHZ 2T command rate. When my ram started to die, Core temp would crash the PC if i started it.
 
Cyant said:
I think you just "discovered" the Nforce 6 "kill ram" feature. I expect you will get C1 error at boot soon... That is why I prefer to run my ram at 880Mhz 1T CMD rate with low voltage than 1100+ MHZ 2T command rate. When my ram started to die, Core temp would crash the PC if i started it.
Click to expand...

If this is the problem, will Memtest give me errors? I ran memtest over night but I wont be able to check it until I get home from work to see what the deal is.
 
Well I checked around on the Coretemp forum and I'm glad to see that the problem seems to be with Coretemp. Many others are reporting that starting Coretemp with C2D and AMD systems caues their computers to instantly restart. I guess they're working on a fix. In the mean time I'm gonna try running version .94
 
In general, you may be better off overall, especially for stability gaming, to try to get a little more CPU OC and a little less memory OC. You should be able to run approximately a 400 FSB relatively easily (assuming your CPU is up to it) and then run a smaller divider on the memory, something like a 4:5. Then, your memory will still be running faster than your CPU giving lots of bandwidth but, CPU cycles are king. You'll get more FPS with a better CPU OC.

Also, put some sort of fan over those Dominators. The sinks are really good but they need airflow, esp at those voltages.
 
Mike Clements said:
In general, you may be better off overall, especially for stability gaming, to try to get a little more CPU OC and a little less memory OC. You should be able to run approximately a 400 FSB relatively easily (assuming your CPU is up to it) and then run a smaller divider on the memory, something like a 4:5. Then, your memory will still be running faster than your CPU giving lots of bandwidth but, CPU cycles are king. You'll get more FPS with a better CPU OC.

Also, put some sort of fan over those Dominators. The sinks are really good but they need airflow, esp at those voltages.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. What do you mean by the 'divider'?
 
When you are not running the memory at the same speed as the CPU ( aka 1:1 or synchronous mode) you have to use a divider or a ratio other than 1:1. This means that the CPU and memory are not running at the same speed (aka asynchronous mode). You have to use a divider (to run memory faster than CPU) in your case to run the memory at 1200mhz. Is there no mention of this in that OCing guide you referred to?
 
No I dont believe they talked about that in the article. It was just a guide on OC'ing the CPU. They left all the memory settings alone. Is this a setting in the bios I need to change?

This is all the article says that sounds similar to what you're talking about:

"It's in this regard that the 680i chipset we're using is quite different to other Core 2 Duo motherboards, such as the Intel 965 and 975-based motherboards. These other motherboards use a memory ratio to figure out the memory speed, which is slightly trickier to figure out. If using one of these boards, you'd need to pick a memory ratio that will keep your memory speed as close to default as possible, taking into account the frontside bus you'll be using."

I'm also using a 680i mobo.
 
Technically, it amounts to the same thing. The primary difference is that the Nvidia chipsets allow you to manually set memory speed and CPU speed independently of each other. However, when you go asynch, it is still using a divider. Nvidia based bios' call this unlinked. I'd suggest you Google some as there are LOTS of articles on how to OC that MOBO.
 
Well yeah thats how I have mine set up. It's unlinked with the CPU and memory able to be changed separately. Currently at 1427mhz and 1066mhz stable.

I have a fan coming in the mail for the RAM. So when that gets here I'll try OC'ing again.

oh yeah and i was able to run memtest for like 15+ hours without any errors so good to know thats not a problem.
 
Unlinked is good for some. Also, depending on how hard you are pushing your CPU, you may want to try linked and then select a ratio to put you at or about 1066 on memory. Have you tried running your CPU at 400mhz (1600)? If you can get that stable first, then OC the RAM you should do well. Also, while waiting on the fan, a spare 80mm fan rubber banded over the memory is a great temporary solution.
 
No I havent tried OC'ing the cpu anymore than it is right now. I could probably get away with it though since Its watercooled.

What's the advantage of having them linked, OC'ing the CPU and then not be able to OC the ram? How is this better than just overlocking them both seperately? If both the CPU and RAM can be overclocked, why wouldnt I want to try and overlock them as much as I can? (within reason of course). I just dont understand the relationship between the the CPU fsb and the ram speed. Sorry I'm new to overclocking. I just thought you could go into the bios, unlink the CPU and ram, slowly raise their speeds and apply enough voltage to keep it stable.
 
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