Computer slow when there is over 8GB RAM

Maschmalow

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Aug 19, 2014
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4,510
Hello everyone :)

My motherboard is a Sapphire pure black X58, with 6 ram slots ( tri-channel ) and 3x 2GB G.Skill PC12800 PI series on them, and when I received for free 6x 2BG G.skill PC12800 NQ series I wanted to upgrade my system. But the problem is that when I plugged my memory everything seemed a lot slower, the UC was at 20-30% on idle, launching any single application would make it 100% UC.

So I've tried removing modules one by one, and plugged them them separately, and it seems that, for every combination, when I have more than 4 DIMM's plugged everything goes slow.

I've moved the 4th module into every empty slot so they should all work. And all the RAM work as well when they are only three.

I've also tried to mix them with 2x 2GB G.Skill PC10600 NT series (those are dual channel), with the same results.

Every module has been tested on another computer two by two, and they all seemed to work fine.

I've also formatted my drive and reinstalled windows, same thing happens.

There is no update for the BIOS on Sapphire's site.

I found here that activating the onboard video card could solve the problem, but I don't have one, so there's that :D

And finally I've looked into the memory voltages and timings, so far the voltages seem normal but i'm confused by the timings, I'm not sure if my motherboard is adjusting well or not. So I have multiple reports from CPU-Z (I'll join them ), for every combination tested.

Here are the motherboard's timings from CPU-Z (only the two first combinations works):
3x NQ: 7-7-7-20
3x PI + 1x NQ: 8-8-8-20

3x PI + 2x NT: 8-8-8-20
3x NQ + 2x NT: 7-7-7-20
3x PI + 3x NQ: 8-8-8-20

It looks like they don't match the memories timings at all, am I missing something here?

I've tried forcing XMP Profile with 3x NQ's and 3x PI's once and I got a nice BSOD :)

Anybody have an idea on this? thanks :)

My system:

CPU: Intel i7 930 @ 2.8GHz
Motherboard: Sapphire Pure Black X58 (socket 1366)

RAM:
- 3x 2GB G.Skill PC12800 PI series 8-8-8-21 @1.65v
- 6x 2GB G.Skill PC12800 NQ series 9-9-9-24 @1.5v
- 2x 2GB G.Skill PC10600 NT series 9-9-9-24 @1.5v

GPU: Nvidia GeForce GT 640
Two Hitachi HDD ( 750GB and 2To), no SSD
OS: Windows 7 64bit

Full CPU-Z reports:
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B8rfXD0XQoSxaFBsZUZselhRQkU&usp=sharing

PS: sorry English is not my native language, tell me if something is unclear ^^
 

ekopalm12

Distinguished
Nov 17, 2011
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18,510
A couple of things:

1) You will have to manually match timings and voltage EVEN if that means making them all slower. I don't care what the board or what other people say. I've done this about 75 times and more than half of the time the motherboard cannot function correctly with different timings and speeds.

2) It says you have two hard drives. Sometimes more than one OB hard drive can take up some serious bus BW on the motherboard so memory bottlenecks can occur if there are a lot of sticks.

3) you likely have a bus BW issue and a bus "processing" issue. Basically the northbridge and CPU are getting a bottle neck between PCI cards, your GT640, the two hard drives, and the many different memory sticks.

4) It's very rare but SOMETIMES tri channel just plain doesn't work with certain memory sticks. It just doesn't and there is little info about this. I have had the same issue you are describing and turned off all channeling and suddenly everything worked fine. Turn off channeling and get your results.

5) In addition, unplug all devices and reseat them. There might be some kind of voltage irregularity somewhere that is worse when you plug more memory sticks in. this is just a 101 thing and likely isn't necessary.
 

Tradesman1

Legenda in Aeternum
Try with only the NQ sticks, manually set them to spec 1600, 9-9-9-24, initially set DRAM to 1.55.....then if any problems raise the QPIVTT voltage + 0.06 from the current setting, that's the MC (memory controller) voltage and it may need a bit extra w/ 6 sticks of DRAM
 

Maschmalow

Reputable
Aug 19, 2014
2
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4,510
Thank you for your responses :)
So I've tried to unplug everything except one drive and the video card, and reseated them. With 5x NQ's I forced 1600 and 9-9-9-24, 1.55v, raised the QPIVTT by 0.1v, the IOH Vcore by 0.1v, the ICH Vcore by 0.1v and I got exactly the same thing :D (maybe a slight amelioration, but I'm not sure)

But I couldn't find where to disable channeling, as I need at least 5 sticks to make the bug happen.

Also I haven't touched the frequencies yet. Maybe there is something to do there?