I have a new system with the GA-P35-DS4 (V2). I'm using a pair of Corsair Twin2X2048-8500C5 RAM. These memories are listed on the Gigabyte Qualified List for 1066MHz memory. The CPU is Intel E6850 at 3.0GHz.
This system is for audio and video production, and needs to be high performance and extremely stable. I purchased all parts with explicit support of 1066MHz, since I don't want to risk reduced reliability from overclocking. I wanted everything to support 1066MHz with standard settings.
The first thing I noticed is the the DS4 recognized the memory as 800MHz according to the SPD. Corsair says that is normal since 800MHz is the maximum for the DDR2 spec, and it is safe for booting. Corsair gave instructions for setting it up - change memory multiplier to 3.2, change timing to 5-5-5-15, change memory voltage to 2.1V, (adding +.3 from normal 1.8V), and boost (G)MCH voltage by +0.1V.
This seemed a lot like the procedures for overclocking, but since the DS4 and the Twin2X2048-8500C5 are both allegedly designed to support 1066 and are compatible with each other, I thought everything would be fine.
Unfortunately, everything is not fine. Running the memory at 1066MHz, Memtest reports thousands of errors in 2 hours. Dropping back to the default settings for 800MHz, there are no errors when running Memtest overnight.
I have tried variations on the settings, updating the BIOS to the latest (F12), moving the memories to the other pair of sockets, and various tweaks on the values. There is no reliable operation at 1066MHz. There is no memory multiple value available between 2.4 and 3.2, so I can't try any memory clocks between 800 and 1066MHz. I have spent hours performing the overclocking tweak / test / repeat loop that I was trying to avoid by buying parts that explicitly supported 1066MHz.
Where do I go from here? Do I have bad memory? A bad motherboard? (no, I don't have any compatible "spares" to swap out) Are there some other settings that I have missed?
This system is for audio and video production, and needs to be high performance and extremely stable. I purchased all parts with explicit support of 1066MHz, since I don't want to risk reduced reliability from overclocking. I wanted everything to support 1066MHz with standard settings.
The first thing I noticed is the the DS4 recognized the memory as 800MHz according to the SPD. Corsair says that is normal since 800MHz is the maximum for the DDR2 spec, and it is safe for booting. Corsair gave instructions for setting it up - change memory multiplier to 3.2, change timing to 5-5-5-15, change memory voltage to 2.1V, (adding +.3 from normal 1.8V), and boost (G)MCH voltage by +0.1V.
This seemed a lot like the procedures for overclocking, but since the DS4 and the Twin2X2048-8500C5 are both allegedly designed to support 1066 and are compatible with each other, I thought everything would be fine.
Unfortunately, everything is not fine. Running the memory at 1066MHz, Memtest reports thousands of errors in 2 hours. Dropping back to the default settings for 800MHz, there are no errors when running Memtest overnight.
I have tried variations on the settings, updating the BIOS to the latest (F12), moving the memories to the other pair of sockets, and various tweaks on the values. There is no reliable operation at 1066MHz. There is no memory multiple value available between 2.4 and 3.2, so I can't try any memory clocks between 800 and 1066MHz. I have spent hours performing the overclocking tweak / test / repeat loop that I was trying to avoid by buying parts that explicitly supported 1066MHz.
Where do I go from here? Do I have bad memory? A bad motherboard? (no, I don't have any compatible "spares" to swap out) Are there some other settings that I have missed?