Question, help greatly appreciated.

[Shodan7]

Hello there, I'm new to the forum.

Anyway, I'm only 15 so I'm not exactly a computer whiz, but, a few months ago I upgraded my computer to:

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 'Wolfdale' 3.00ghz,
EVGA 708i SLI motherboard,
2x BFG+ 9800GTX in SLI
4gb Corsair 'Dominator' DDR2 @1066mhz (with airflow fan)
Windows ultimate 32 bit. (I know, I know, I should get 64 bit but when you barely get money it's hard.)

Anyway, the question is about the ram. I think it's only going at 800mhz. When I boot up my pc and the black screen (with all sorts of information) comes up for a second, I can see it says something about 4gb of memory at 800mhz. Is this right? If so, how can I make it be the full 1066mhz I was expecting?

Any help would be really appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

-Sho.

 

[MaDMagik]

You have to go into BIOS and set the speed, voltage and timings manually, to the values you have printed on the sticks or the packaging. Thats due to the fact that 1066 isnt(or wasnt) a official ddr2 speed, thats why the mobo sets it as 800. Set it yourself and it should work fine.

 

[Shodan7]

Ok, thank you for the reply, but, I have never messed about with the BIOS or anything. If it is ok, could you please explaint o me how I would go about setting my RAM speed in the bios?

Many thanks.

 

[MaDMagik]

The problem is that different mobos have different bioses so its features will most likely have slightly different names. But Ill try to give you a general idea: when you turn the pc on and you see this "black screen (with all sorts of information)" you press Del button, that should take you to your BIOS. Than you look for Advanced Features tab, and in there you look for:

DRAM Frequency - currently it will show either 400Mhz or DDR2 800(which is the same), you need to change it to 533 or DDR2 1066

DRAM Voltage - currently should be at 1.8-1.9v, you will most likely have to change it to 2.1v - find the proper value printed on the sticks or packaging

DRAM Timings - it will be showing values like 4-4-4-12 or 5-5-5-18, change it to whatever it says on the sticks or packaging

Once you have done that press f10, choose yes to save settings and youre done.


But if youre not sure what youre doing, you should find some more computer savvy friend to do it for you. You dont have to rush it, you wont notice any real improvement when you change it anyway.

Read your mobo manual, its quite possible that bios features are explained in there.

Good luck!

 

[Shodan7]

Brilliant, I think I've done it. Well, I just done it now, and it said 1067mhz, lol. But that will be fine I think?

Thanks a lot mate, greatly appreciated. Although I'm not expecting like a huge performance boost, I'm determined to:

1) Squeeze every ounce of performance I can,
2) Get my money's worth.

I'm actually telpted to overclock my CPU, problem is, I Don't know how to and almost 'scared' I'll mess things up and because warrenty is voided I can't afford to get a new one. Any advice? Or should I just leave it.


(Thanks again MaDMagik).

 

[Shodan7]

Brilliant, I think I've done it. Well, I just done it now, and it said 1067mhz, lol. But that will be fine I think?

Thanks a lot mate, greatly appreciated. Although I'm not expecting like a huge performance boost, I'm determined to:

1) Squeeze every ounce of performance I can,
2) Get my money's worth.

I'm actually telpted to overclock my CPU, problem is, I Don't know how to and almost 'scared' I'll mess things up and because warrenty is voided I can't afford to get a new one. Any advice? Or should I just leave it.


(Thanks again MaDMagik).