Question about AMD Black Edition Overclocking Guide‏

Yoshinat0r

Distinguished
Nov 22, 2010
109
0
18,680
I've read through the guide on overclocking black edition processors, and it is excellent, but there is something I don't understand. In the guide it said:

"First,you need to manually set your memory speed, timings, and the required memory slot voltage, to your memory manufacturers exact requirements"

but I'm not sure exactly how to find my memory manufacturer's exact requirements for those settings. Same thing with this line as well:

"All your specification speeds like Memory, Hyper Transport, or North Bridge need to all be set to their default settings"

How do I figure out the default settings for those specification speeds? Does it just mean to set them to auto?

I know these are probably really simple questions but I just want to make sure I'm doing everything right before I start overclocking.
 
Hi Yoshinator and welcome to Tom's forum.

1- What are your specs rig? Go to you profile and add it to your system configuration. You can use Everst or CPU-Z to know the RAM manufacturer and model.
2- You are right, default in this case means Auto.
 
Ok. The model means this:

OCZ3P1600C6LV4GK

OCZ: Manufacturer
3: Standard (DDR, DDR2, DDR3)
P: Series, Platinum
1600: Speed:
C6: Cas latency
LV: Low voltage
4GK: 4GB (2x2GB) kit.

So, you need go to the BIOS and change the specs of your RAM to: 6-8-6-24, try 1st with Auto voltage, if doesn't works set it to 1.65V
 

Yoshinat0r

Distinguished
Nov 22, 2010
109
0
18,680
Hmm ok I changed the speed to 800 MHz DDR3 1600 and the timings to 6-8-6-24, and left the voltage on auto and got a message when trying to boot into windows saying...

"The system failed to boot several times before.
You may press F2 or Del to reconfigure your setup.
Or BIOS will continue to boot after 5 seconds."

...and it continues to boot anyway, and Windows successfully loads. Only problem is I checked CPU-Z and the speed and timings seem to be off, DRAM Frequency is reading as 400.8 MHz :heink: and timings are reading as 6-6-6-15, but when I restart and enter BIOS the settings are still the way I left them, 800 MHz DDR3 1600, and 6-8-6-24 timings.

I tried setting the voltage manually, and I am geting this same issue. Maybe CPU-Z is just reading the memory specs wrong?
 

Yoshinat0r

Distinguished
Nov 22, 2010
109
0
18,680
Ok I tried with CPU Tweaker, got the same message when booting into windows where it made me wait about 5 seconds. Checked CPU-Z and the timings still read as 6-6-6-15. For some reason, it won't accept 6-8-6-24 timings, and instead sets it to 6-6-6-15 :heink:

EDIT: Ok actually, I just checked CPU-Z again and now it shows the correct timings I set, 6-8-6-24. Was it just a delayed update or something?

EDIT #2: Nevermind, what's actually happening is that while I have CPU Tweaker open, CPU-Z sees the timings as 6-8-6-24, but when I reboot, CPU-Z sees them as 6-6-6-15 again.
 

Yoshinat0r

Distinguished
Nov 22, 2010
109
0
18,680
When the mobo posts and starts to read drivers.

And this is what CPU Tweaker shows as far as my memory goes:
cputweakermemorystuff.jpg
 

green300

Distinguished
Jan 30, 2010
260
0
18,860
Sounds like it's just not saving the changes and reverting back to auto... Memory modules are together in the white slots ? Manual recommends 1800/1600 being installed in _A2 & _B2 (p.16/2.3)

Can you get 1 stick to run @1600 in any of the slots ?
 
@Yoshinat0r

Regarding your initial questions I have added more clairification to the guide and re-written some things that weren't clear enough, my goal is for the guide to be as clear as possible so even unskilled overclockers can successfully achieve their overclocks.

Input like you've provided here helps me to realize how some of the guide is viewed to those less experienced and what additions need to be made to make it clearer and easier to understand.

I wish I could give you more direct time at this point but sadly my wife's mother died last Monday, so our lives are presently turned upside down, I really did not have the time to edit the guide or post this to you, but I made the time!

saint19's advice is definitely on the money and hopefully he'll be able to help you through this, as I won't have any more free time for awhile, I suggest reading the guide again after the editing, and make sure everything is complied with.

I also suggest not using CPU Tweaker because it has the ability change settings in the operating system itself and all you need is a utility that simply reports information like the guide suggested CPU-Z, since you are manually overclocking in the BIOS, if you're off with following that provided information in the guide, you may be off somewhere else too.

If there is anything else in the guide that's not clearly written enough to understand it, please put it here in your post, and I'll address it when things calm down for me.

Thank You! Yoshinat0r

And additionally Thank You saint19! Ryan
 

Yoshinat0r

Distinguished
Nov 22, 2010
109
0
18,680
The memory is actually together in the blue slots, should I switch them over? And I haven't tried getting just 1 to run at 1600 yet.

And don't worry about it ryan, it's no rush at all, this is just my first time overclocking and all so I just wanted to make sure everything was all set correctly before I began, I was going to wait anyway for the new cpu heatsink/fan to arrive before I started the actual overclocking, since the stock one sucks, keeps the cpu at 39'C idle and about 62'C under full load, not really any headroom to overclock at all. And the case seems to have great airflow all through-out, so I'm sure that's not the problem.

Thank you for taking the time to edit your guide though, and thanks you guys for helping me through this, hopefully I'll be able to get past these problems.
 

Yoshinat0r

Distinguished
Nov 22, 2010
109
0
18,680
Hmm yea I changed them to white slots, and CPU-Z still reads 400 MHz 1:2 with wrong memory timings. I checked in the BIOS and the RAM is still set to 800 MHz DDR3 1600, and the timings are set to 6-8-6-24. Not sure if it matters, but in gray next to the memory timings that I manually set in the BIOS, are the timings CPU-Z is seeing, 6-6-6-15.
 
Ok. Contact to ASRock, in the mobo's manual says this:

- Dual Channel DDR3 Memory Technology (see CAUTION 3)
- 4 x DDR3 DIMM slots
- Support DDR3 1800(OC)/1600(OC)/1333/1066/800 non-ECC,
un-buffered memory (see CAUTION 4)
- Max. capacity of system memory: 16GB (see CAUTION 5)
 

Yoshinat0r

Distinguished
Nov 22, 2010
109
0
18,680
I'll contact them later today, but for now I set everything in the BIOS back to auto. I don't know why, but I'm having major stability issues with my computer where it will just randomly freeze. Then it takes about 4 tries hitting the power button trying to get it to boot back up. The power does come on, and all the fans come on, but nothing on the monitor, and the mouse doesn't even light up. I don't know if what I set manually is causing this, or the fact that I changed the slots from blue to white.