I5 2500K / P8Z68-V issues with stability.

[internetlad]

Recently picked up an i5 2500K / P8Z68-V / 1600mhz Kensington HyperX X1 Black RAM

I know i have some manner of issue because when i test all the parts at "auto" in the BIOS it works fine (some cpu testing utility off UBCD 5.3 and Memtest 86+) however when I increase the ram to it's stock rated 1600 mhz it will run for about 15 minutes or so in windows and then lock up completely. Enabling the Asus Optimal cause all sorts of problems with no noticable performance gains, and I can't even nudge the processor up without causing the computer to take a huge dump.

I assume i'm doing it wrong and haven't simply received an unlucky proc/RAM

The only tweak i've done is to set the base clock to 100 on the reccomendation of a member on the site.

I assume a big problem is to do with voltages as I haven't tweaked those either, but I would have suspected that would cause a different problem than just freezing, such as a sudden shutdown of the computer.

TL;DR, OC n00b, need tips & pointers.

 

[RJR]

1600mhz Kensington HyperX X1 Black RAM

?????

Do you mean Kingston Hyper X Ram? I'm guessing yes, so it looks like the ram is rated for 1.65v @ 1600mhz.

If you just set it to 1600mhz without changing anything else, set both the rated 1600mhz timings and voltage and you should be good.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

the cpu memory controller only officially supports 1333mhz memory, anything above that and your overclocking the memory controller, so yes it can become unstable. Just leave it at 1333, you wont notice the difference anyway.

 

[RJR]

SB and the previous generation of Intel processors have no problem with higher than officially supported memory frequencies. The one thing they can be fussy about is higher than rated memory voltage, especially on the "I" series. 1.5v ram is really recommended, but there are a lot of people running 1.65v out there still.

 

[internetlad]

iam2thecrowe, when I had bought my board it had listed 1066/1333/1600 in the specs, and had higher numbers listed as (OC). I had assumed that meant it would natively run it at those clock speeds, was that incorrect? Why would they list that in the features if it was not as such?

And yeah RJR it is Kingston HyperX RAM, I don't know where my head was at lol.

Okay so it sounds like the big thing here is voltages. I've been doing a bit of digging at it appears that the proc should be good with anything under and up to 1.5v before cooking badly, and the ram, as you said, should be at 1.65v. i'll bear this in mind and try those numbers tonight.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

http://ark.intel.com/products/52210 < the memory controller on the CPU is rated for 1333 mhz, the motherboard can do more than that but its overclocking the memory controller on the CPU, although normally it doesnt cause an issue. but its good to rule out any other possibilities that may cause problems. Ram should be 1.5v ram, 1.65 is too high, return the 1.65v ram and get some 1.5v ram. Read this http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=202425
and this http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18227516&page=2