ASUS p8p67 Major Issue: COmpatibility

asustudent1

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Oct 13, 2011
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Dear Tom's Hardware Members:

Hello. And Thank you much. I am new to Tom's, but I have read just about every article in every category over the last few weeks. I decided to order an Asus p8p67 Deluxe, after reading Tom's Review.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/asrock-p67-extreme6-asus-p8p67-deluxe-msi-p67a-gd80,2924-17.html

However. I soon discovered a major issue with the ASUS p8p67s. There is a big problem with their BIOS memory compatibility and stability, which causes boots and malfunctioning. The most informative forum can be found here.

http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&id=20110109013000847&page=1&count=131

Quote Asus Forums "This issue with RAM has been talked about around the world since the board was launched last week.
It has something to do with using P55 chip set designed RAM in P67 design boards. It seems to have to do with RAM voltage and the XMP profile is a bit different. That is why some firms, like G.Skill, have already come out with adapted RAM labelled for Sandy Bridge" called "Ripjaw X". I have heard that there are a lot of problems with specific makes, many already mentioned in this thread. Stores are getting tons of returns and doing RMA's on various DIMMs as a result of this. I understand it only affects about half the RAM that is available. If you load old style 1333MHz RAM, like Kingston ValueRam, it works perfectly without any issues at all. I know because that is what I run (without issue). "


As long as you dont mind your RAM running at 1333mHZ or below, it doesn't matter. But when you enable XMP or manual overclocks to boost RAM to 1600 +, it causes major issues for many users. I am not referring to overclocking 1300mhZ ram, but merely trying to set 1600 or 1800 RAM at each brand's advertised speed.


I am aware that RAM speed's and size (anything past 4mB) has a small effect on actual performance. However, as I am building my current system with the Future in mind, this is a major concern for me. As of right now, 1333mhz RAm will run great on most games, but a few years from now that might not be the case. I would at least like the option to run my 1600mhZ ram at 1600, and not have the MOBO auto default it to 1333, then have ENORMOUS issues with enabling 1600 or greater.

I have tried to research the issue all over. I even called ASUS support, but they didn't have a clue what I was talking about. It seems ASUS has SOMEWHAT solved the issue with BIOS flash updates. But a customer should not have to RISK flash updates, etc, to solve a huge instability problem in the BIOS chip with a p67 flagship board. I cannot find a definitive conclusion or a specific type of RAM that 100% solves the problem.

-------------------Finally, the question----------------------------------------

I have not yet even tried to run my RAM at its natural 1600MHZ for fear of this problem. Should I merely return the board for another brand such as ASrock fatalty, or perhaps even a z68 Chipset. Does anyone know if the ASUS p8z68 deluxe, or another high end p67/z68 board solved (or avoided) some of these incapatibility and instability problems? Does anyone know if the Ripjaw X series solved this problem, as it is built specifically for the p67 chipset? I cannot find any info on whether ASUS has found a definitive solution or continues to struggle with this big issue.

I am kind of a newbie, and I work very hard to research these issues before I post. I have no need to overclock right now, but I built this computer with the intention of using overclocking in the future when games require more out of their system. Essentially, I built this computer with the intention of overclocking it for future purposes.

--i5 2500k Sandy Bridge
--Asus p8p67 deluxe
--EVGA GTX 560 ti
--Corsair Vengeance 1600mhz 8GB
 

raja@asus

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Sep 28, 2011
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Even though the DIMMs are rated at DDR3-1600, the memory controller on Sandybridge CPUs is qualified to run at DDR3-1333 at CAS 9 only. Anything faster (be it CAS latency at DDR3-1333 or higher frequency at looser timing sets) is actually defined as overclocking by Intel. What does this mean? It means that stock VCCIO voltage may not be sufficient to sustain DDR3-1600 unless over-volted and the requirement for this varies from CPU to CPU (hence why the QVL does not list a universal VCCIO voltage).

Bottom line is that anything faster than DDR3-1333 is not necessarily plug-and-play and will need some manual work in UEFI by the end-user.


-Raja