Firestix running at 5300 instead of 6400?

[Hobo13]

Long time lurker...I did have an account back in the day but I let membership lapse...ANYWAY.

Purchased some Buffalo Firestix 2GB DDR2 PC2-6400 from the egg on the recommendations that I read here. I'm using it with an Asus P5B-E (rev. 01, damnit), e6400, Arctic 7 Freezer. I'm the in midst of overclocking and stabilizing, and CPU-Z is reporting the RAM as PC2-5300, but says that it is "running" at PC2-6400. I'm not sure if it is an issue with the MB or the RAM. I can't find many posts about the Firestix on the forum other than praise , so any input would be much appreciated.Thanks.

 

[ziddey]

SPD settings set lower so that you can boot them up and be able to crank up the voltage, since JEDEC mandates 1.8V and firestix are 2.1V. Have no worry; if it runs at what it's supposed to, then it's right in the end.

 

[Hobo13]

Thank you for your quick response. I was mostly concerned after hearing dissension as to the legitimacy of the chips used (whether revision C was still Micron based...I've gathered that they are D9GMH's).

So just for clarification, what you are stating is that CPU-Z is reading the BIOS settings of what the MB originally read the memory at (I'm assuming the frequency @ 1.8v)?

 

[Zinn]

So just for clarification, what you are stating is that CPU-Z is reading the BIOS settings of what the MB originally read the memory at (I'm assuming the frequency @ 1.8v)?

I believe this is the case, my CPU-Z behaves the same way.

 

[ziddey]

Thank you for your quick response. I was mostly concerned after hearing dissension as to the legitimacy of the chips used (whether revision C was still Micron based...I've gathered that they are D9GMH's).

So just for clarification, what you are stating is that CPU-Z is reading the BIOS settings of what the MB originally read the memory at (I'm assuming the frequency @ 1.8v)?

It's not reading bios settings. Or I mean I guess you could think of it that way, but what it is actually reading is the SPD settings stored on the ram modules themselves. The bios reads this too and bases it off it. So the reason why they set it lower is because of JEDEC regulations defining ddr2 to run at 1.8V. So the motherboard will by default run at 1.8V, and then seek the spd settings to define what speed it runs at and the timings.

 

[sardonic.n7]

It's not reading bios settings. Or I mean I guess you could think of it that way, but what it is actually reading is the SPD settings stored on the ram modules themselves. The bios reads this too and bases it off it. So the reason why they set it lower is because of JEDEC regulations defining ddr2 to run at 1.8V. So the motherboard will by default run at 1.8V, and then seek the spd settings to define what speed it runs at and the timings.

Listen to the man.

If you wanted your RAM to not boot, then they could set SPD to 800 4-4-4
Then you'd be screwed like everyone else.

That's why they set SPD lower & often with looser timings.