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What memory should I get

G

gero1369

n00b
Joined
Dec 3, 2010
Messages
24
I am trying to do big advs on my i7 930 & they nearly always error out (in the last several months, I've completed only 2 or 3). I don't know what the problem could be. I get the 0x29 error in the logs, so that doesn't help. I currently have cheap DDR3 1333 stuff, so that may be my problem. I'm going to pick up some new DDR3 1600 memory to see if that helps. Anyways, I have XP (32-bit) so the OS can only see 4 GB of memory.

I basically want to get opinions on whether it is useful to get a tri channel (3x2GB) or just a dual channel (2x2GB) kit.

I was thinking about one of these kits:
Dual channel: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104223
-or-
Tri channel: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820178271
 
I don't have the numbers to back it up but I can tell you that triple channel does make a difference from what I've experienced. I'm sure that some of the other guys have some numbers for you. Using the DDR3 1600 will also make a difference.
 
Doozer said:
I don't have the numbers to back it up but I can tell you that triple channel does make a difference from what I've experienced. I'm sure that some of the other guys have some numbers for you. Using the DDR3 1600 will also make a difference.
Click to expand...
Agreed. If you have a 930, you should only be considering triple channel.
 
It is something like a 5-10% difference depending on OC and WU.

With -bigadv that can mean making or missing the deadline.

Trip chann only with a 920/930 and above.
 
If you're only running xp32 why buy 6gb....you could just get a 3x1 kit.
CAS timings will give you a slight boost, but you'll get a bigger boost with faster clock ram. IE forgo the 1600, go ahead and buy 2000.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231224 G.Skill 3x1 1600 kit 64.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104187 Kingston 3x1 2000 kit $76.99

I would buy the Kingston and take the 2000 ram. If you do want to pay extra for a 3x2 for future proofing and you don't mind missing the other 2gb for now...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231225 G.Skill 3x2 1600 kit 99.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220500 Patriot 3x2 2000 kit 124.99

Stick with G.Skill or Corsair when you can. Others I trust would be A-Data (have some of their ram in my e8400 rig)....Kingston, Patriot, Mushkin, and Crucial are good ram companies also though. (Crucial being a division of Micron though - they charge a premium for brand name.) I don't have any experience with PNY, OCZ, Wintec or Geil....those are generally the cheapest ram brands out there, but I'm a firm believer in the mentality "you get what you pay for". I did almost buy that PNY at one point before deciding to pay extra and stick with Corsair.
 
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Get 3 x 1 GB for triple channel.

I think your bigadv problems may be more due to the fact that you only have 3 GB of memory than an actual memory problem. Is anyone successfully running a bigadv on 3 GB with a quad I7?
 
gero1369 said:
will it really matter that much if I use triple vs dual channel with XP 32 bit? I'll throw that third stick back in if it does. Right now my rig isn't folding stable even for non bigadv units.
Click to expand...

Yes you'll get better performance in triple channel vs dual channel.

Have you run memtest86+ on the ram yet to make sure it's not defective? That would be the first thing you should do if you haven't already.
Is your ram oc'd at all? What are your ram settings? (speed, timings, voltage)

If the ram is defective, RMA it.
 
I've run memtest on it w/o problem. The ram is underclocked to around DDR3 1000-1100 (due to overclocking to 3.8GHz on the CPU). the timings and voltages are default for the ram.
 
Why don't you do some stress testing first (Linpack, Memtest, etc.) to actually determine what the problem is before you just start randomly replacing hardware?
 
musky said:
Get 3 x 1 GB for triple channel.

I think your bigadv problems may be more due to the fact that you only have 3 GB of memory than an actual memory problem. Is anyone successfully running a bigadv on 3 GB with a quad I7?
Click to expand...

I run bigadv on two hex core boxes with only 3x1gb ram in each box. No problems at all.
 
gero1369 said:
I've run memtest on it w/o problem.
Click to expand...

For at least 1 successful pass (hopefully at least a few?)?

Parja said:
Why don't you do some stress testing first (Linpack, Memtest, etc.) to actually determine what the problem is before you just start randomly replacing hardware?
Click to expand...

This. So many things could be wrong. It would be very weird for downclocked 1333 ram to be the cause of failures. Test your bclk stability by lowering your multi to 12 and running LinX with full memory use. If the bclk ends up stable at your Vtt, then test the ram for a couple passes. If that passes, raise the multi back up to max and run LinX again, full memory (to test your Vcore and clock freq). One of those 3 is going to fail I bet if you're having these problems with bigadv being stable.
 
Yes, I'm going to try to stress test now. I'll try to go at it pretty good for the next week+. We'll see what the results are. I'll hold off on the new memory.

I'm going to follow your suggestions. First, I'll put the third stick of RAM back in, then, follow your advice to test the bclk & more testing. I'll post the results and get more advice.

Thanks again for the help!
 
Definitely run LinX, and monitor your CPU temp while it runs. If it can pass 10-20 passes with full memory usage (should only take an hour or two), then it should be able to run bigadv with no problem.
 
I lowered the multiplier to 15x and ran Linx. Linx failed. here's the log:


Intel(R) LINPACK 32-bit data - LinX 0.6.4

Current date/time: Sat Dec 04 09:04:59 2010

CPU frequency: 2.715 GHz
Number of CPUs: 8
Number of threads: 8

Parameters are set to:

Number of tests : 1
Number of equations to solve (problem size) : 16134
Leading dimension of array : 16136
Number of trials to run : 20
Data alignment value (in Kbytes) : 4

Maximum memory requested that can be used = 2083032608, at the size = 16134

============= Timing linear equation system solver =================

Size LDA Align. Time(s) GFlops Residual Residual(norm)
16134 16136 4 94.563 29.6139 4.882786e-004 6.650931e+004
 
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moar infos:
MoBo - GA-X58A-UD3R
PSU - Thermaltake Toughpower XT 775 W
DRAM - GeIL 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333. Exactly settings: Freq, Timings ?
CPU - i7 930
Video - GTX 460 & gforce 9600GSO
CPU-Cooler - Coolermaster Hyper 212+
BIOS Settings : (181 BCLK, ?? Uncore Clock, ?? QPI Link Data Rate; 1.325 CPU Volt., 1.84 PLL Volt., 1.275 QPI/DRAM Volt., 1.5 DRAM Bus Volt.)

desktopSS_1-35pm_2010-12-04.JPG
 
Since LinX failed and you lowered your multi, then either your BCLK or your RAM is not stable. I'm not an overclocking expert, but try increasing your VTT until you can pass (gradually up to about 1.4V). Keep an eye on CPU temp, but it will probably be 5-10 degrees higher running LinX than it would running F@H, so as long as it stays out of the danger zone you should be fine.

Here's a good overclocking guide for more info.
 
I just got done redoing the HSF. I got the new paste that I ordered. I'm going to reinstall the Mobo, then up the ram voltage to 1.54. I'm also going to add the third stick of ram back in. I'll post when I get everything back in and on.
 
Probably a problem with the board or the power supply? The ram sounds fine and I don't think CPUs often fail. Try with one stick of ram and one GPU to see what you can get stable? In the end you will probably have to swap out the power supply or mobo and check for stability.
 
I removed all but 1 ram stick. I am currently running LinX. Here is my bios profile that I just did: Advanced CPU Features:
CPU Clock Ratio ................................ [21x]
Intel(R) Turbo Boost Tech .................. disabled
CPU Cores Enabled ............................ [All]
CPU Multi Threading .......................... [Enabled]
CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E) ................... disabled
C3/C6/C7 State Support .................... disabled
CPU Thermal Monitor ......................... [Enabled]
CPU EIST Function ........................... disabled
Virtualization Technology ................... [Enabled]
Bi-Directional PROCHOT ..................... [Enabled]


Uncore & QPI Features:
QPI Clock Ratio ..............................x36
Uncore clock ratio ..........................x20
Isonchronous Frequency ..................


Standard Clock Control:
Base Clock (BCLK) Control ................enabled
BCLK Frequency (MHz) .....................133
PCI Express Frequency (MHz) ........... [100]

C.I.A.2 [Disabled]

Advanced Clock Control:
CPU Clock Drive ..............................[800mV]
PCI Express Clock Drive ................... [900mV]
CPU Clock Skew ............................. [0ps]
IOH Clock Skew ............................. [0ps]


Advanced DRAM Features:
Performance Enhance ......................standard
Extreme Memory Profile (X.M.P) .........
System Memory Multiplier (SPD) ........ 8
DRAM Timing Selectable (SPD) .......... expert

Channel A + B + C

Channel A Timing Settings:
##Channel A Standard Timing Control##
CAS Latency Time ...................... 9
tRCD ....................................... 9
tRP ......................................... 9
tRAS ....................................... 28

##Channel A Advanced Timing Control##
tRC ........................................ [auto]
tRRD ....................................... [auto]
tWTR ...................................... [auto]
tWR ........................................ [auto]
tWTP ....................................... [auto]
tWL ........................................ [auto]
tRFC ....................................... [auto]
tRTP ....................................... [auto]
tFAW ...................................... [auto]
Command Rate (CMD) ................

##Channel A Misc Timing Control##
Round Trip Latency ................... [auto]
B2B CAS Delay .......................... [auto]


Advanced Voltage Control:

CPU
Load Line Calibration .................standard
CPU Vcore ............................... 1.24375
QPI/VTT Voltage 1.150v ............ 1.175
CPU PLL 1.800v ....................... 1.8

MCH/ICH
PCIE 1.500v .......................... 1.5
QPI PLL 1.100v ....................... 1.1
IOH Core 1.100v ...................... 1.1
ICH I/O 1.500v ....................... 1.5
ICH Core 1.1v ........................ 1.1

DRAM
DRAM Voltage 1.500v .............. 1.54
DRAM Termination 0.750v [AUTO]
Ch-A Data VRef. 0.750v [AUTO]
Ch-B Data VRef. 0.750v [AUTO]
Ch-C Data VRef. 0.750v [AUTO]
Ch-A Address VRef. 0.750v [AUTO]
Ch-B Address VRef. 0.750v [AUTO]
Ch-C Address VRef. 0.750v [AUTO]
 
ran linX w/o errors for 20 minutes. Adding second stick of memory, then trying again.
 
third stick of memory ran w/o issue for about 18 mins. Turning on folding and going to bed for the evening.
 
Things are going well. No errors on LinX or Prime95 (when run). Going through last step of this OC guide. It is working very well. I'm shooting for an OC of 4+ GHz, but it seems as temps may keep me from hitting it. So far, so good.
 
So in the end, what did you change to make your system stable?

Re-seat memory?
 
Half-assed stability testing isn't going to cut it for Folding. You're going to want to test the maximum amount of memory available in LinX and do about 50 runs or so.

I'd also put it through at least a few full runs of Memtest to ensure your memory is up to par.
 
I understand that folding is demanding and intend to do at least 20 runs of LinX & an hour or more of prime 95 before I attempt folding big adv units again.
 
to much CPU voltage can cause a program like prime 95 to fail. If you're getting errors like "expected .4 but got .5" it's an indication of to little or to much voltage.
 
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