2133 at 1866, Return or Keep

[crayseal15]

I recently tried to upgrade my dual channel 1600 ram to quad 2133. After plenty of troubleshooting I realized it just wasn't going to run @ 2133 but does run @ 1866 in quad channel. Not sure if it is just a compatibility issue or if the motherboard on the Alienware Aurora R4 just has a limitation. Being x79 it should have no problem with 2133 but it does. @ 1866 it does run in Quad channel and seems noticeably faster than the dual channel 1600. I am happy with the upgrade but I have two choices at this point. Return for a refund and try the G Skill Rip-jaw OR keep the Corsair Vengeance and run @ 1866. I have to manually set timings and disable X.M.P in bios to get the Corsair Vengeance to work, the G Skill 1600 works with X.M.P and everything on auto. In the case I stay with the Corsair @ 1866 should I change timings? screens will be provided. Side Note I could be wrong but I think the G Skill may support more versions of x.m.p. where the Corsair only supports X.M.P. 1.3 Maybe that's the issue I'm having?

 

[crayseal15]

CPU Z ram info for Corsair 2133 downed @ 1866
http://postimg.org/image/4oxnligdj/
http://postimg.org/image/z9yvdokih/
New egg Ram link http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233256

If I decide to return I will go with this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231503

 

[Tradesman1]

Make sure you have the latest BIOS and try with XMP, if no joy, try raising the VCCSA (system agent voltage) to 1.2 and use XMP to hit 2133

 

[saint19]

As Tradesman1 says, I am pretty sure that you do not have enable the XMP profile. All RAM that you install in a system will run at 1333MHz (almost all of them), wen you have a RAM that run at a higher frequency you need change the options in BIOS at set the RAM at X.M.P profile to run at full speed.

 

[crayseal15]

Yeah Tradesman helped me in another forum before purchasing the ram. The problem I faced with the Corsair set is that it won;t boot when I enable XMP. I also did try raising the vccsa to 1.2 but I didn't see any change with that, still a no post. The reason I thought about the g skill option is the previous ram I have is g skill ripjaw and that and works fine when I enable xmp. My bios is fully updated, but I'm thinking it only supports xmp 1.2 where the g skill supports 1.2 and 1.3 and the corsair only lists compatibility with 1.3 . I've spent a week or with tradesman trying to help me through it. I've read in some other forums the corsair being rather picky and some of those people tried the g skill quad kit and it worked. with the old g skill ram although its 1600 mhz it still gave the option enable speed in bios at 2133 but the corsair just goes no boot when i do the same. I've spent about a week trying all the suggestions for the corsair but at this point I'll either keep it and go 1866 or return and try the g skill since my other set of g skill seems rater friendly with my mobo.

 

[crayseal15]

also, what does setting the vccsa to 1.2 do, I have tried but I have no idea what it does. does it affect anything else when I change it?

 

[saint19]

Set the X.M.P. profile and change the RAM voltage to 1.65V on BIO, try again and let us know the results.

 

[Tradesman1]

VCCSA is the System Agent voltage and feeds the MC (memory controller) and it's it's lanes

 

[crayseal15]

Alright. So I decided to take one last night and go all out and try everything. Spent about 2 hours trying everything. Same conclusion.

 

[crayseal15]

I truly have come to the conclusion at this point that my mobo only supports XMP 1.2 . The g skill ram i have is 1.2 and the corsair is 1.3 . The g skill boots every time with xmp enabled, the corsair never boots no matter what settings with xmp enabled. I tried every setting combination I could tonight.

 

[crayseal15]

not sure if this helps or not but with XMP there is no "profile" it's either enabled/disabled.

 

[saint19]

What happen if you only install 2 stick of Corsair RAM?

 

[Tradesman1]

XMP based sticks typically come with two profiles - stock and enthusiast (which normally is slightly tighter, most often calling for a CR of 1T/1N vs the stock of 2T/2N)

 

[crayseal15]

Sorry for the long pauses but some nights I don't post or just am beat from work. @ Saint: Two sticks work just as well as all 4 ,but 2 sticks or 4 sticks never work with XMP enabled. I read a bit more into XMP and realized that the corsair ram only supported 1.3 which is 3rd/4th generation i7. I have a 3930k which is second generation. From what I can put together my processor just isn't compatible with that version of XMP. I RMA'd the Corsair and ordered there G Skill Rip jaw Z which supports 2nd/3rd Generation processors. I think that will do the trick. I'm no expert but we will see. Hopefully I will get my money back with the RMA, would hate to have two $150+ sets of ram. I was so tired of dealing with this I went ahead and paid for the new ram when i sent the RMA out. I do appreciate all of your help in both threads Tradesman (as well as everyone else), the new ram should be here Monday or Tuesday.

 

[Tradesman1]

I'll be looking for an update, fingers crossed on the RMA and all 😉

 

[saint19]

Let us know if the RMA works.

 

[crayseal15]

Well the RMA is still being sent in but I had already ordered the G Skill. Sure hope it does work out cause I would have to have 2 sets of ram. Anyhow I got the G Skill set earlier, played around some and got it working @ 2133. The XMP profiles do not work though, wouldn't boot with either set but I was able to manually input the voltage and frequency and it booted. Only problem I see is I can't get the stock timings to work. Its rated at 9-11-10-28 but every time I manually input the timings it won't boot. It boots fine under (Auto) for timings but runs at 14-14-14-35 which seems awfully high compared to normal timings.Not sure if that's a problem. I would thing even with those timings it should be faster than 1600/1866 at lower timings.

 

[Tradesman1]

Try setting the VCCSA to 1.2 in addition to the DRAM settings (and ensure DRAM voltage at 1.65)

 

[crayseal15]

Yeah the voltage and vssca were manually set to get it to boot since xmp wouldn't boot. vsca @1.2 as you told me and voltage @ 1.65.

 

[crayseal15]

I'm not very knowledgeable on timings with ram but I believe it means milliseconds. Is leaving it at 14-14-14-38 bad or would I even notice it in gaming?

 

[crayseal15]

I have played in game for a few hours now with the timings at auto and everything feels much faster than the dual channel g skill 1600 mhz with lower timings. What would you recommend considering the w/o the xmp profile I'm @ 14-14-14-38. Seems high to me but it feels much cleaner than the 1600 mhz @ 9 9 9 24.