First time home builder - help me optimize my very expensive RAM plzzz

[zspturbo]

I built my first workstation on a top shelf gigabyte board for the i7 920, with lots of big fancy ram, specifically the "OCZ Gold 12GB (6 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Low Voltage Desktop Memory Model OCZ3G1600LV12GS". When I turned it on and was looking at the bios, it was set to 7-7-7 when the ram said "8-8-8" on it, so I changed it. Now when I look in CPU-Z it tells me that each piece is only 533 MHz! Well I changed it back, and still says 533 MHz. All other sorts of nonsense seem to be taking place in the timings as well... have a look for yourself:

So.... what should I do?

 

[zspturbo]

uhh I was going to say "oops here is the picture" but it seems i cant post pictures. nevermind.

 

[overshocked]

You can add pictures. You just have to put them inside of these brackets

.

But to respond to your question....

1. You probably already know that the i7 has an integrated memory controller, this memory controller will run the ram at a 2:8 ratio. This ratio is in effect with the base clock. The base clock is at 133 if your not overclocked.
Since its a 2:8 ratio and a 133 base clock your memory frequency will be 1066.

8x133=1066

2. Any thing above a 2:8 ratio is considered overclock, but 9/10 times it will work fine.

3. The reason it says 533 in cpu-z is because your ram is DDR (double data rate) so whatever it says in CPUz, you double it and that is your real memory frequency. So right now your ram is running at 1066mhz.

4. To fix your problem you need to go into your bios and change the ratio to 2:12 so you will get a ram frequency of 1600mhz. Then you will need to go into the voltage selection and raise the VDIMM to 1.65 so it doesn't crash.

 

[zspturbo]

sounds like the perfect answer, literally everything I need to know and what to do... ur the man... would anyone mind verifying for me?

 

[overshocked]

Trust me man.... i know what im doing... ive written several guides on i7 overclocking.


But for verification on number 3:
http://www.overclock.net/amd-memory/212364-cpu-z-memory-frequency.html

Number four:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/256021-29-core-overclocking-what
^Guide by me

Read the section on how to determine your ram freq. Then read the latest edition on how the memory voltages work with the i7.

 

[zspturbo]

Best answer selected by zspturbo.