Issues Overclocking Pentium G3258

[Talus125]

Hi Everyone,

I'm pretty new to overclocking but I recently built a new PC and chose a Pentium G3258 as the processor hoping that overclocking it would be straightforward. Unfortunately this hasn't been the case so I've come to you guys as an excellent helpful community.

I've tried simply upping the core speed from 3.2GHz to 3.3GHz using the core ratio in the bios but even this modest overclock causes the PC to crash and for it to complain about my current overclock settings to have failed on startup after a seemingly random amount of time whether my computer is under stress or not.

For reference I have an MSI Z-97 PC Mate mobo.

I have a feeling my OCing issues may be to do with the fact I have mixed RAM in my PC:

It's all DDR3 1333 MHz but of mixed brands. I'm running in duel channel mode (I think). Slots 2 and 4 are both Corsair 2GB Ram sticks with the same CAS Latency (6,7,8,9) whereas slot 3 is a 4GB Micron Technology stick with a different CAS latency (7,8,9,10). Slot 1 is empty, it's under the CPU cooler and hard to get to.

Is it possible that mixing my RAM sticks is causing my issues. Is it possible to fix this without having to buy more RAM or downgrade to 4GB?

I'd really appreciate any help on this 🙂

 

[Jared Jensen]

Yes mixing rams will definitely cause some issues. You also want to make sure you place them in the appropriate slots which in most cases include using the first ram slot. I suggest using only 1 ram module for some overclock testing and make sure you place it in the right slot for only one module. Your motherboard manual will tell you where to place your ram for different configurations if you aren't sure.

 

[Talus125]

Thanks for the quick reply.

So the motherboard manual says that in duel channel mode I should have either slots 2 and 4 filled or all four slots filled and that the RAM should be of the same density. I haven't got this setup so I'll try that (although this will lose me 4 GB of RAM :-().

It doesn't mention any restrictions on using slot one or not so I guess I don't have to worry about this.

It also doesn't mention restrictions in single channel mode, is there an easy way to force the mobo to use single channel mode?

Thanks!

 

[Talus125]

Okay, still got crashes when overclocking with a single RAM stick in slot 1. I've heard that the G3258 can be temperamental and sometimes a BIOS update fixes this. I'm going to try updating the BIOS using M-Flash now.

 

[Jared Jensen]

Dual channel mode is only enabled when you have two or four identical ram sticks in the correct locations. Anything else will run in single channel mode and decrease performance. I suggest using two ram sticks that are identical to fully optimize your configuration. Updating the bios to the newest one is a good option. Let me know if it works.

 

[Talus125]

Updating the bios seems to have worked 🙂