Memtest errors on ASUS x79 sabertooth with 8x8GB G.SKILL Ares

[Carbonyl01]

I just last night put together a new build. The pertinent components installed so far are:

ASUS x79 Sabertooth mobo (flashed to latest BIOS revision)
i7 3930K @ 3.2 GHz
64 GB G.SKILL Ares PC3 14900 (2xModel F3-1866C10Q-32GAB, so 8x8GB)
Corsair HX850 PSU

I installed the memory so that each 32 GB kit was on its own channel.

After flashing the BIOS to the latest version, I set the RAM to XMP, which configured the speed automatically to 1866. I went ahead and booted into Memtest 4.2.0. It ran one pass of all tests without issue, so I went to sleep and let it run overnight.

This morning I wake up to 20 errors, all on test #6.

I've read that even a single error on Memtest is an indication that your RAM is hosed somewhere. I understand that the pertinent thing to do is to test one stick at a time in each of the slots, and if it comes to that, I'll do that... But that involves 64 (!!) different Memtest runs. I fear that by the time I conclude those runs, my 30 day period for returning the RAM may expire.

As a test I went back into the BIOS and pulled the speed on the RAM back to 1600. It concluded one pass without errors, so I'm leaving it to run all day.

What steps should I take here to diagnose and fix the issue? Is this very likely bad RAM? Could it just be misconfigured somehow? What's the best method to take in order to track down and solve the problem?

Thanks very much in advance for your time and assistance.

 

[Carbonyl01]

With all of that RAM you may just want to up your voltage a pinch.

Thanks very much for the suggestion! What voltage would be safe for this setup, you think? There's a warning not to get close to or exceed 1.65 V, and I think I'm already somewhere over 1.51 V on XMP. I admit I'm not terribly familiar with increasing the voltage manually for RAM, so I'm not sure what would constitute a safe bump.

 

[envy14tpe]

Just curious, what's the system for?

 

[Carbonyl01]

Just curious, what's the system for?

Mostly video work and rendering.

 

[gskill support]

Use manual settings instead of XMP. You have 32GB kits, so XMP specs are for a single 32GB kit.

To determine whether the memory is bad, test each with XMP enabled.

Keep us posted on the result!

Thank you
GSKILL SUPPORT

 

[Carbonyl01]

Use manual settings instead of XMP. You have 32GB kits, so XMP specs are for a single 32GB kit.

To determine whether the memory is bad, test each with XMP enabled.

Keep us posted on the result!

Thank you
GSKILL SUPPORT

Thanks much for the recommendation! Setting everything manually, is there a way to know what settings to use? I assume that the XMP settings are the same that are on the packaging, so I'm unsure of what settings I would want to change, and what values to set, if I did things manually.

And is there a length of test that's preferable when doing one stick at a time?

Thanks again very much.

 

[gskill support]

You input the same basic DRAM frequency, timings, and voltage, but let the motherboard adjust advanced timings. With XMP enabled, it can set some advanced values for 32GB that can limit stability for 64GB.

Length, no particularly, but generally when there is an issue with a module, it will error fairly quickly. You can also use a stress test to possibly isolate a bad module quicker.

Thank you
GSKILL SUPPORT

 

[Carbonyl01]

You input the same basic DRAM frequency, timings, and voltage, but let the motherboard adjust advanced timings. With XMP enabled, it can set some advanced values for 32GB that can limit stability for 64GB.

Length, no particularly, but generally when there is an issue with a module, it will error fairly quickly. You can also use a stress test to possibly isolate a bad module quicker.

Thank you
GSKILL SUPPORT

I will be taking this advice straight away as soon as I can. I'll report back here with my findings regardless of the outcome. Thank you very much for your recommendations. I'm thoroughly impressed.

 

[Carbonyl01]

Following up on this after an extended Memtest session. It turns out that everything seems stable now, and all I did was change the RAM away from XMP to manual, and then set the primary timings, voltage, and speed. Everything else remained auto. This allowed me to clear multiple memtest passes without issue. Strange, seeing as ostensibly those are the same settings as XMP dictated.

Anyhow, my supreme thanks for the assistance on this! I now have access to more RAM than I could possibly wish for, and Premiere and After Effects run positively silk smooth.

 

[envy14tpe]

You input the same basic DRAM frequency, timings, and voltage, but let the motherboard adjust advanced timings. With XMP enabled, it can set some advanced values for 32GB that can limit stability for 64GB.

Length, no particularly, but generally when there is an issue with a module, it will error fairly quickly. You can also use a stress test to possibly isolate a bad module quicker.

Thank you
GSKILL SUPPORT

Nice to see someone from GSKILL post here. One more reason why I recommend and use GSKILL RAM.