New RAM Sticks slowing down my system

[Danieltjee]

Hello,

I have already found a lot of useful posts about memory on this board before, but my question is specific to my build, I guess. I will list the specs down below. I have 2x4gb 1600MHz ValueRAM sticks from Kingston Technology, and it seems that they are not functioning the way I had expected them to.

In RAM-demanding tasks, or tasks that use some RAM, but constantly, like videos in Chrome or in a Steam client, tasks will randomly freeze for about a minute and then come back like nothing happened. Sometimes it is still possible to access other windows and use them, but it also happens that wherever I click, it doesn't do anything - and after that one minute, all the clicks I made are executed, for example, start will open, windows minimize, all simultaneously. It's weird, but I'm trying to describe what happens as well as possible.

I first suspected my CPU, but I found out it couldn't really be the CPU, because it was at normal temperatures and clock speeds according to the tasks. I started to suspect my system memory when I started editing some video footage earlier this day, and found that when loading new videos in, or playing through the RAM Preview lots of times, it would occasionally freeze.

Specs:
Case: Cooler Master n200 Black (Window Edition)
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-HD3
CPU: Athlon X4 860k (with stock cooler)
GPU: ASUS GT 610 2GB (to be replaced by RX480)
PSU: be quiet! System 8 400W
Memory: Kingston Technology ValueRAM 8GB DDR3 1600MHz (Kit, so 2x4GB)
Storage: Mushkin Triactor 480GB SSD (Boot Drive)
and a HDD from an old Laptop (can not be the problem bc I only first connected it today)

Brand new PC, built two days ago.

Any ideas what the problem could be?

Thanks in advance,
Daniel.

 

[Tradesman1]

Get the free app CPU-Z and look in the Memory tab, let us know what the DRAM is running at - the frequency should be at 800

 

[Danieltjee]

Get the free app CPU-Z and look in the Memory tab, let us know what the DRAM is running at - the frequency should be at 800

Both CPU-Z and AMD Overdrive tell me it's at 800MHz, so that should be fine.

 

[Tradesman1]

Shouldn't be the DRAM then unless you need more. You mentioned Steam and Chrome - lags could come from the internet connection and/or accessing an overloaded server

 

[Danieltjee]

Shouldn't be the DRAM then unless you need more. You mentioned Steam and Chrome - lags could come from the internet connection and/or accessing an overloaded server

It could be, but on my older pc, I never experienced internet problems. In addition to that, on my older pc (pc from 2010 with Athlon X2 255 Dual Core 3.1GHz) I could record gameplay 720p30 / 720p60 without any problems. On this pc, my recording will freeze after 10 minutes, cpu goes from load to idle, comes backup and recording continues. I drop from load without reaching too high temps though..

I'm confused.

 

[tshrjain]

Can you try disabling your network adapter from Network and Sharing Centre in Control Panel and see if the problem still persists? Had a similar problem, turned out that the built in network adapter was crashing (sort of). Disabling it did the trick. Had to get a USB based network adapter.

 

[Tradesman1]

Do you have the latest BIOS and mobo drivers for the board?

 

[Danieltjee]

Do you have the latest BIOS and mobo drivers for the board?

Yes, and it turned out my stock cooler for the CPU was not able to handle the CPU's Turbo Cores option... It literally couldn't keep up with cores going over 3.7GHz clock speed. Disabling Turbo Cores made a huge improvement to the freezing of applications and setting the fan speed to Full Speed (full speed even when idle) seems to have fixed all issues. I think I will get an aftermarket cooler to get be able to fully utilise the CPU's power.

 

[Tradesman1]

Sounds like a plan, migth look at the H7 from Cryorig or the 212 EVO, both very reasonable and will cool great

 

[Danieltjee]

Sounds like a plan, migth look at the H7 from Cryorig or the 212 EVO, both very reasonable and will cool great

Yep, the 212 EVO is the one I'm planning to get.

Also figured that freezes during both video-editing and recording come from my hard drive, which is strange. My bootdrive (C is a Mushkin Triactor 480GB SSD connected to a port that has a transfer speed of 6Gb/s (like all ports on the mobo). Still I see that when my editing software (Movie Studio Platinum 12) or recording software freeze, which happens around about every five to ten minutes, Task Manager will show 100% activity for the C: drive during the freeze, the write and read speed being 0 throughout the freeze.

Also when recording (writing) or editing (reading) using my other HDD, same thing happens. Load goes up to 100%, takes about 20 seconds, restores, and drops back to 0-5% load with a normal write and read speed again.

I know this is starting to get a little off-topic, so if I should post this problem elsewhere, please let me know.

 

[Tradesman1]

Might check that in the BIOS the Drives are set for AHCI, also check you have the latest drivers for them in the OS