Unstable OCZ

[bluepan]

I have a GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P mobo and when I put my system together I put in 3gb of Crucial 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 Triple Channel, rated at 1.5v

System has been working great for weeks now.

I came across a great deal on 4gb of OCZ platinum DDR3 1333 dual channel, rated at 1.8v

I pulled out the crucial and put in the OCZ. PC posted but would not load windows. It just hung at the loading screen. I did some research on this RAM and it was recomended to change the DDR voltage in the BIOS manually to 1.8v. Did so and post, loaded windows but was very unstable. Windows recognized 4gb of RAM but continued to remain unstable.

I researched more and found some people who had better luck at 1.66v. Tried that and it went back to posting but no windows.

I did notice through several restarts that my BIOS never picked this up as 1.8v ram, just stayed at 1.5v, so I cleared my BIOS but it still never picked it up as 1.8v

The one thing I'm thinking is that PSU may not be able to consistently give this RAM 1.8 volts. The only reason I say that is because the whole time I had it set at 1.8 my case fan led was flickering.

I have since pulled out the OCZ and put the Crucial back in and everything is fine.

Before I resell the OCZ, I wanted to get some expert opinions on whether it is worth the money and effort to go from 3gb triple channel to 4gb dual channel?

Sorry to lay so much on you guys but I like to learn as much as possible and I know its easier to answer if you have all the info.

Thanks

 

[Mongox]

Well... I think the price difference between 3GBs and 4GBs is about a wash for same class of RAM.

Triple channel should always faster to access than dual-channel. But your OS and applications are also gonna prefer 4GBs of RAM to play with than 3GBs.

I can't speak for 3-channel myself since I don't play with it - limited to reading about it. And I'm not sure we'll ever have a definitive answer because you can't fill out the channels of both types and end up with the same amount of RAM.

I'm suspicious of the OCZ platinum series altogether. I think they have some new 1.5V versions ready but seem to be holding them back to get rid of the 1.8s first. They're certainly doing that with DDR2, running sales on the 2.1-2.2V Plats while not delivering the 1.8V.

My opinion is to stick with the triple channel and wait until you can either add another triplet of 1GBs or put in a set of 2GB modules.

 

[rand_79]

Thats a dual channel motherboard..
I'd run a multiple of 2

either 2x2gb chips or 4x2 gb chips


also some gigabyte motherboards are known to be finicky with the memory.

 

[bluepan]

Well, I guess I've ruled out the number of channels being a problem because the Crucial is 3 channel and runs fine and the OCZ is dual channel and my board is dual channel.

I'm thinking that the voltage requirements if the OCZ might be causing the instability. Or may simply be a compatibility issue with my mobo.

 

[Mongox]

LOL I didn't check the motherboard specs to see it didn't support Triple Channel RAM!

The Dual/Triple nature of the RAM comes from the motherboard, not the RAM. Triple Channel RAM is simple 3 sticks that were tested together and sold together. 2 TC sets = 3 DC sets.

Your system is likely running in single channel mode now with 2GBs in one channel and 1GB in the other. Few if any boards can support dual channel with this config.

Try a few things. Put in the OCZ pair. Reset your BIOS by choosing Optimized Defaults and rebooting.

What does the POST say about the RAM. Does it show it as 1333? Or some slower speed? If it shows 1333, then likely the Auto setting for the voltage is fine. If it shows a lower speed, adjust the voltage up to 1.85v and reboot again. Still showing slower RAM? Go back to BIOS and manually set the speed of the RAM to 1333, should need to change the timings, leave on Auto. Reboot...

Once you have the RAM running at 1333, see if Windows will run stable. If not, try adjusting the timings in BIOS higher.

So, if you can't get the new pair to run, I'd get another exactly matching 1GB Crucial and put it in. That'll get you actually running dual channel and give you 4GBs to play with - and a fair bit more speed than 3GBs in single channel.

 

[bluepan]

Monox,

See I did learn something. The manufacturers would like you to believe otherwise about dual and triple channel!

Anyway, when I had the OCZ in I did not happen to look at whether it showed 1333 or not. I was focused on the fact that it kept the auto settings at 1.5v

I tried a lot of what you suggested, however I don't know much about setting the timings on RAM so I gave up.

Here is the thing, I spent $20 on the OZC 4gb, I can get another 1 gb of Crucial for $20. Is OCZ that much better than Crucial for me to have to mess with my BIOS settings?

Thanks for everybody's help so far.

 

[rand_79]

well is the crucial exactly the same..
also its better to have 2x2gb sticks not 4x1 gb sticks.

 

[bluepan]

Well I have what I have.

The only difference, besides the voltage, is Crucial has 9 Cas Latency and OCZ has 7.

 

[Mongox]

oh oh oh

I was focused on the fact that it kept the auto settings at 1.5v

The system will NEVER change the voltage that I've found. You MUST manually set the DRAM voltage to 1.8V to test the memory. My experience is that regardless of what voltage the SPD shows, this info is only used by the computer as display info - it won't plug it into its BIOS settings. Get it in and try it again!

See if it then shows as 1333. If not, go back into BIOS and manually set that. Reboot, if it shows as 1333, load Windows. See with CPUz what the timings are, if match the 667 spd, then all is fine for testing.

Then reboot and run memtest86. If it doesn't pass memtest, you've found out why it was so cheap, it's no good. But it's covered by OCZ's lifetime warranty - so send it in and get it replaced.