Clarkdale: No dual channel RAM above DDR3-1600

[northstar1984]

Mainboard: AsRock P55 Pro/USB3 (latest BIOS 1.50)

CPU: i3-550

RAM: 2x4 Kingston KVR1333 or 2x4 Corsair Vengeance 1600 or 2x4 Corsair Vengeance 1866 or 2x8 Kingston HyperX Savage 2400

 

Used the half-height KVR1333 for 10 years now in dual channel and wanted to get something faster and additionally more.

The AsRock says: "Supports DDR3 2600+(OC)/2133(OC)/1866(OC)/1600/1333/1066 non-ECC, un-buffered memory- Max. capacity of system memory: 16GB".

 

Allrighty then. Bought a kit of 2x8 Kingston HyperX Savage 2400. Has XMP for 2133 too. But will not boot in DIMM slots A1/B1 or A2/B2. BIOS post code "003A".

But when I put them in slots A1/A2 or B1/B2 I have my 16GB and a boot - but just single channel of course.

Borrowed a kit of 2x4 Corsair Vengeance 1866. Same exact problem. The 8GB and a boot just in the non-dc combination.

 

Borrowed a kit of 2x4 Corsair Vengeance 1600. Wow. It works. Dual channel as it should be. Interestingly XMP 1600 only possible with overclock BCLK160 Multi 20. What? AsRock says 1600 without OC.

Borrowed a kit of 2x4 Micron something 1333. Works in dual channel as well.

 

So what is the problem with dual channel RAM above 1600?

[Guest]

It's the CPU not the board. Supports 1066 (533mhz) and 1333 (667mhz) only. Get what you can from it. 800mhz it is then.

[northstar1984]

Okay, okay. I get the need for OC for even the XMP 1600. But what has that to do with the dual channel capability? The-need-for-OC-speed 1600 works fine, the-need-for-OC-speed 1866 / 2133 not? I can put the 2x4 1866 kit in the "wrong" DIMM slots, have my 8GB and set the XMP profile. Which does OC the BCLK to 187, lower the Multi to 17 and with the max 1:5 divider I have 1866. But just in Single Channel.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, northstar1984 said:

Okay, okay. I get the need for OC for even the XMP 1600. But what has that to do with the dual channel capability? The-need-for-OC-speed 1600 works fine, the-need-for-OC-speed 1866 / 2133 not? I can put the 2x4 1866 kit in the "wrong" DIMM slots, have my 8GB and set the XMP profile. Which does OC the BCLK to 187, lower the Multi to 17 and with the max 1:5 divider I have 1866. But just in Single Channel.

The memory controller simply doesn't like the frequency your pushing in Dual channel so it drops to Single channel unwanted by the user. 

 

It is a known fact that overclocking in single channel will produce higher frequency than running dual channel, so none of this is a surprise to me.

[northstar1984]

Understood. More OC in single channel. But that is not my problem. I don't have dual channel even with no OC with 1866 and above DIMMs. They all show up as 1333 in Auto settings or manual 1333 settings. So they must have a JEDEC 1333 profile. Be it the 1333, the 1600, the 1866 or the 2400... all pairs are there in the "wrong" DIMM slots as 1333. But only the 1333 and 1600 pairs are there in the "right" DIMM slots as dual channel 1333. The 1866 and above don't boot up there at all.

 

So what is the problem with 1866 and above RAM kits? What do I have to tell the BIOS to boot them up? I'm even done with the "more poooower" and just want my 2x8 to work in dual channel 1333. Forget XMP 2133 or 2400.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, northstar1984 said:

Understood. More OC in single channel. But that is not my problem. I don't have dual channel even with no OC with 1866 and above DIMMs. They all show up as 1333 in Auto settings or manual 1333 settings. So they must have a JEDEC 1333 profile. Be it the 1333, the 1600, the 1866 or the 2400... all pairs are there in the "wrong" DIMM slots as 1333. But only the 1333 and 1600 pairs are there in the "right" DIMM slots as dual channel 1333. The 1866 and above don't boot up there at all.

 

So what is the problem with 1866 and above RAM kits? What do I have to tell the BIOS to boot them up? I'm even done with the "more poooower" and just want my 2x8 to work in dual channel 1333. Forget XMP 2133 or 2400.

Again, the cpu doesn't really support over 1333mt/s (667mhz). Beyond that is overclocking the IMC. And your results will then vary. 

 

Certainly if you'd want to memory overclock with DDR3, you'd not be doing it with this setup. 

Like I tell @SomerandomtechyboiALL THE FREAKIN TIME - .... (which you are not aware of, but want him to read this)

The best DDR3 platform to OC ddr3 is z97 and 4690/4770/90K period end of story. 

 

Just be happy you can get 1600 from it. That's 133mhz more than the Cpu is supposed to do in the first place.... If any of this makes sense?

[northstar1984]

Okay then, no RAM OC. But is there any chance I can get my 2x8 in Dual Channel 1333? I don't have the need for speed anymore. I run the 2x4 1600 kit @ BCLK 200 Multi 22 now (1,4V CPU, 1,25V IMC). It's 100% Age II DE stable at least. But 4,4 GHz /w 1600 isn't cutting it, I feel I need the 16GB.

[jaslion]

4 hours ago, northstar1984 said:

Okay then, no RAM OC. But is there any chance I can get my 2x8 in Dual Channel 1333? I don't have the need for speed anymore. I run the 2x4 1600 kit @ BCLK 200 Multi 22 now (1,4V CPU, 1,25V IMC). It's 100% Age II DE stable at least. But 4,4 GHz /w 1600 isn't cutting it, I feel I need the 16GB.

8gb sticks arent fully/at all supported by first gen core i series cpus so it not working in dual channel is normal.

[northstar1984]

8 minutes ago, jaslion said:

8gb sticks arent fully/at all supported by first gen core i series cpus so it not working in dual channel is normal.

Now you all got me interested. It seems the off die IMC is essentially from a P45 northbridge and the graphics is beefed up GMA. What??? And my 2x4 1866 kit are single rank 1R 512x8 which is too high of a density. Therefore no full support either.

 

I see, I see. So I clearly can dump my 2x8 kit and get me another 2x4 1600 dual rank kit to reach the 16 gig. And I can literally see the next trap: No XMP 1600 with 4 sticks as far as my luck goes.

 

Thx for the help and hints for research.

[Somerandomtechyboi]

5 hours ago, Guest 5150 said:

Certainly if you'd want to memory overclock with DDR3, you'd not be doing it with this setup. 

Like I tell @SomerandomtechyboiALL THE FREAKIN TIME - .... (which you are not aware of, but want him to read this)

The best DDR3 platform to OC ddr3 is z97 and 4690/4770/90K period end of story. 

It is the best but im not exactly looking for the best cause considering the pricing of 1150 here in indo i doubt many ppl run any enthusiast level setups on haswell other than ppl still sticking to their ageing 4770/4790(k) or ppl with oem systems turned into budget systems, i just need 2800 at most, ill prob only be sticking to meager 2400-2666 speeds

 

I think ill settle for a 60 or 70 series board with my ivy pentium (tec cooled if needed to reach 2800+) since im not aiming for the stars at 3000+ ram speeds, my p5q and extreem dark are just unintentionally good at clocking rams so 1520mhz is possible and that is what i consider aiming for the stars kind of speeds (~400mhz away from ddr2 wr and this is with 1x3 odd rank config, just close to wr speed) which is why i consider 2200 to be slow, cause it is slow xD

 

 

On 7/3/2022 at 4:27 AM, northstar1984 said:

The AsRock says: "Supports DDR3 2600+(OC)/2133(OC)

Cap

 

On 7/3/2022 at 4:27 AM, northstar1984 said:

Bought a kit of 2x8 Kingston HyperX Savage 2400

Pretty stupid choice when you can just buy some generic bare pcb sticks with 4gbit mfr/bfr and still do 3000+, i mean i have 1333 bin samsung rev f (rando garbage ic) + psc x (very good 1gbit ic) and they both do 2200 easy (though having trouble setting up the pscs), ive hit the cpu limit so meager 2200 it is till i get a non garbage bin xeon thay may do higher speeds and eliminate needing to sell my basically worthless p6t deluxe v2 (dont care about turning it into a daily when i can get a 5600g for 86$ off aliexpress and a x470 fatality for 20$)

 

 

Most you can expect is ~2000 i think, and thats setting the qpi/vtt volt properly and not skimping out on it because of some garbage misinformation from 12 years ago (max 1.5v daily, degradation claims >1.35v are garbage, same for >0.5v ∆ between qpi/vtt and dram degradation claim)

 

I suggest reselling that kit and buying bare pcbs both to save money and actually know what ic you are buying as higher speed kits tend to be ics more focused on 1155/1150 cpus rather than garbage imc 1156/1366 and older that can only do tight timings rather than high freq.

 

You can have a look at xtremesystems ddr3 ic thread for ics more suited towards your system, also 2x8 is dual rank and im pretty sure that does not help with the already trash imc, you wanna pay attention to volt scaling and timings since thats the only things you can optimize, basically every ic that times tight can do 2000 so dont worry about that, max dram volt id deem safe would be ~2.1v for the imc but actual max safe will vary between ics since some dont scale or work at higher volts and some are more volt tolerant than others, theres also temp to worry about cause too hot = errors. Id suggest 1.8-1.9v as a guideline to start at so you dont go getting extremely frustrated shoving 2.1v through your rams dont work (ex me with my pscs, samsung rev f scales to 2.46v so had no trouble with that ic volts wise, and do not daily 2.46v for the imcs sake, i was just messing around with that volt as i knew that wouldnt instakill my x5660)