# ASUS P5QC 1600 mhz RAM



## twistdshade

I recently replaced my old ddr2 ram with ddr3 ram.
The new chips are GSkill Ripjaws 1600 2x4gb


In order to get them to run at 1600 mhz I will have to OC my FSB from 333 to 400 which would knock my CPU up quite a bit. I would prefer to run them at 1333 and get everything to run stable before attempting to OC my E8500 to 4ghz again

I have tried setting the timings and voltage to the standard specs 9-9-9-24 1.5v and underclocking the chips to 1333 but it doesn't even post at those settings.

To find a stable setup, I left all of the timings to auto and boot it up. After several attempts it finally posted and I was able to load CPU-Z at 7-9-9-24
I ran OCCT and it's saying there were over 14,000 errors on a 10 pass test.

I'm a bit rusty at all this and I'm having trouble finding stable timings to run these at my 333 FSB. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

System Specs
Mobo: ASUS P5QC
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale
RAM: GSkill Ripjaws F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL 
GPU: Nvid 9800 GT
GPU: PC Power & Cooling 750 Watt Single Rail

Let me know if you need more specific details


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## twistdshade

Edit: Stupid me... The test I ran was for my GPU, the errors were because my display driver crashed and needs to be updated.


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## twistdshade

So I downloaded Memtest86 4.0 and removed one chip, the test started to come up with errors with 7-9-9-24 at about 20% through the test
Found a post where somebody was testing the OC capabilities of these chips and found they ran stable at 8-8-8-22 I'm running the memtest now and it's at 20% so far no errors.

I think the problem is they're made to run at 1600mhz with those loose timings at 1.5v, and 1.5v is too much at 1333mhz. Since my board won't let me set the voltage any lower than 1.5v, tightening the timings up seems like my only option.


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## twistdshade

It went though the test once without any errors at 8-8-8-22 but then came up with 4 errors partway through a 2nd pass. I'm going to try upping the dram voltage to 1.52

I'll be back with the results


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## Wrench97

Personally I would return them and pick a set of sticks recommended for the P5QC motherboard > G.SKILL- World leading DDR3 computer memory and SSD manufacturer -SEARCH BY MANUFACTURER MODEL NAME
You may get them to run but from experience it usually turns in to strange problems down the road and slower processing because the error rate on the sticks is higher then normal.


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## twistdshade

Hello again Wrench 

I see what you're saying there and I'll probably go that route if I can't get them to run stable.

When I purchased the chips I was thinking that maybe the only reason they're not listed as compatible with my MOBO is because the board is outdated and the chips are new, they never bothered testing compatibility. With the faster frequency chips I figured I might be able to push my CPU a bit further or get faster timings by lowering the frequency. The board is capable of overclocking DDR3 up to 2000mhz so I figured 1600 should be no problem.

Then again, if they're not compatible, they're not compatible.

I may have been a bit jumpy on the "buy it" trigger because they were on a Black Friday special for $24.99

edit:
I think this 8-8-8-22 setup is getting really close


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## twistdshade

I'm sure my knowledge of building and overclocking computers is just a mere fraction of your own knowledge. But I really enjoy tinkering with this machine and I'm learning quite a bit while I'm having fun with it.

For gits and shiggles, would you have any suggestions on getting these to work? Installing my old DDR2 chips is out of the question because those OCZs failed one after the other, running stock CPU, factory recommended RAM settings.


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## twistdshade

8-8-7-22 has passed 100% with zero errors. If it makes it through a 2nd pass I'll move on and test the other chip


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## Wrench97

The biggest issue is the micro code burned on the ram sticks, the ones you bought are optimized to the i series and AMD on CPU memory controller, where the set up you have is a integrated motherboard memory controller, while they work similar there are tweaks done to the sticks to make them work better with one system that don't work so well with the other. Since they are 1600 instead of 1333 the earlier micro code tweaks would not have been included.

Another thing I've found is the older boards liked to run the sticks at a higher voltage, the original DDR3 sticks would run 1.8v the P45 boards liked them


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## twistdshade

I see, that's very interesting, and that's probably why the minimum dram voltage on my board is 1.5v


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## Wrench97

Yes, that's correct DDR3 was new at the time even though the original spec called for 1.5v the manufacturers were having trouble making it work that low so a lot of sticks were 1.8v, they got it down to 1.65 to satisfy the Intel i series voltage max but not without a lot of issues along the way.

Are you running the latest bios?
Version 2103 fixes memory compatibility issues.
ASUS - Motherboards- ASUS P5QC


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## twistdshade

I saw that bios update and actually just flashed it just a few minutes ago. The 8-8-7-22 made two passes with zero errors, I popped in the other chip and it wouldn't even post. I had to loosen up the timings to 8-8-8-24 for it to post, and I know the other chip doesn't run stable at those timings. That's when I started looking into any possible bios updates that might remedy the issue. I just got all my settings back to the way I had them before I flashed the bios so we'll see how it goes.


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## twistdshade

It posted!  I'm running the test now


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## twistdshade

I managed to get both chips to run at 8-7-7-18, still at the minimum voltage of 1.5v
Individually they each completed a single pass of memtest86 with zero errors.

I'll test them together later on.. Gotta get some sleep 

I'm thinking maybe later I'll try 7-7-7-21 because I saw some chips with those timings earlier and who knows.. maybe it's a magic number


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## twistdshade

Posting from my desktop now 

7-7-7-21 @ 1.5volts still
cleared memtest86 4 times with no problems
Everything seems to be running much snappier, my boot time has gone down from 5 minutes to under 2 minutes, probably due to the increased stability

I'll just stick with this until I have time to play with the CPU


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## Wrench97

Sounds good, the bios update and playing with the timings seems to done the trick


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