ASUS P8P67-M verses corsair CMX8GX3M2A1600C9

[ISHOULDCOCO]

All bought from scan

plugged together last night
ASUS P8P67-M rev.3 mobo verses corsair 2X4GB CMX8GX3M2A1600C9
seasonic 580watt (S12?)
Antec 100 case
corsiar SSD

I have read about EFi and UFI etc but never used it or seen boot sequence

The PSU powesr up for about 5 secs no beep.
Shuts down and starts again ( I asume this some kind of intial scrutiny ?)
then the fans come on , still no beeps and the 2 onboard leds stay on
The blue one is a standby light , which I am not worried about , (for the moment0
but the other LED is RAM diagnosis indicator
the manual advises to hold it down until it starts flashing and allow it to find a compatibile mode for the ram

I have cleared the BIOS ( or whatever it is called0
and i have tried the other channel too

i suspect nothing is broken cause it is all box fresh

but am i missing something

All advise gratefully received

COCO

[kalniel]

CMX8GX3M2A1600C9 is 1.65v as far as I can tell.

You need 1.5v for Sandy bridge processors. The Mem OK button might be able to find a mode running 1.5V (it'll just be 1333mhz or something).

So is the CPU cooler seated correctly (and did you follow the exact instructions as to what order to push down the pins in etc.)?

You're the second person in a few days to have bought the wrong memory voltage - these things should be researched before buying if you're building a system yourself or you might end up killing a part, which is pricey and almost certainly not covered by insurance if they're fundamentally incompatible parts.

[planet436]

Using 1.65V ram isn't a problem, anything higher will be. Lots ram on the QVL for Asus is 1.65V and you can downvolt it if needed.

Boot with the minimum amount of connectors, 1 HD, 1 stick of ram, gfx card only. Double check that everything is seated properly and you are installing in the blue slots. Slowly add components as required.

[camalbitboy]

Using 1.65V ram isn't a problem, anything higher will be. Lots ram on the QVL for Asus is 1.65V and you can downvolt it if needed.

Boot with the minimum amount of connectors, 1 HD, 1 stick of ram, gfx card only. Double check that everything is seated properly and you are installing in the blue slots. Slowly add components as required.

Ah but as the memory controller is now on the chip and not the board thee board memory qvl is pretty irelevant. If the cpu specifies 1.5v any thing above that may not work.
I tried 2 diff types of 1.65v that crucial recommended for the pro version of that board.
I eventually went with some 1.5v 1600 corsair recommended by Scan and been fine ever since.

[camalbitboy]

.....these things should be researched before buying if you're building a system yourself or you might end up killing a part, which is pricey and almost certainly not covered by insurance if they're fundamentally incompatible parts.

Easier said than done Kalniel.

Sandybridge is a fundamental change to how the components fit together (north bridge and memory controller on cpu rather than board etc) and so requires a revised approach to system building. ( Kalniel - I know you know this better than I, I'm just reiterating it for peeps like me that didn't know)

I have built several systems in the past, not always without issue I'll grant you, but that was a learning process which i had pretty much down pat prior to sandybridge.

When we (enthusiasts) are used to checking a qvl list for a board and taking it that any chips on there are compatible, its pretty poor for them to not specify which cpu it is in conjunction with. The Asus qvl lists a ton of 1.65v options for their 1155 boards which won't be compatible (within spec)with any i5 cpu's (are even i7 cpu's 1.65v?)

As far as researching the change , the point is that the changed info isn't exactly well documented. For example no where on the Scan sale page for a sandybridge cpu does it mention that the memory needs to be 1.5v. It doesn't even mention it on the intel page for the chip. The full datasheet just says that it needs to be within .55v of the Vddq, and you have to dig pretty deep to find that and know what that means, and there is no obvious qvl for memory on the Intel site ( I am aware one does exist that just lists about 3 1.5v modules but its not exactly easy to find or complete)

This is then compounded when you use the corsair (as recommended by scan) or crucial memory configurator which again looks just at the board, which is not the defining factor for memory compatibility in a system anymore, and it comes up with far more 1.65v memory than 1.5v memory options. Crucial for example gave me 3 1.5v options and at least a doxen 1.65v options.

This approach of using qvl's I have followed for years successfully and neither I (due to it not exactly being clear) nor the business have adapted to the sandybridge change hence all the issues that I, and others are now experienceing.

It is worsened when you can see professiosnal system builders using 1.65v memory in 1155 boards with i5 sandybridge cpu's successfully, and yet not every 1.65v memory is equal it appears.

Speaking to a guy at Scan they regularly use corsair 1.65v 1600 vengence memory on these Asus boards with i5 2500k's with no problems, and yet now it appears that other 1.65v 1600 corsair memory isn't compatible at all.

[camalbitboy]

Having just looked at Scan's site they use exactly the same memory as the op in their p67 system as an upgrade option (admittedly not on an Asus mobo) , so it should work according to them. What does Scan have to say about it?

[watercooled]

http://www.crucial.com/uk/promo/inde...es&pid=1422628
then
http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/part...KIT51264BA1339
will get you some 1.5v RAM for £62.69

[ISHOULDCOCO]

Thanks everyone.
I did lots of research , an hour on thermal paste placement alone
( last year i used twin parellel lines on a Q6600 coz of advice and it had separate phys. cores - caused a clear 3mm bubble still got to 3.4)

I knew that vengence dimms have clearence problems on silver arrow HS
In the end I bought a 212+ cause ever forum raved about the value aspect - heartily agree
the Manual lists many other ciorsair dims but not mine
These dimms will all boot at 1.5v on 1333mhz I strongly suspect - DDR engineer spec requirement i I assume anyway - don't think i could have blown a aprt if i tried

Hey , I even researched here - http://forums.hexus.net/help-technic...y-timings.html
kalniel's post had me running to the manual looking for ram voltages jumpers
Of course , i could relax I could only kill this part in the bios settings

Last year i had my ram at 2.1 and clocked at 955mhz down from 1066mhz ( neverworked out why)

This year it seems ram is no longer a constraint , more a luxury

What was wrong ?

after reseating the board and removing all drives , i tried a back up GFX card
Viola ! up comes the much vaunted UEFI
the GFX card was a gigabyte 4870 from 2008 - i could even hear the firmware rev up the fan as a test - but something was wrong - nm

Back into the Antec 100 with backup card

got a 140/120 in and a 140/120 out - 26/25/27/23degs

all good

COCO

[planet436]

Glad you fixed it , does that board not have LEDs which light up if there are boot problems indicating which component it is? The PRO version does and makes it easy to troubleshoot.

[ISHOULDCOCO]

No leds, No Vcore either ( well none I could see)

followed this guide
http://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/overc...beginners.html

got to 4.5Ghz
Stays up for 2.5 hours of PRIME95 , I think that is fine , for the moment

COCO

[planet436]

You can also OC using offset voltage rather than manual. The official ASUS thread on hardocp has some interesting posts on how to do this. Main benefit of using offset is you will idle with much lower voltage and only bump it up when under load.

I've found IntelBurnTest stresses the CPU more than prime does and produces higher temps. I've had instability within a few minutes of running it that weren't picked up in prime for an hour.

[roachyuk]

Thanks only just signed up as receiving my sandybridge today and that link is helpful thanks.