Current Spec (Unstable) and Upgrade Advice.

[Willzzz]

Well no, generally speaking I expect memory to work. But having been in the same situation as this guy, once you have a problem you want to be a bit more precise in order to resolve it.

Although generally speaking I would suggest sticking to mainstream memory speeds as the advantages of using overclocked memory are usually tiny and it is more likely to cause issues.

[ehhhhhhh]

I had the same issue with my x4 940 rig. I had to set the memory to 1333 and I had no BSODs after that. Try to set the memory to a lower frequency and higher timings.

Testing with prime95 helped me a lot.

[obev0098]

Hello Everyone.

I'm currently in the process of selecting & reviewing hardware to upgrade my current system. I'm struggling with a few aspects of this upgrade and would appreciate any advice. The setup is for gaming.

Current Setup.

Chasis... HAF 932... http://www.scan.co.uk/products/coole...nt-fan-w-o-psu
Motherboard... GA-790XTA-UD4... http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/mothe...specifications
CPU... AMD Phenom II X4... http://www.scan.co.uk/products/amd-p...he-125w-retail
CPU Fan... Titan Fenrir... http://www.synaline.com/store/produc...PU-Cooler.html
Memory... Corsair Vengeance 8GB... http://www.scan.co.uk/products/8gb-(...-9-27-xmp-150v
Display Adapter... AMD Radeon 6900... http://www.msi.com/product/vga/R6950...dition-OC.html

Proposed Upgrade.

Chasis... Fractal R4... http://www.scan.co.uk/products/fract...noise-mid-case
Motherboard... Sabertooth 990FX... http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-...e-20-(x16)-atx
CPU... AMD Phenom II X4... http://www.scan.co.uk/products/amd-p...he-125w-retail
Hard Drive... Samsung SSD... http://www.scan.co.uk/products/256gb...-write-400mb-s

So I was going to upgrade the CPU to : http://www.scan.co.uk/products/amd-f...-s-125w-retail

However after reading some reviews the my current CPU seems to be better. Could someone please confirm this?
Can anyone recommend a good cooling system?
I'm struggling with memory, I would like to take it to 16GB. I'm confused how to go about this though, can I keep my existing memory and just buy the same and add to the new motherboard?

If anyone can put together a good build for me I would be grateful

[obev0098]

By the way, my current setup is not stable.

Power supply is modular 850.

[kalniel]

Power supply is modular 850.

What make/model? And did you try lowering the RAM speed as suggested?

You're right that that CPU upgrade won't do much for gaming. Likewise, 8GB RAM is already overkill, you won't gain a thing by going for 16GB. For gaming you need GPU, then CPU. If you're keeping them then there's no point just swapping out other components.

Just add an SSD to the system, do a clean install of windows onto it and check that you're running a good PSU and you're good to go.

[jim]

Merging these since they're virtually the same thread, cheers for the info

[peterb]

I've merged some consecutive posts to make thread more readable.

[obev0098]

What make/model? And did you try lowering the RAM speed as suggested?

You're right that that CPU upgrade won't do much for gaming. Likewise, 8GB RAM is already overkill, you won't gain a thing by going for 16GB. For gaming you need GPU, then CPU. If you're keeping them then there's no point just swapping out other components.

Just add an SSD to the system, do a clean install of windows onto it and check that you're running a good PSU and you're good to go.

Corsair HX 850w is the PSU
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/850w-...t-fan-atx-v231

Will upgrading the Motherboard not help with performance?

And could you advise the differences between my current memory which is http://www.scan.co.uk/products/8gb-(...-9-27-xmp-150v

compared to this : http://www.scan.co.uk/products/8gb-(...-9-24-xmp-150v

The problem i'm having with the memory is that when I set the speeds up in the Bios to 1866 its not stable.

[kalniel]

The problem i'm having with the memory is that when I set the speeds up in the Bios to 1866 its not stable.

That's probably not the memory's fault. AFAIK 1866 isn't a supported frequency by the CPU or motherboard, so you're reliant on overclocking the memory controller to get RAM running at that speed. There aren't any benefits to running it at that speed either for the most part

And could you advise the differences between my current memory which is http://www.scan.co.uk/products/8gb-(...-9-27-xmp-150v

compared to this : http://www.scan.co.uk/products/8gb-(...-9-24-xmp-150v

The first set is 1866 verified. The second is 1600 verified.

Upgrading motherboard rarely has any effect on gaming performance, and your cooler is good.

Just get an SSD, do a clean windows install to it, and run the RAM at a speed supported by your CPU/mobo, eg 1333mhz.

[scaryjim]

That's probably not the memory's fault. AFAIK 1866 isn't a supported frequency by the CPU or motherboard, so you're reliant on overclocking the memory controller to get RAM running at that speed. There aren't any benefits to running it at that speed either for the most part

This. The Phenom II is only rated for 1333Mhz, so you're asking the memory controller to drive well above its rated frequency. You might get away with 1600MHz on the memory, but you're likely to find your machine is more stable at 1333MHz. And as kalniel also points out, you'll not notice any significant performance difference with slower memory - in fact iirc the Phenom II runs better with slower memory with tighter latencies. What you might find is that since your memory is rated at 9-10-9-27 timings at 1866MHz, you might be able to run it at something like 8-8-8-24 at 1333MHz. There's more to making your computer faster than just ramping clock speeds higher and higher

[obev0098]

This. The Phenom II is only rated for 1333Mhz, so you're asking the memory controller to drive well above its rated frequency. You might get away with 1600MHz on the memory, but you're likely to find your machine is more stable at 1333MHz. And as kalniel also points out, you'll not notice any significant performance difference with slower memory - in fact iirc the Phenom II runs better with slower memory with tighter latencies. What you might find is that since your memory is rated at 9-10-9-27 timings at 1866MHz, you might be able to run it at something like 8-8-8-24 at 1333MHz. There's more to making your computer faster than just ramping clock speeds higher and higher

This is starting to make sense now lol, I never really understood what the rating mean like 9-10-9-27. I'll try the settings of 8-8-8-24 at 1333MHz, does underclocking the memory effect how it performs? What i'm saying is am I better just buying memory at 1333Mhz?

Thanks for your help.

[kalniel]

This is starting to make sense now lol, I never really understood what the rating mean like 9-10-9-27. I'll try the settings of 8-8-8-24 at 1333MHz, does underclocking the memory effect how it performs? What i'm saying is am I better just buying memory at 1333Mhz?

No you're not better buying memory at 1333mhz, your existing memory is great and will have no problems running at lower speeds.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Run the memory at 1333MHZ using lose timings and see if the same issues persist.

[scaryjim]

In layman's terms, the timing numbers refer to the number of cycles it takes for information to be released from memory once it's requested - lower numbers mean the information gets back to the CPU that little bit quicker. Phenom IIs don't really benefit much from increasing the clockspeed of the memory - which affects how much information can be transferred each second - but they do benefit from lower latency - that is, how quickly the information comes back after each request.

It's not as simple as underclocking affecting memory performance: some setups like more bandwidth, some like lower latencies, and currently memory is the last place to look for a system bottleneck in most circumstances, as current memory technologies tend to provide ample bandwidth for most tasks: when you do see a performance difference it's generally around 1% or less.

The main benefit of buying higher-rated RAM is that it has been tested to that level of performance, so you know the memory is of a certain quality. With standard modules (say, 1333MHz at 9-9-9-27) the modules are only guaranteed to run at those settings. With faster modules, they're guaranteed to run at a much higher speed, which means that if you lower the clockspeeds you have the possibility of lowering the latencies, or reducing the voltage you're using (this can help the memory run cooler and put less strain on the memory controller in the CPU), or tweaking other settings. It gives you more flexibility. And as others have said: if you have 8GB of high rated memory already, don't both buying any more, and don't bother changing it for anything different. You've already got perfectly good memory for your system. Just play with the settings until it is stable (If you want a default setting to test for stability, 1333MHz at 9-9-9-27 is pretty standard).

[obev0098]

Thank you for everyone's help and advice.

I'll try the lowering the Memory to 1333Mhz and let you know how it performs.

[Sputnik]

Deleted.