I have a gig of corsair xms2 xpert ddr2-675 and they cant overclock for crap. the highest i could get them is 343mhz, or ddr2-686. so as a future reference, if you want good overclocking memory, dont go with XMS2 xpert... but on the plus side, they are good at letting you know that their speed is TOO high...for instance i tried to get them running past 343mhz...after i raised the FSB some more, one stick worked, and the other did not. it was not recognized by memtest or windows, and infact on the LED display, it said "FREQ: 0.00MHZ"..so i spose thats a plus.
From what i have found with the skills of 'google' is that the motherboard you are using usually overclocks in the region to 270-280mhz, so to have pushed the board up to 343MHz is no mean feat. Seriously unless you have proof of your board clocking above 343MHz dont blame the memory. Have you tierd lowering the CPU multipler to see if its your 3500+ that is limiting or overclock? What volts are you pushing threw the sticks?
the FSB was not at 343mhz... at a 218FSB the memory was running at 343mhz (ddr2-686) (for some reason the mobo defaulted the speed to 316mhz, not 337.5) when i raised the FSB to anything above 220MHZ, the memory (which would now be at about 345-346mhz) would screw up and the mobo would not recognize one stick. there is no way in hell i could get the FSB up to 343mhz, duh. i think you misread what i said.
have you manually set the timings or is the bios auto setting them? If so then usually the bios runs as tight as it can. Go check that.
I had a gig of Corsair XMS2 675(Revision 7.2) before, and it clocked up to about DDR2-830 with 5-5-5-15 timings at 2 volts, that was tested on my friends EVGA nForce590 AM2 board. Even if you have a bad revision, that still seems like a very low max frequency, try upping the voltage a bit if you have to(not too much though!)
BIOS is retarded and wont let me change the voltage. I have updated it as well. the default timings are 4-4-4-12 but the BIOS has them set to 4-5-4-15. stock voltage is 1.94v. btw you are from elmhurst? im from naperville.
Are you sure your BIOS won't allow voltage changes? I'm pretty sure even my 945P low end MSI board would do that. I know my current one can. I'd browse around the Cell Menu a bit more. I'd change the timings to 5-5-5-15, that should let you push a bit higher without voltage increases. Naperville, I have some relatives there, and my mom's a teacher there.
How about updating your bios? Look a bit harder, im sure it should allow you to change the voltage on it...
read this post. the Ram Guy from corsair support seems to be hinting at my PSU. http://houseofhelp.com/v3/showthread.php?t=60804 opinions? im pretty sure i cannot change the voltage. i can highlight it in the BIOS, (its not grayed out as if i cannot select it) but when i press enter it does nothing. ill try again though, as this was a while ago. i have updated the BIOS too, but it is not at the latest version. i really see no need since im not having real major issues. **what school does she teach at? just curious.
I hate to suggest this, but have you pressed Page Up or Page Down? (Or the equivalent) Some BIOS' don't have the little pop-up selection menu jobby for everything. I suspect you'll have to accept that that's as far as it goes for now though tbh - either your PSU's crapping out, or your mobo's reached it's limit. The PSU would be quite surprising imho, but definately not the mobo.
i really doubt its my PSU. the air coming out the back is never very very hot, it doesnt get very loud, and i have had no signs of instability (random restarts, freezing, games crashing). plus the recommended wattage for my system as stated the extreme outvision psu calculator is 287 watts (100% cpu and PSU load, cpu oc @ 2.617ghz, 20% capacitor aging). it might just be the mobo. also going along with the stick not being recognized, this only happens to the 2nd DIMM slot..\ but i ran memtest about an hour ago and guess what? zero errors.
To change the voltage in that style, press the + and - buttons while it's highlighted, that should do the trick, I think my other MSI board did the voltage that way, I can't remember about this one, I just know it worked. The ram and mobo should push higher, and the PSU is probably fine as calculators over-rate things, so if 287 is a high estimate you should have no issues. Good luck taking it higher, I'm curious as to how high it will go!
i loosened the timings to 5-5-5-15 to be safe. ill raise the voltage a bit later this afternoon...i have to go to a meeting this morning, and i am on a different PC atm as well. will report back promptly
I have some DDR stuff and that overclocks pretty damn well. My other experiences of Corsair RAM reflect this as well. Generally most of the high performance stuff is the same chip, so modules overclock in similar amounts. I find it highly likely that it's either some other influence (like a crappy motherboard) or you might have just gotten a not very good pair.
its probably just DIMM voltage and me having to raise it. for now im going to OC as far as i can with the RAM at 533mhz, then increase voltage and set it to 667
