RAM Timings

jalebi · 07 Sep 2010

I have been experiencing random BSODs. My memory could have been the culprit. I've run memtest for 10+ hours and no issues so its not faulty.

While snooping around the BIOS, however, I noticed that the CAS timings were 9-9-9-24 instead of the 9-9-9-20 mentioned on the website. Should I change them manually or leave it be?

Also, the RAM frequency is set to AUTO. The "target frequency" listed in the BIOS is 1333mhz but memtest reported frequencies of 667mhz. Do I change anything? Could these settings potentially be the cause of my problems?

Wishmaster · 07 Sep 2010

If timings were to be causing issues, it would be more likely to happen @ 9-9-9-20 than 9-9-9-24.

The 24 is a looser timing.

You can try it, and memtest again to be sure its stable. The increase in performance will be minimal at best and you'd likely never notice it.

I can not recall off hand how Memtest reports frequency, but what does CPUZ say?

Remember DDR = Double Data Rate.
So a frequency of 667 * 2 (Double rate) is an effective 1334 mhz, just as the bios reports.

So it would be normal for 1333 RAM to be reported by some applications as 667.

Mellon Head · 07 Sep 2010

Memtest reports the actual clock speed of the sticks, so 667 MHz is right.

On my rig, CPU-Z reports 667, just like Memtest86 does.