Help with RAM timings

[ICIT2LOL]

The board I ma using is a Gigabyte GA-890FXA-UD7 and it has the old type legacy BIOS and I don't really know that much about using it because it comes up with loads of tech abbreviations that I just don't know what to do with.
There are two things I would like some help with
1. in the BIOS settings I have an option for IDE one for ACHI and one for something I am not familiar with but all the SATA connections are listed under IDE ones and I am wondering if I should change the IDE to ACHI and why are the drives showing up as IDE settings the C: dive also showing as a slave drive no matter what I plug it into on the board's SATA 3 sockets. .
2. The board has two sticks of 1600MHz RAM installed and is set to auto which is giving me at present a DDR of 1333MHz and I would like to make it run at 1600MHz
Now in the pics are the choices I have but have no idea of what to set the options are. I will try to download them in sequence but it is the last one that I have no idea on what to change if I go manual.

 

[RoasterMen]

I just want to know what processor are you using though, maybe it's why it's not pushing 1600mhz because the processor only have 1333mhz fsb

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Hello Roaster mate I am or it (my sons machine) an AMD Phenom II x6 1090T (Pharaoh code named Thuban??) I haven't much experience with AMD stuff and never could understand some of the legacy stuff being spoilt by the EUFI really.

I just upped the ante to 16GB RAM with a couple of matched pairs too I suppose nay timings will work with both??

 

[RoasterMen]

According to cpu-world.com, it has667 MHz Memory controller and one 2000 MHz 16-bit HyperTransport link (4 GT/s). Still not sure what this means but I am sure members which owns AMD know well what this means.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Yep Roaster I think from what I can gather it as something to do with threading and what ones can be used when clocking the RAM it's all so convoluted to an ordinary user like myself yet simple to those who like you said have had AMD cores for ages.

 

[Mellon Head]

On that processor, the maximum RAM speed is 1333 MHz. AMD memory controllers do not like to be pushed, so it would be unwise to go beyond 1333 MHz even if the BIOS will let you.

Unlike Intel systems, AMD processors have the memory controller on die (included in the same case as the CPU) and are subject to overheating, and overheating the CPU if pushed beyond their limits. Remembering some discussions at Overclocker's Forums, the Thuban and Phenom II series memory controllers are rather skittish if you don't get them tuned just right, if you are over clocking the RAM, which is what you'll have to do to get 1600 MHz out of those sticks.

It can be done, but like I said, they are skittish and fussy. You will also have to deal with the extra heat the OC will generate. (In other words, don't so it with a stock cooler.) You will also stress the memory controller a substantial amount as it may require a voltage bump to get the RAM to run at 1600.

As I said above, I would stay at 1333 MHz.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Ok Mellon Head mate I was looking at the board's specs when I saw the RAM could be clocked to 2000MHz I didn't think it would involve the CPU as well.

Now that might explain then when my son owned this machine that the RAM became bad in a couple of sticks then?? because I know he tried OCing the CPU and he said that the machine did run mot as well as he thought it would and that the GPU was all over the place. Finding the bad RAM sticks was a pure piece of luck because I had run out of things to try and just thought memtest what have I got to lose and within a minute the errors cropped up.

So I suppose he was lucky not to fry the CPU??

 

[Layback Bear]

I agree with Bryan. If it was my system I would not over clock the ram.
I have never found much see-able improvement in over clocking ram.
Every cpu has it ram limitation. On Intel system I have cheated a little by installing faster ram than recommended but each system has it's point of no return. On the older Intel cpu's the memory controller was on the cpu chip and one had to be careful of pushing the ram to hard because of the extra heat put on the cpu.

Jack

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Yes Jack and everyone I will leave the RAM alone because of the fickleness of the CPU if nothing else and to be honest when the Ivy was up and running clocking the RAM at 2400 really meant nothing to me I didn't see it leap off the desk and run across the floor chasing it's tail eh LOL!!

I think the current machine was slow when I got it from my son because the two sticks of Corsair Vengeance he had plugged in were bad and it was just pure luck I ran that memtest and found it to be bad. What surprises me a bit is why didn't the machine blue screen with bad sticks in because the errors came up within a minute of the test starting??