Dodgy ddr2 worth replacing?

pillphil

Specs:
Q6600 2.4ghz
p5b mobo
4GB ram 2*crucial ballistix 1GB + 1 kingston hyperx 2GB
sapphire 7870 2GB
cx500

I'm getting occasional 0xC05 application hangs. I've tested my ram with memtest, it fails with all three sticks in, but each individually passes, and each one passes in the slot it is in when all three are in.

So I'm thinking it's mismatched ram causing the problem.

Is it worth my while replacing the ram or should I replace the processor mobo and ram?

pillphil

I just nicked these part from someone else's post, would this be much of an improvement?

Item|Price
AMD FX-6300 Prozessor, Boxed, Sockel AM3+|€90.47
8GB-Kit Crucial Ballistix Sport Series DDR3-1600, CL9|€62.23
Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3, AMD 760G, mATX|€49.57
Sharkoon MA-W1000, mATX, ohne Netzteil|€37.29
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€258.55

ShadowHearth

If you still happy with performance of you PC, then replacing faulty ram would be a lot cheaper way of doing it. You could pick up 2gbx2 on adverts for about 50eu. You might even get lucky and try to add your old stick to bump it up to 6gb. Maybe only some sticks are faulty, not all of them.

The build posted above is nice, cheap and cheerful, but if you are upgrading from q6600 system, then might as well upgrade to something more beefy that will give a lot more perfromance. No point upgrading to get a slight bump in performance.

pillphil

Ya, I was thinking if it wasn't much of an improvement it might be worth replacing the ram.
Just looking at the memory there, the kingston is 2.3v and the crucial is 2.0v, I wonder if that's what's causing the problem?

ShadowHearth

pillphil wrote: »

Ya, I was thinking if it wasn't much of an improvement it might be worth replacing the ram.
Just looking at the memory there, the kingston is 2.3v and the crucial is 2.0v, I wonder if that's what's causing the problem?

Might. When you pare 2 different ram, there is always a chance of something go wrong. Even the silliest smallest thing can go do dodgy land.
Try both sets of ram on its own. Might be that both pairs are perfectly fine, just get dodgy when paired with something they dont want to work with.
When you pin point which one is good, just buy another 4gb 2x2gb and add it up to working pair. In the end - 6gb ram.

*2.0 and 2.3 thing most likely is the issue there.

pillphil

Agh, so frustrating, one stick of ballsitix(either one) and the kingston together = no problem, 2 sticks of ballistix no problem, all three = error.

I wonder if 2x2GB ballistix 800mhz 1.8v would work with the 2x1GB ballistix 1066mhz 2.0v I have if they were all at 800mhz? Or wouldI just have the same problem?

ShadowHearth

I have not encoutered this myself, but my rule is to get same valtage. so aim both for 2.0 or 1.8, but I think 2.0 is more popular?

As for 800mhz or 667mhz You can match those both, they will just work on lower speed, in this case at 667mhz. again, you better off getting same ones if you can, but it would not be as bas as voltage difference.

ED E

If you're trying to do dual channel should it not be matched? As in Ballistix/Kinston/Ballistix/Kingston or Ballistix/Ballistix/Kingston/Kingston?

Thats normally the idea IIRC and might make it more stable. It could also be that the board is just failing to power three sticks correctly, its gotta be pretty ancient at this point (I'm still running a Q6600 but on a workstation board with DDR3).

pillphil

Ya, the boards ancient, it's the original p5b. By matched, do yo mean the position or that I'm one stick short? I had another kingston, but that failed a while ago. I've ordered another 4GB, so I'll see how that works out.

ED E

Yeah, boards tend to like to be "balanced". On some thats slots 0,1 the same and 2,3 the same, others its 0,2 and 1, 3.