Proper GA-X58a-UD7 (REV. 1) BIOS settings?

[Att1cus]

Hello, as the subject states, I am using a REV 1 GA-X58a-UD7 motherboard.  I am using 8 GB of OCZ OCZ3X16002G RAM (the best specs i can find for this discontinued RAM are here: http://webrevolutionary.com/price/OCZ-4GB-12800-DDR3-1600-Dual-Channel-Kit-OCZ3X16002G_130472569435.html)
I am also using an Intel i7 960 Bloomfield.  can anyone tell me the highest-performance settings I should have enabled in the Gigabyte BIOS to get the max performance?  I'll need CPU, RAM, and motherboard BIOS options numbers, as specific as possible - thanks ahead of time.

[Dark Mantis]

Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte Forum.

Firstly I would like to point out that these memory modules are not designed for the X58 chiposet motherboard. They may work but you are taking a risk. If you decide to press ahead you will have to run in Dual Channel Mode instead of Triple Channel which would be optimal. The timings shiould be printed on the side of the modules along with the voltage to use.

[Att1cus]

Can you recommend the best possible memory the board would support? I'd like to get this new memory in either 12GB or 24GB sets.  If I'm going to switch RAM, I may as well upgrade capacity as well.

[Dark Mantis]

Well personally I like the Corsair Dominator 1600. I believe they come as large matched kits which is what you require. Failing that try Mushkin as that is excellent memory too. Check out Corsairs QVL for the motherboard.

http://www.corsair.com/

[Att1cus]

I went out today and picked up a pair of 12GB triple channel kits: http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0342669

I believe they're much more compatible, so now can you recommend BIOS value settings?  Should I turn on XMP in bios?

[Dark Mantis]

You will almost certainly have to make all the settings manually if you are filling all the slots. You will have to increase the memory voltage a touch to compensate for the extra loading on the controller. Make sure that you mark the different kits of modules as they mustn't be mixed up. One kit goes in one colour slots and the other in the other colour slots.

[Att1cus]

I have made sure not to mix them up.  They are installed and Windows as well as BIOS sees all 24 GB of them.  Any ideas for a set of proper values in bios? and should i use XMP?

[Dark Mantis]

No you won't be able to use XMP as I mentioned before, I doubt, as you will have to do all the settinmgs manually. By all means try using XMP but you will be very lucky if it works. Use the timings that came with the XMP setting and up the memory voltage about 0.05v

[Att1cus]

The RAM product page recommends 9-9-9-24 timings at 1.65V, but the default when I opened BIOS was 1.5v.  Taking your advice for a .05v increase, it is currently running at 9-9-9-24 with 1.55v.  Should I bump the voltage to the recommended 1.65v? or was your previous recommendation for a voltage bump supposed to be added onto the native 1.65v, bringing it to 1.7v?

[Dark Mantis]

Yes you were correct I meant to add the 0.05 v onto the 1.65v. Try 1.68 or 1.70. You might get away with the lower value wihich is preferable as it means less heat.

The 1.5v is because that is the JEDEC standard at 1333 MHz.

[Att1cus]

Switched the voltage to 1.70v and adjusted the multiplier to 1600 from where it was at 1066.  With the self-set timings, all is running very smoothly.

[Dark Mantis]

Great stuff! It was a case of knowing it should work ok just having to make a few adjustments.