GeIL 6400, 4-4-4-12. Is it any good?

A

Archmage

New member
Hi Guys (and possibly gals?),

I'm trying to nail down which DDR2 to go with my new duo 6600.

Just noticed that overclockers are doing a special this week on GeIL 6400 4-4-4-12 @ £110 + VAT.

It's cheaper than the GSkill but I'm afraid I'm a bit out of touch with who's who in

the world of memory (That's what you get from having kids!).

Any advice would be welcome.

Cheers,

Andy
 
Geil do some very nice memory, and the timings on that are pretty good. I'd say go for it. You'll probably be able to loosen the timings and overclock it quite a bit further if needed too.
 
name='XMS' said:
Geil do some very nice memory, and the timings on that are pretty good. I'd say go for it. You'll probably be able to loosen the timings and overclock it quite a bit further if needed too.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that XMS. I think I will.:worship:

I'll let you know how I get on, although it may be some time before I have all the pieces of the jigsaw (and no pic on the lid to go by);)

Cheers.
 
I was looking at the same RAM as you Archmage, for my e6600. After reading this review I'm looking at getting some Mushkin goodness. Although, for that price you quoted, it's definitely too good a deal to pass up. :)
 
Thanks, I've taken the plunge and it arrived this morning!

Once I can nail down which MB to get, I'll be able to let you know how it goes.
 
Just out of interest is the ram any good? I've had 3 sets all been DOA now I've sent them back to Geil in Taiwan, waiting for them to return them they have been with them for nearly 2 weeks but they are not answering my E mails.

Initially I thought I'd lost the plot I mean 3 sets DOA just doesn't happen but OcUK checked them and they were DOA maybe I've been really unlucky so just wanted to know if yours are any good.

I'll have that lovely Kingston I won in the competition soon so I won't be too worried about the Geil then.

Hope yours is OK would be interested if it overclocks well.
 
kimandsally said:
Just out of interest is the ram any good?

Hope yours is OK would be interested if it overclocks well.
Click to expand...

I have only dry tested the MB, C2D and the ram with an existing setup. Still mulling over which case to get.:(

Everything looked OK but didn't try OC'ing owt yet. Was you ram OK at stock speeds? I wonder if mine is from the same batch, SN6000431?

Cheers, Andy
 
Archmage said:
I have only dry tested the MB, C2D and the ram with an existing setup. Still mulling over which case to get.:(

Everything looked OK but didn't try OC'ing owt yet. Was you ram OK at stock speeds? I wonder if mine is from the same batch, SN6000431?

Cheers, Andy
Click to expand...

Hi there I don't have the numbers but for sure they were much higher something like SN001234 there lots of numbers not many zero's so probably made much later, 2 sets wouldn't run at all 1 set ran but not @ 800mhz with 4-4-4-12 timings that's the set I've sent back to Geil with any luck I'll get a decent set this time I've asked if they will test them before they send them to me.

Please post what yours does so I know what to expect when mine turns up.

Good luck.
 
That's bad luck mate, sorry to hear you're having so much trouble with your RAM. I can't imagine that it would keep dying for you unless something in your system is killing it.
 
name='FragTek' said:
That's bad luck mate, sorry to hear you're having so much trouble with your RAM. I can't imagine that it would keep dying for you unless something in your system is killing it.
Click to expand...

Hi just think it's bad luck have some Corsair in it runs great and to add insult to my injury I bought 2 sets initially one for me one for a friend his works fine and in my system too, just goes that way sometimes but hey look what luck I had on here, won the Kingston ram competition that more than makes up for my bad luck :yumyum:

I've had quite a lot of Geil in the past and never had a problem, I build PC's for a small part of my income and have always used Geil value must have bought 25-35 sets without a glitch and most of it overclocks very good as well. It just happens sometimes, I once copped for 2 DOA motherboards about 2 years ago and since never had another problem.

I think it's a numbers game if Geil sell 1,000's of sets some are going to be bad it's just bad luck as probably the rest of the batch is probably OK.
 
kimandsally said:
2 sets wouldn't run at all 1 set ran but not @ 800mhz with 4-4-4-12 timings

Please post what yours does so I know what to expect when mine turns up.

Good luck.
Click to expand...

kimandsally, I have to say I agree with your comments over on the overclockers forum, I' m a bit disappointed with the performance. As you say, when they get 1150+ on test, you'd think we could get 850MHz?

The spd's are a long way out from the spec values (1.8V, 667MHz and slack timings), so no wonder they worked when I first dropped them in.

To All...........

Switching everything to manual on my P5W-DH and setting to 800MHz, 2.1V, 4-4-4-12-4 timings seems to run XP OK, though I'm still not convinced that it's error free at these settings. It's deffo not above 800MHz. Tried 825MHz and it crashed more than my missus;)

Back to 800MHz; Problems start when I stress it with Memtest(Windows) or Memtest86(Dos). I'd welcome any advice on the reliability of these progs and if there's owt better to use. Memtest86 shows no errors at 800Mhz, finds loads with anything above. Also tried adjusting the volts, 2.3V is max for these, but no joy.

Memtest in windows seems to come up with one error, first time through and as yet, no more???? (Currently at 400% coverage, on two copies, still one error). Memtest faq declares that it's a brute and if it finds an error, your rams faulty or badly setup. I have seen a few threads floating around that say that the P5W doesn't do a good job with the hidden settings when in manual timings but I'm now running out of settings to twiddle with.

I have an RMA for these but OCr's will test them on return and then charge me for the pleasure, if found OK:(

Alternatively, I could stick em on pEBay and make a few quid, as the price has shot up to £180.

As always, I would appreciate any advice.

Cheers..........
 
Archmage said:
kimandsally, I have to say I agree with your comments over on the overclockers forum, I' m a bit disappointed with the performance. As you say, when they get 1150+ on test, you'd think we could get 850MHz?

The spd's are a long way out from the spec values (1.8V, 667MHz and slack timings), so no wonder they worked when I first dropped them in.

To All...........

Switching everything to manual on my P5W-DH and setting to 800MHz, 2.1V, 4-4-4-12-4 timings seems to run XP OK, though I'm still not convinced that it's error free at these settings. It's deffo not above 800MHz. Tried 825MHz and it crashed more than my missus;)

Back to 800MHz; Problems start when I stress it with Memtest(Windows) or Memtest86(Dos). I'd welcome any advice on the reliability of these progs and if there's owt better to use. Memtest86 shows no errors at 800Mhz, finds loads with anything above. Also tried adjusting the volts, 2.3V is max for these, but no joy.

Memtest in windows seems to come up with one error, first time through and as yet, no more???? (Currently at 400% coverage, on two copies, still one error). Memtest faq declares that it's a brute and if it finds an error, your rams faulty or badly setup. I have seen a few threads floating around that say that the P5W doesn't do a good job with the hidden settings when in manual timings but I'm now running out of settings to twiddle with.

I have an RMA for these but OCr's will test them on return and then charge me for the pleasure, if found OK:(

Alternatively, I could stick em on pEBay and make a few quid, as the price has shot up to £180.

As always, I would appreciate any advice.

Cheers..........
Click to expand...

If they won't pass memtest at the 4-4-4-12 settings then they are not running at their rated speed so I would assume a RMA is in order, but it depends on how they test them, I would send them back with exactly what tests you have used along with the results of those tests, then they should be able to repeat it.

The set I got back from Geil are much better but still not quite as good as the Golden set Gibbo used for the review, in fact I haven't heard of anyone who has a set as good as that one and considering there are some very good well known overclockers that have tried it something is wrong, I challenged Gibbo as to why on the same day he used Corsair for the Custom PC entry if the Geil was so good, then he again submitted a better score using the Corsair again.

Custom PC did a huge review on DDR2 ram this month and they didn't even test the Geil, which is a shame as it would have helped to show where it does fit in compared to the other offerings.
 
if you notice, gibbo used the 1333 strap on the Intel BadAxe...

giving much looser chipset latencies (and allowing unheard of memory clocks) but *forgot* to mention it until questioned

even then claimed he knew nothing about the looser strap allowing higher memory clocks

all mem clocks on the bad axe using the 1333 strap can be taken with a pinch of salt as proper benchers have managed cas 3 over ddr1000 using it, but performance sucks
 
i have the 2gb set of this ram for sale in the europe section of for sale and wanted, current bidding is at £150 + postage
 
Pyr0 said:
if you notice, gibbo used the 1333 strap on the Intel BadAxe...

giving much looser chipset latencies (and allowing unheard of memory clocks) but *forgot* to mention it until questioned

even then claimed he knew nothing about the looser strap allowing higher memory clocks

all mem clocks on the bad axe using the 1333 strap can be taken with a pinch of salt as proper benchers have managed cas 3 over ddr1000 using it, but performance sucks
Click to expand...

I didn't know that, the strap is something I know little about I have the Gigabyte DS4 and as far as I know there is no strap adjustment on it, strap is something I would like to learn more about, is there a guide as to what it does anywhere?
 
the strap on the 965 boards is automatically switched once you go over a 400MHz FSB

on most boards it only makes a fairly small difference..

with the bad axe, the 1333 strap MCH latencies are so loose that cas 3 over ddr1000 is possible with some fairly decent micron D9 memory. but performance suffers so badly that there is often no benefit and sometimes a detimental effect

There was a lot of discussion on the subject over on XS when people first started showing such huge memory clocks and most people decided badaxe mem clocks using the 1333 strap were useless

Tony wrote a guide to the strap settings on the 975 board on the bleedinedge forums:

http://www.bleedinedge.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22297

a lot of it will apply to the 965 chipset too, but as far as i know the strap hasn't been made selectable on any boards using that chipset yet.

Tony is supposed to meeting with Asus today and pleading with them to open up the BIOS settings for the P5B Dlx
 
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