Aurora R7 - 2933Mhz HyperX memory option?

The mention of stability is in article www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/sln297032/alienware-overclocking - para 4

Crucial does say their Ballistix Tactical 3000 and Elite 3200 are OK upgrades for the R7.  But I want to wait for Adorama to get them in, because there is a huge price difference from direct purchase.

I sent this email to Alienware Support. I hope they have an answer:

I am very disappointed that a GAMING computer from Dell cannot provide state of the art memory at speeds currently available. Being stuck at 2666MHz or even 2933MHz (not available according to Dell sales) is ridiculous. If motherboards can support up to 4000MHz the R7 seems to be limited technology with EXTREMELY LIMITED memory choice.

I can’t seem to have these questions answered:

1. Is the R7 locked into 1.2 volts for RAM?

2. Can I use XMP memory in 3000 MHz or 3200 MHz in the R7 to get beyond the 2666MHz or 2933 MHz barrier ?

3. Do I have to manually adjust BIOS to use the higher 1.35 volt memory if so ?

4. My R7 has Micron memory – Can I use the affiliated Crucial memory with XMP at the speeds above 2933 MHz ?

I would appreciate answers to these questions for myself as well as many others who are also frustrated with this problem. Not explaining why this problem exists and how it can be overcome can only hurt future reviews (currently good) when users visit gaming websites and find there is no choice for such an important component. I can’t believe that an engineer cannot address these concerns before the R7 is tainted.

At 6:55 this morning he said that they would respond. Hoping for some answers.

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

Browsing eBay tonight I came across the R7 liquid cooler for sale, 15minutes later the entire desktop with 16Gb memory came up for sale which caught my attention, so I peaked at it

I messaged the seller

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update G.Skill RipJaws V 3000 Works

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I've dialed mine back to 2933, the 3600 XMP profile is 1.35v as we'd expect

It can run across-the-board at 2666 2933 3200 3400 3600 speeds as I so choose, so as we see, G.Skill is a viable kit for @HRGreen, a person might try (pay a little more for) 3200 / 3400 etc; when it gets there > shoot for 2933 > if it passes p/o/s/t then try for 3200 & beyond; buy from vendor who accepts ez returns like Newegg (as opposed to private seller)

LDKLDK wrote:

I have found that:

I have 16GB of Micron 8ATF1G64AZ-2G6H1 installed. 

In R7 Setup and Specifications (p.19) it looks as if the total range of memory is 2666MHz to 2933MHz at 1.2 v.

The page only references one brand (HyperX FURY).

The Kingston HyperX FURY DDR4 XMP is not available on the Kingston website (supposedly proprietary) or anywhere else.  I have spent many hours looking.

 

Similar as Aurora-R6. Their Kingston Fury DIMMs are Kingston OEM special. You can't really buy them (machine must come that way). So, can't match a single existing one, so you have to start over. I think they have unique XMP burnt into them. Like someone said above, you should be able to set other model memory as Custom Profile to be similar.

I submitted a bunch of stuff to the Aliens and it appears they listened somewhat for Aurora-R7. At least now, they tell you how many DIMMs you are getting (as you know, you need pairs to achieve true dual-channel).

 Aurora R6 Memory Question: Why a single DIMM? 

and search for others. It's different motherboard and slower ram, but it's the same Aliens.

I think it is clear that there is no 1.2 volt limit; in the profiles in the AW Control Center, the Default mode sets the volts to 1.2 non-XMP, while the OC Level 2 is 1.3 volts XMP1.  This is borne out by benchmark tests showing a boost in speed to about 2850.  These are just  templates, not absolute limits.  I'm guessing that 1.35 volts might be XMP2, and push out more like 2933.  Data for different ddr4 is usually presented in a similar way: a base frequency for non-XMP, and usually faster for XMP 1 and 2.

I read that the limit on ram speed which tests very high in the lab is partly the board design, which must have carefully matched lands from the sockets, etc., for closely matched propagation times.  Our board is at least several years old.  The R7 version may have some refinement.

AW doesn't give us guidance to set up a Level 3, with, say, 5 GHz cpu speed and whatever the XMP2 ram speed is, but I think it's doable.  I think they prefer to leave extreme settings to experimenters who are knowledge enough to stay within the cooling limits, so they don't get calls about failures.  I'm betting a few AW hardware hackers have moved farther with this MB; certainly Asus and other mfgs have boards designed for that.

I'm not sure how well the liquid cooling unit in the R7's works.  If I set a cooling profile other than Power Saving with both fans set manually at 50% speed, a Level 2 chip profile will cause my machine to lock up when cpu temp around 60 degrees is reached.  Reading, I get that maybe 80 degrees is OK if the fans, paste, etc. are all OK.    But I'm just repeating stuff without real experience. 

hrgreen wrote:

I'm not sure how well the liquid cooling unit in the R7's works.  If I set a cooling profile other than Power Saving with both fans set manually at 50% speed, a Level 2 chip profile will cause my machine to lock up when cpu temp around 60 degrees is reached.  Reading, I get that maybe 80 degrees is OK if the fans, paste, etc. are all OK.    But I'm just repeating stuff without real experience. 

I'm sure LQ works fine.

If you are OC that high, don't expect the MB to be stable. I think CPU temp around 60c is just a coincidence. 

Are you speaking of this Pegatron for the R7 in particular?  There are those talking on Overclock forum of 8700K stable running at or past 5 GHz, but they seem to be using late design, expensive MB's.  Some perhaps have de-lidded chips, better thermal paste and/or bigger coolers, others not.   I think you're saying an R7/8700K probably can't be made stable at 5 GHz, but not 4.8 either?   What CPU speed and voltage and ram XMP setting would you consider the maximum stable in this R7?   I was planning an incremental approach using the IET utility when I've read more about it. 

Could you say more about MB's and coaxing them to the limit?  What other factors besides CPU and overall cooling?  Thanks.

If you would please list your OC 3 parameters, I'd like very much to try them.  Also what you did to your 1080 Ti.

Look at this album. All you need is MSI Afterburner for the video card. Alienware Aurora R7 - Album on Imgur 

Thank you much.  I had been following the path toward 5 GHz, but stopped because at 4.8 GHz, the "Physics" part of the PassMark CPU test crashed my system.  I was trying to cool the cpu with more air, but it wasn't helping.  Now I'm using Alien fan control and "balanced" power management.

When I set the max, same as you, I can run everything else I've tried so far (not a lot).  The "Single Thread"  number is about 3000, at the top of the ratings, as are integer and floating math.  My (single-thread, apparently) video editor Filmora renders about 35% faster than my 4770 system, which calculates properly.

Will poke the GPU a little next.

See my other post, I tried the Ballistix Elite (direct from Crucial) and it does not work properly on the R7.

I am having the same issue with my Aurora R7 8700K.  It seems like some of you are having better communication with Dell than I am.  I have sales directing me to technical support and technical support directing me to sales.

I have now tried three different third-party DDR memories and all are failing in a similar fashion.  There seems to be a difference in how the motherboard handles a cold boot, versus a reboot as I am able to get all three modules working at 2933 or higher and a reboot, but none of them will boot into Windows on a cold boot.  My guess is that the BIOS is not giving them more than 1.2 volts on a cold boot which is a bit bizarre.

Here are the three I have tried:

Corsair LPX 32GB DRAM 3000MHz C15 Memory Kit for DDR4 Systems

Defaults to 2133Mhz with no XMP

With XMP shows up as 2933Mhz, seems perfectly stable except for cold boots when it is completely unstable

Corsair LPX 32GB (2x16GB) 3200MHz C16 DDR4 DRAM Memory Kit, Black 

Defaults to 2133Mhz with no XMP

With XMP shows up as 3200Mhz, seemed stable (but did not thoroughly test), for cold boots when it is completely unstable

Ballistix Elite 32GB Kit (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3200 UDIMM

Defaults to 2133Mhz with no XMP

With XMP shows up as 2933Mhz, seems perfectly stable except for cold boots when it is completely unstable

2133Mhz is horribly slow and in that mode, my Overwatch framerate dropped in half! Complicating all of this testing is my R7 shipped with a faulty power supply, that caused all sorts of weird issues.  I was able to get dell to replace the power supply after it started making a very loud wine.

I have managed 4.9Ghz on R7, but I did have one crash after a week and have moved back to 4.8.  The OC2 profile is not stable for me and I had to increase the voltage to get stability.  Interestingly the BIOS overclock options are different than the Windows software.  Once you open up the Windows OC utility it overwrites what is in the BIOS (even if you don't change anything).