New Crossblade Ranger Owner (I have a few questions)

[robertotaylor]

How's it going guys. I've been out of the loop in the computer scene for quite a few yearsnow, but I just recently upgraded my system, and I have a couple of questions that I would love to get some help with.

First off, I'll start with my setup:

- Asus Crossblade Ranger Motherboard
- AMD A10-7850K Kaveri APU (Stock CPU Cooler)
- 8GB AMD Radeon R9 Gamer Series RAM (2 x 4GB) DDR3 2400 (PC19200) - Installed now
- 16GB AMD Radeon R9 Gamer Series RAM (2 x 8GB) DDR3 2400 (PC19200) - Arriving Monday
- XFX AMD Radeon HD 7770 Black Edition Video Card
- OCZ Vertex 3 120GB SSD (will be replaced with Samsung 850 EVO 250GB SSD next week)
- Western Digital Green 1TB HDD
- Thermaltake TR2 700W Power Supply
- Rosewill Thor v2 Case
- Microsoft Windows 8.1 Professional

So I just put my system together last night, and I was very happy to have it boot up without any issues on the first try, and everything seems to be working great. I think I'll finally be able to start doing some gaming again.

Here are some of the questions I have:

1. In the BIOS, my RAM isn't running at 2400Mhz. Is it safe to bump it up to the 2400Mhz without experiencing any problems?
2. I currently only have 2 x 4GB sticks installed, but I'm getting an additional 2 x 8GB sticks on Monday.In which order should I install all 4 sticks of RAM?
3. What is a safe and stable OC speed for this particular APU? I hear these APU's run a bit warm. What cooler do you recommend I use to replace the stock one?
4. I have never used crossfire on a system before. Can I crossfire my XFX video card with the on-board video and improve my graphics? If so, how would I do that?

I think those are all the questions I can think of at the moment. If anyone has any hints or pointers as to what I can do with the hardware I have, I would really appreciate it.

Thank you,

Roberto

[robertotaylor]

Nobody here can offer advice? Is there another forum where I should seek help?

[MeanMachine]

robertotaylor wrote:

Here are some of the questions I have:

1. In the BIOS, my RAM isn't running at 2400Mhz. Is it safe to bump it up to the 2400Mhz without experiencing any problems?
2. I currently only have 2 x 4GB sticks installed, but I'm getting an additional 2 x 8GB sticks on Monday.In which order should I install all 4 sticks of RAM?
3. What is a safe and stable OC speed for this particular APU? I hear these APU's run a bit warm. What cooler do you recommend I use to replace the stock one?
4. I have never used crossfire on a system before. Can I crossfire my XFX video card with the on-board video and improve my graphics? If so, how would I do that?

I think those are all the questions I can think of at the moment. If anyone has any hints or pointers as to what I can do with the hardware I have, I would really appreciate it.

Thank you,

Roberto

1. You can change this value to 2400Mhz manually, but may have to tweak some settings. ie: voltage.
2. Do not mix DIMM kits, even of same spec.
3. Best to establish a stable stock frequency, Then you can OC and tweak for performance. As for a cooler, I would recommend a closed loop water cooler if you intend higher OCs.
4. You cannot.

[elesde]

Hey there!
I do not own a Crossblade Ranger but I'll throw in my opinions anyhow 😄

The RAM should have no problems with running on DDR 2400 speeds, you might have to set speed and timings manually though. If it does not work with all 4 sticks installed you can try to go for 2133 and tighter timings.
Try putting the 8GB modules in the red and the 4GB modules in the black slots. This should give you 12GB per memory channel.

Kaveri APUs are not known to be great for CPU overclocking, getting more than 4,5Ghz out of it is tricky. The integrated GPU should clock a bit better from what I have read. Unfortunately I could not find a good all-round guide for overclocking Kaveri systems but there is one for the CPU part on ROG: http://rog.asus.com/348872014/crosshair-motherboards/guide-overclocking-a10-7850k-with-crossblade-ra...

As for cooling that little chip any reasonably good tower cooler should do. Kaveri does get hot with overclocking but nothing compared to the AM3+ FX chips. Personally I am quite fond of the Thermalright HR-02 but that cooler might be a bit overkill and probably not even available in your country.

About Hybrid Crossfire I am not sure if the HD 7770 works 😞 According to this guide http://www.eteknix.com/kaveri-hybrid-crossfire-a10-7850k-a10-7700k-r7-240-250/2/ the Cap Verde chip is not supported (R7 250x / HD 7770) although I could not find any official confirmation on it.
If it does not work just stick with the 7770 since it is quite a bit faster than the integrated GPU.

[robertotaylor]

Thanks for the advice guys. I appreciate it.

[X-ROG]

1. In the BIOS, my RAM isn't running at 2400Mhz. Is it safe to bump it up to the 2400Mhz without experiencing any problems?

In my experience with FM2+ APUs, depending on your CPU overclock, you might experience some difficulty reaching 2400 reliably - moreso with mixed memory size and 4 DIMMs. 2133 was fine for me with only XMP settings, but 2400 requires some manual tweaking of CPU-NB voltage as well. If the whole things gets too hot it'll lower your maximum CPU OC as well, and I'd always opt for more CPU MHz than memory MHz given a choice. For example only, you can always run 2400 CL11 memory at 2133 CL9 (lower timings) to offset some loss.

2. I currently only have 2 x 4GB sticks installed, but I'm getting an additional 2 x 8GB sticks on Monday.In which order should I install all 4 sticks of RAM?

This mix of DIMMs alone might limit your overclock. Put the respective pairs of DIMMs in the same channel. 8GB in channel 1, 4GB in channel 2.

3. What is a safe and stable OC speed for this particular APU? I hear these APU's run a bit warm. What cooler do you recommend I use to replace the stock one? Here's our experience, although not with a stock cooler: http://rog.asus.com/348872014/crosshair-motherboards/guide-overclocking-a10-7850k-with-crossblade-ra...

I hit ~4.4G stable on 'everyday' ~1.42+V, but could push one to 4.7 at over 1.55V, which is crazy volts and not for long term use. You will certainly need to up the voltage to push above 4Gs and you will hit a point where the temp starts to jump fast under load.

4. I have never used crossfire on a system before. Can I crossfire my XFX video card with the on-board video and improve my graphics? If so, how would I do that?

Try it, benchmark it, see for yourself 🙂 If the drivers refuse to do it, there's your answer 😉

[elesde]

MarshallR@ASUS wrote:

Put the respective pairs of DIMMs in the same channel. 8GB in channel 1, 4GB in channel 2.

Wouldn't that limit the the dual channel operation to 16GB since the 2nd 8GB stick on the first channel will be mapped as single channel?

As others said mixing different RAM modules is always tricky, be sure to run some stress tools like memtest86 or the y-cruncher/prime95 memory test to make sure it is stable at the given frequency/timing. If you don't need 24GB selling the 2x4GB kit is also a nice idea 😄

[X-ROG]

elesde wrote:
Wouldn't that limit the the dual channel operation to 16GB since the 2nd 8GB stick on the first channel will be mapped as single channel?

As others said mixing different RAM modules is always tricky, be sure to run some stress tools like memtest86 or the y-cruncher/prime95 memory test to make sure it is stable at the given frequency/timing. If you don't need 24GB selling the 2x4GB kit is also a nice idea 😄

8|4 8|4 would still be dual channel since the DIMM channels alternate, but really agree with Flank3r - sell your 8GB kit and just use 16GB. It's more than enough and you won't have the hassle of compatibility at high frequency.

[FlanK3r]

1)yes, as AMP/XMP profile
2)I can recommend this mix, sell your older RAMs and use 2x 8 GB (or let 2x 4 as spare RAM)
3) at stock cooler artound 4200 MHz stable (voltage around default), with good cooler between 4400-4600 MHz, depends at luck with voltage 1.44-1.5V. At least something as Gelid Tranquillo, for top clocks Noctua NHD14/15 or allinone as Corsair H80.
4)yes, you can , PCIe links will be 2x 8 speed after. Only uninstall drivers, after put the second card to the slot+CF bridge, start PC, install drivers and in drivers set your Crosfire.

[Muha_Akhusiyya]

I have not been able to stabilize my 7850K at 2400 MHz on ASUS A88X Pro and G.Skill F3-2400C11D-16GAB. Even after I bumped the NB voltage a liitle bit, the machine would still occasionally freeze or BSOD. I also noticed that my CPU would not tolerate several kits of Corsair DDR3 2133 memory at anything higher than DDR3 1600, the other settings notwithstanding. This means that the CPU NB is picky of memories. Perhaps with AMD memory it will be able to run at 2400 MHz.