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[DannySan]

Hey everyone,

have been looking for answer to my troubles on this community for a couple of times; but couldn't find it. So I thought, time to post the question here and hoping someone can help me. I've been building pc's for a while now, for myself and sometimes friends and relatives. Nothing fancy, just straight up moderate Intel rigs (because I once started with Intel and stuck too it).

But in march 2023 I got a request from a colleague, he wanted a rig that would last him a long time; so I did some digging and at that time AM5 was the route to go.

So I build him this setup:
- AMD Ryzen 5 7600X
- Asus TUF Gaming X-670E-Plus-Wifi
- Kingston Fury Beast RGB KF560C36BBEAK2-32 as a memory setup
- A NZXT Kraken X53 AIO cooler

- A MSI Radeon RX 6800 Gaming Trio 16G
- Powered by a Corsair RM850x (2021 version)
- A couple of Samsung's 980 Pro
- Build in the BeQuiet PureBase 500FX

I've put Windows 11 Home on it, with a local account. Tested everything, benchmarking, memtest: all good and passed.
Delivered the rig, all good - so I thought.

Some 2/3 weeks later my colleague starts to complain.
He plays a lot on the computer, and he is getting problems with stability while gaming; stutters, games hangin, or closing alltogether, random BSOD's...

So I try to work it out with Teamviewer, and see what's wrong; try to find info online. But it's not very conclusive.

I stumble accross a post that states that Asus motherboards are not all that stable for AM5, and that Expo could also have something to do with it (was running Expo I).

That started a witchhunt of chasing problems, expo off, expo I or expo II; trying to find if there's something wrong with the games themselves (especially Fallout 4 is affected, and Farming Sim 2024) but also with other games random stuff. Or no stuff, or stuff after 5 minutes of gaming, or after 4 hours.
Totally unpredictable.

Then there was some movement in the motherboard world, and Asus released bios updates; so we did that, and then stuff seemed better; but later on problems again.

And so on, and so on...
Now it's august 2024; the board has been send back to asus as an RMA because our suspicions was that there was something wrong with the board.
It came back, with papier only saying: fixed (but no clue what).

Now I run it, and see it has the latest bios update for Asus; and I re-install Windows to start with a clean slate.
Now it was running very hot (95 degrees on cinebench R23) so I now changes PBO and the voltage curve to keep it running cooler.

But I'm also at a loss, although my colleague says: i don't hold you responsible, i do feel responsible.
I stepped into the red team world with AM5 and got kicked in the nuts with all kinds of new stuff like the temps, voltages and instability.

Expo is now still off, not sure if it can be on, and if so: which one (or doing it manual? that's a new world for me).

Is there anyone that can support me, what I can do to test; or confirm that the rig is now stable?

If you need to know anything more, just let me know!

[FunkZ]

Zen 4 is meant to run hot, by default it will boost all the way to the 95°C temp limit even with good cooling. As you have found, one way to counter that is by tweaking PBO and Curve Optimizer, however these settings (especially CO) can introduce the instability you're trying to avoid, if it is set too low of a negative value. Have you tried running it at default? Another option could be to set ECO mode in the BIOS.

Per ASUS that Kingston memory is certified for EXPO on that board in DIMM slots 1,2.

https://www.asus.com/us/motherboards-components/motherboards/tuf-gaming/tuf-gaming-x670e-plus-wifi/h...

[DannySan]

Hi FunkZ,

thanks for your reply!
Ah, I was thinking it was way too hot; but if it's intentional I will turn that off directly.
I will set it back CO to auto, and I don't know what ECO mode does; I remember reading (somewhere) that Eco was not adviced so did not do that.
I don't quit get what you mean 'certifiet on that board in DIMM slots 1,2 - the ram should be in the grey slots right?

[FunkZ]

You didn't mention what CO value you're using. Not many chips will handle the max negative value, so if you're playing with CO it's a trial and error until you find a level it runs stable at.

ECO mode will lower the TDP of the processor. By default the 7600X is a 105W TDP chip, but you can adjust this to for example 65W in the BIOS using ECO mode. ECO mode will not cause instability.

Here's a video detailing how to adjust PBO, CO and ECO in BIOS for the 7000-series processors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaOYYHNGlLs

If you search the memory part number at the ASUS link I posted you'll find that particular kit has been certified by ASUS to run at XMP/EXPO in that board in slots 1,2. Examine the DIMM slots on the board as they should be labeled.

[DannySan]

Hey thanks!
I'm going to watch the video, for now I've put everything back to auto (I was using negative 5 on all cores to test, combined with PBO set to stage 2, 80 degrees). But that might give some unbalance indeed. I actually want to prevent anything that causes instability, because that's why I have been working on this rig on at the first place.

Concerning the memory, I'm confused; I should put the sticks in slots 2 and 4 right? (see attached picture) but what you are saying it should be 1 and 2? Below is a picture from the motherboard manual.

[FunkZ]

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@DannySan wrote:

Concerning the memory, I'm confused; I should put the sticks in slots 2 and 4 right? (see attached picture) but what you are saying it should be 1 and 2?

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I have no idea, seems ASUS has a discrepancy there, may want to check with their support team.

[DannySan]

I've contacted Kingston; the number 1,2 mean that the expo is approved and tested when using either 1, or 2 modules. Not slot 1 and 2

[DannySan]

Hi FunkZ, do you have any insights on the XMP problem perhaps?
Or should I just take the base speed for granted and 'be done with it'.

[DannySan · Accepted solution]

Good news!

The system is up and running again, the memory kit from Kingston was to blame; and they replaced it without hesitation and any costs. So all good, thanks all for you help, time and replies!