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Motherboards What socket 775 motherboard for 8Gb DDR2?

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by timd75, 16 Oct 2008.

  1. timd75

    timd75 What's a Dremel?

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    Hi, I've just built a new machine around an intel quad core Q9450 chip with 8Gb (4x2Gb sticks) of 1066 Corsair DDR2 memory.
    Unfortunately I didn't realise that when mobo manufacturers state 1066MHz memory compatible and up to 8Gb ram, they don't mean both at the same time. :(
    My Asus P5KC mobo will run all 8Gb but only at 800MHz. If I only plug in 4Gb it will run at full speed.

    Does anyone know of a motherboard which will run my 8Gb at full speed? I can't find many which will support 4 sticks at full speed, and would like to know if anyone has experience of this??

    I've tried a search but can't get it to work - new user to Bit-tech, so not sure if I'm doing something wrong there..

    Thanks...
     
  2. boiled_elephant

    boiled_elephant Merom Celeron 4 lyfe

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    You're doing it right, don't worry :) well, there's a tech support section, but w/e. The two overlap a lot.

    What OS are you using, out of interest?
     
  3. timd75

    timd75 What's a Dremel?

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    Ah, ok. :)

    OS is Vista Ultimate x64.

    Which reminds me, the machine won't boot if I set the memory speed to 1066MHz - anything over 800MHz and it fails to POST with an error about overclocking failed..
    Apparently this is "normal" with majority of socket 775 boards not supporting 4 sticks at full speed. :(
     
  4. badders

    badders Neuken in de Keuken

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    What voltage are you running the RAM at?

    My CL4 800MHz Corsair RAM won't boot at 4-4-4-12 800MHz at (the motherboard's)default voltage(1.8V) - I have to bump it up to 2.1V to get full speed and timings.
     
  5. mm vr

    mm vr The cheesecake is a lie

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    I run my P5Q Pro with a Q9550 and 8GB (4 sticks) of that exact^ RAM, Corsair XMS2 DHX 4-4-4-12 at it's stock 800MHz @ 2.1V. Runs fine but I don't know about higher clocks, actually I remember having "Overclocking failed" messages some time back.
     
  6. timd75

    timd75 What's a Dremel?

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    I've left everything at default settings atm. Generally whenever I try and fiddle with it, it wont POST. I will double check the voltages tonight though.
     
  7. timd75

    timd75 What's a Dremel?

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    Thanks.
    My understanding so far is that most mobo's cannot supply the power to run 4 sticks at the higher speeds, and hence they drop back to either 667MHz or 800MHz. I guess I'm lucky that mine "only" drops back to 800, but had I known I would either have bought a better mobo, or not bought the faster memory which the machine can't use..

    Full machine specs are:
    Motherboard ASUS P5KC AiLifestyle Series iP35 Socket 775
    Processor Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 2.66GHz 1333FSB
    Memory Corsair 8GB (4x2GB) DDR2 1066MHz/PC2-8500 Dominator Memory
    Video Card # 1 NVidia Quadro FX4500
    Hard Drive # 1 Seagate 80Gb
    Hard Drive # 2 Seagate 500Gb
    Optical Drive #1 LiteOn LH-20A1L-14C
    Power Supply Coolermaster IGreen 600W PSU
    Case Coolermaster CM690 Dominator Black Mid Tower Case
    Monitor Dell 2405FPW
    Operating System Vista Ultimate x64
     
  8. Burnout21

    Burnout21 Mmmm biscuits

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    Yay fellow Norfolk chap! where you near?

    As for running 8GB of PC2-8500 shouldn't be a problem.

    The default FSB of the Q9450 is 333mhz, which is below the 400mhz barriar (stock speed PC2-6400) so there should be loads of OC potential left in that system. I dont believe the P35 chipset had issues like this, but i think the newer P45 dose...

    I would bump the voltage on the memory up to 2.2v no more as it will soon toast without additional cooling.

    Running 4x1gb ballistix's at 400mhz here no worries.
     
  9. Guest-16

    Guest-16 Guest

    P45s are finiky with high performance memory in all four slots, what you want is a workstation class X48.

    Play with DDR2 voltages, termination voltages, and per-channel clock skews to get the most stability - it's the limitations of the aging Intel platform sorry.
     
  10. timd75

    timd75 What's a Dremel?

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    In Attleborough, where're you? :)

    Ok tried upping memory voltage to 2.1v still no luck - boot fails.

    Guess it's time to look at the X48 'board...
     
  11. timd75

    timd75 What's a Dremel?

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    Thanks, is there an X48 board you would recommend?

     
  12. Guest-16

    Guest-16 Guest

    DFI X48 LT T2R

    Check DFI Club about BIOS' and 8GB support
     
  13. Burnout21

    Burnout21 Mmmm biscuits

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    Swaffham, but live in nottingham during uni terms
     
  14. timd75

    timd75 What's a Dremel?

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    Heh, small world! :)
     
  15. cpemma

    cpemma Ecky thump

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    One problem with filling all four slots at high speed is different copper trace lengths on the PCB causing timing errors. This was a problem with some P35 boards, I've seen comments on the Corsair forum.
     
  16. timd75

    timd75 What's a Dremel?

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    Thanks.
    Found that board here, but it says it only supports DDR2 667/800 MHz.
    This one says it supports 4 x DDR2 1200(O.C.)/1066/800/667. Any thoughts on that?
     
  17. Delphium

    Delphium Eyefinity enabled

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    My Nvidia 680i mobo runs 8gb @ 1066mhz using the corsair dominator 8500 stuff.
    However the 680i boards are not compatible with the 45nm quad cores, the 7series are mind of which would accept such combination of CPU and RAM like the 780 chipset.

    The only way I got mine to run to run all 4 sticks (4x2gb) @ there max speed (1066mhz) was by using SLI ready/compatible memory then enabling SLI ready memory in the bios.

    Something in which I suspect you would need to do on the nvidia 7series chipset mobo.

    In fact enabling the SLI ready memory featre in the bios also setup all the right voltages required automaticly from the EPP settings on the ram its self.
    So for me, it was simply a matter of plugging in 2 sticks, enabling the SLI ready feature, then sticking the other 2 sticks in.

    [​IMG]

    The board you linked to with 1200mhz OC does not have the same feature as SLI ready memory to setup automaticly, but will allow you to manually overclock the ram controller up to speeds of 1200mhz, you will of cause need to spend a wee bit of time getting voltages correct.

    Voltages for mine are @ 2.1500V
     
    Last edited: 16 Oct 2008
  18. Guest-16

    Guest-16 Guest

    Yea that's why you've got to play with clock skews and the good boards have individual ones according to DIMM channel or even DIMM slot.

    Timd - Search the DFI forums (DFI-Club iirc) and see what the people there are getting with X48 LTs. The Rampage Formula is a decent board and I'm not saying the Gbt X48 isn't, I'm just more familiar with the DFI.
     
  19. timd75

    timd75 What's a Dremel?

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    Thanks again. I've had a search on DFI forums and also Asus forums, and TBH the whole 4sticks thing seems to be a bit of a problem even on the X48 boards. I think maybe a few people have got it working but not easily! Certainly as a first go at overclocking it seems a bit much. I was hoping there would be a board that would "just work" with 4x2Gb sticks at 1066MHz. :)
    Nevermind, it's pretty quick as it is I guess...
     
  20. Burnout21

    Burnout21 Mmmm biscuits

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    your like a kid on a push bike at 200mph, cant except that its quick enough and want to go faster.

    With the current limitations, you can hit 400mhz and achieve 3.2GHz on that Quad. I know its not as quick as others have managed, but over 3.4GHz you dont really see much real world gains, quick as hell in benchmarks, but benchmarks are benchmarks, meaning that most of them are coded to make big scores with certain hardware.. How do you think the industry gets the masses to upgrade.. 3Dmark has been doing this for years.

    My Quad sits at 2.4GHz most of the time as solidworks or autocad dont require a super computer to do there main tasks, when i know a certain task will benefit from extra speed, then i restart, bios OC, and then do the task. Rendering is much faster at 3.6GHz for me.

    I just hope Solidworks will use CUDA, so rendering can be done on the GPU. (quadro's only good for view ports)

    So why you got a Quadro? Software you use? sort of buisness if you dont mind me asking.
     
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