[Molybdym]

I've been building computers for a couple of years now, and i feel pretty confident in my choices; until this last build. I went with a Gigabyte p35-DS3L, Q9300, and 8GB RAM (G-Skill). I was dual booting XP and Ubuntu 8.04-64bit. Things were fine and dandy, but when working in linux, the rig kept freezing. Doing work in XP - everything's fine. So I ran Memtest on the four sticks of pc8500, and errors galore. All the settings were correct; voltage and timings. I thought, bad sticks, so I RMAed them. When the new set came in, same exact problem. I raised a stink with newegg, and got them to take back the RAM and credit the account so I could purchase another company's product. I picked up 8GB of Mushkin's pc8500. SAME PROBLEM!! Mushkin's support was great and walked me through everything possible. The board won't even run 8GB at 667MHz. So I've come to the conclusion - this board (and probably the chipset) can not handle 8GB of 1066 RAM. Just not enough juice. In investigating this, Gigabyte's site has only 1GB sticks working at 1066.


Really long story short - does anyone have proof of any p35 board running 8GB of 1066? If not, does anyone have proof of any x38 board running the same setup? I'm at wits end. It's been 7 weeks now, and I have not been able to run the system at full throttle. I'm either going to have to try again for newegg to credit me (let's face it, odds seem slim), so I can get pc6400, or cough up +$200 for another MB that can handle the 8GB.

Thanks in advance to this community.

[Krypto]

There are a ton of boards out there that will support 8GB 1066 at the very least.

Here's just 1 example.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131196

[Molybdym]

Originally Posted by Krypto

There are a ton of boards out there that will support 8GB 1066 at the very least.

Here's just 1 example.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131196

Thanks. But my current board supports 1066, just not 8GB worth. According to their "supported" memory list, under the 1066 speed, the largest module they listed as being supported was 1GB (running at 1.8v), so i'd imagine 4GB total (I'll eat some humble pie on finding this out after the purchase). And in researching other p35 board for purchase, when looking at the manufacturer's site, it's the same story, largest module supported at 1066 is 1GB. I just don't think there's enough voltage running to the DIMMs and the MCH. I had the memory at 2.2v and the MCH at +0.3v (frankly, I don't remember what the 'stock' voltage is for this chipset, but +0.3v was the highest i could set it to).
So just because the listing says it supports 1066, with further investigation it may not support large amounts of that speed. I was hoping to find someone here that has this etup running.

[petteyg359]

Well, my X48 runs just fine with 8GB of 800 (XP 32, Vista 64, and Gentoo 64)... not sure I want to risk killing it by trying to get it to 1066, though, I can't afford more memory at the moment

Only thing I can suggest is to make sure you're using RAM that only needs 1.8v (either http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231195 for 4x2GB ($274) or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231194 for 2x2GB ($135)). The 8GB of PQI in my system is 1.8v.

[Molybdym]

Originally Posted by petteyg359

Only thing I can suggest is to make sure you're using RAM that only needs 1.8v. The 8GB of PQI in my system is 1.8v.

Crud, that's what I was thinking. I had a hard time finding 2GB sticks that ran at that voltage. Do you have a link to the RAM you're using?
As a side note, I thought x48 boards used DDR3? Have you clocked it down to 800 for a reason? Just interested.

[petteyg359]

1. My RAM is 800, not 1066. I would attempt an OC to 1066, but I can't afford any more stuff right now, so don't want to risk breaking it.
2. I just linked you a couple sets of 2GB 1.8v 1066 (1100, actually). Seems cheaper to get two of the 2x2GB sets, but don't know if a 4x2GB set is better "matched" for OC'ing.
3. There are quite a few X38/X48 DDR2 boards.

I have 2 of this.

[Molybdym]

At this point, two sets of 2x2GB or one set of 4x2GB is not a concern, I just want my rig to work. I'm checking right now to see if my friends can pool their pc6400 sticks to end up with 8GB at 1.8v, then I'll see if that can do it; narrow down further the voltage issue.

[Molybdym]

So newegg took back my pc8500, and in some research, I'm going to grab 8GB of their pc6400, running at 1.8v. I suspect the voltage was the issue the entire time. Thanks for the heads up.

[petteyg359]

DDR2-1100 isn't worth an extra $60 after rebate to you?