Older Biostar mb A770a2+

[Mike McIntyre]

When I put this system together a while back [ see sig.] I installed the latest bios and still couldn't get the system to post at 1066 with 4 gb mem. It would run fine with 4gb mem if I set it to run at 800 in bios but I finally pulled 2 gb out,unganged the mem and set it at 1066. I also played with cpu fsb and set it up a little bit. I'M going to tickle the bios settings some more later on. I actually tried the TA 770A2+ bios and it ran fine,might put that bios back in,it's got a few more options as far as settings go. Temps are well within middle of the board.

 

[trents]

One thing you didn't tell us that is important is how many sticks of ram were installed when you were running 4 gb. Was it 4x1 or 2x2?

 

[Mike McIntyre]

I was running 4x1 sticks of Kingston Hyper x,ran fine , but I knew XP would only be using a little over 3 gb. System ran fine with the 4 sticks but I was unable to set mem. to run at 1066.

 

[trents]

Four modules puts more strain on the processor's integrated memory controller (ICM) than two. To tell you the truth, many, many people are having trouble running ram at 1066 speeds on boards that are advertised to run at 1066. My motherboard is supposed to run 1066 ram at 1066 but it will not do it. The board manufacturers have memory compatibility charts and if you look at them they only certify the board at 1066 speeds with certain brands and certain amounts of ram and its usually an amount of ram that is small like 2x512 or something. Because of this common problem most overclockers will run 1066 ram at 800+ speeds while overclocking the fsb at the same time. Actually, the performance gain with running the ram at 1066 is practically non existent anyway, especially if you are running the fsb at stock speeds.