Underclocking the RAM for Intel P43 board from 1600MHz to 1333MHz.

[foxfaisal]

Good day,

Last week I bought a used Gigabyte GA-EP43T-S3L board from ebay, as shown in the link below:
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-EP43T-S3L-rev-14#ov

I have no intention to overclock the CPU, memory, and FSB of this P43 board. The board supports DDR3 up until 1333MHz without overclocking. However, the price of the DDR3 1333MHz and DDR3 1600MHz are just the same at my area.

If it is possible to install the 1600MHz on the board, then set the board to underclock it to 1333MHz easily? The reason why I would like to do this is because I think the DDR3 1333MHz will have better resell value than DDR3 1333MHz.

If it is difficult for a newbie like me to underclock the memory from 1600MHz to DDR3 1333MHz however, I will just purchase the DDR3 1333MHz.

Thank you.

 

[Blaylock]

Yes you can and it is fairly easy. Most Ram these days even come with settings for slower speeds built in.

EDIT: Just be sure to verify the ram is compatible with the CPU you plan on running.

 

[RollingThunder]

And when you underclock it, don't underclock the default RAM voltage. Leave it at their defaults.

 

[Johan45]

1600 MHz RAM will likely default to 1333 any way

 

[foxfaisal]

Yes you can and it is fairly easy. Most Ram these days even come with settings for slower speeds built in.

EDIT: Just be sure to verify the ram is compatible with the CPU you plan on running.

And when you underclock it, don't underclock the default RAM voltage. Leave it at their defaults.

1600 MHz RAM will likely default to 1333 any way

Thank you. Does the speed change from 1600MHz to 1333MHz automatically or do I need to set anything manually in the BIOS?

 

[Blaylock]

If it defaults to 1333 like Johan is suggesting then you will need to do nothing. It doesn't hurt to verify in the BIOS and if needed set it accordingly.

 

[foxfaisal]

All right, understood. I will explore it by the time I receive the P43 motherboard by mail.

Thank you very much.

 

[RollingThunder]

Johan and Blaylock are correct, I overlooked the default backwards. You can look at your default timings @ 1600 on your RAMs and then look what it defaults to in your BIOS @ 1333 if you are curious.

 

[foxfaisal]

I see. Ok, I will try to do nothing with the setting first by the time I receive the board and see what happen. I will update my finding in here after that.

 

[Blaylock]

Just out of curiosity, Your board natively supports 1600Mhz. Why not set it to 1600 if it's available?

 

[foxfaisal]

Ok. I also just realised about that. All this time I mistakenly thought that all P43 boards from other brands are the same with ASUS P43 boards, because ASUS says that only 2 out of 4 slots of their P43 boards are usable if the memory is oveclocked to 1600MHz. The example of the ASUS boards are shown in the links below:
1) P5P43TD PRO
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P5P43TD_PRO/overview/
2) P5P43TD
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P5P43TD/overview/
3) P5P43T
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P5P43T/overview/

 

[foxfaisal]

Good day.

I already received the board in good condition last week.

While trying to shop for a DDR3 memory in a shop nearby my house however, the shopkeeper told me that there are 2 types of DDR3 ram - the old type high density memory and the new type low density memory.

The shopkeeper told me that some older motherboards are not compatible with the new type low density memory. To make the situation worse, the brand new DDR3 available in the market nowadays are the new type low density memory.

I went to the shop without bring the motherboard. The shopkeeper told me to come again with the motherboard so that I can test it with the new type low density memory before deciding to purchase it.

The shopkeeper said some old motherboards can detect the new type low density memory after the BIOS are updated, but some old motherboards still don't detect the new type low density memory even after the BIOS are updated.

Co-incidentally, there are few desktops at my office with the old type high density DDR3. I borrowed the memory temporarily to install windows 10 on system with the P43 motherboard. So far the system is ok.

I even take this opportunity to update the BIOS to the latest version. One of the version even have remark saying 'improving memory compatibility', but I'm not sure whether the update has anything got to do with the new type low density DDR3.

I will go to the shop again with the motherboard this weekend. Hopefully the motherboard can accept the new type low density DDR3. Otherwise I might have to forget about this building P43-based system project.

 

[UltraTaco]

Maybe the shopkeeper got it upside down? High density is the "new"(?) ram, which typically is bigger ram size(gb) per stick?

 

[Bill Dimwit]

Yes you can and it is fairly easy. Most Ram these days even come with settings for slower speeds built in.

EDIT: Just be sure to verify the ram is compatible with the CPU you plan on running.

LGA775 cpu's do not have a memory controller built into the cpu like newer setups to. Its the motherboard chip set the controls the ram.


Most likely on a p43 board the ram will default to 1333mhz if your using faster ram. You may be able to tightening up the timings a little of you down clock the ram from 1600mhz to 1333mhz.

As for the compatibly, 4gb and 8gb sticks will likely not work with the system. Stick with 1gb or 2gb sticks and your be fine.

 

[EarthDog]

LGA775 cpu's do not have a memory controller built into the cpu like newer setups to. Its the motherboard chip set the controls the ram.

Right. But, he wasnt saying otherwise. Regardless where the memory controller resides, checking the mobo website for compatibility is a good idea.

 

[Bill Dimwit]

Right. But, he wasnt saying otherwise. Regardless where the memory controller resides, checking the mobo website for compatibility is a good idea.

Yes the motherboard/chipset must support X ram speed in order for it to work. The CPU has nothing to do with ram compatibility with lga 775 systems. You can run a P4 with 1600mhz ddr3 just the same as a core2, if the motherboard and its chipset supports 1600mhz ddr3.
Of course not all motherboard have clock dividers for CPUs with lower FSB and you may have to up the FSB and lower the cpu clock multi with 800mhz FSB CPUs for the motherboard to use faster ram.

But none of this is relevant for the OP. he is running a p43 system with a core2 if I'm not mistaken he should not have any problems here.

 

[foxfaisal]

Bad news. I went to the shop yesterday with my p43 motherboard to test its compatibility with the Kingston DDR3 low density ram /single sided ram. Unfortunately, the motherboard was not working and produces fast beeping sound. Since receiving the motherboard, I did set-up the system the motherboard using a borrowed Hynix DDR3 high density ram / double sided ram - I took the Hynix ram off from an old seldomly used HP desktop in my office.

Now it is already confirmed that the p43 motherboard is working, but not compatible with new generation of DDR3. Even though I've already updated the BIOS to the latest version (with some version says that it improve memory compatibility), the board still doesn't work with the Kingston DDR3 low density ram /single sided ram sold by the shop. My last resort is to find used DDR3 high density ram / double sided ram on ebay, amazon etc.

The photos of the incompatible Kingston DDR3 low density ram /single sided ram sold by the computer shop and the compatible Hynix DDR3 high density ram / double sided ram borrowed from my office are shown below.

The compatible Hynix DDR3 high density ram / double sided ram borrowed from my office.


The incompatible Kingston DDR3 low density ram /single sided ram sold by the computer shop.

 

[Bill Dimwit]

Both photos are the same. As for high/low density ram. I never heard that being a problem in p45/x48 boards, but I'm not sure about p43.
I do know that 8gb and 4gb sticks don't always play well with some 775 boards. But never seen a problem with single sided ram. Its not to say its not a problem. ddr3 is not all to common with 775 boards and I only had x48 boards with ddr3.

Could that the Kingston ram be a 8gb stick or ecc ram?

 

[foxfaisal]

Both photos are the same. As for high/low density ram. I never heard that being a problem in p45/x48 boards, but I'm not sure about p43.
I do know that 8gb and 4gb sticks don't always play well with some 775 boards. But never seen a problem with single sided ram. Its not to say its not a problem. ddr3 is not all to common with 775 boards and I only had x48 boards with ddr3.

Could that the Kingston ram be a 8gb stick or ecc ram?

Sorry, I accidentally copied and pasted the link of the same photo twice. I've already made the correction in the posting. Thank you very much for highlighting

Btw, that new incompatible Kingston DDR3 low density ram /single sided ram sold by the computer shop is 4GB stick and non ECC

 

[foxfaisal]

Maybe the shopkeeper got it upside down? High density is the "new"(?) ram, which typically is bigger ram size(gb) per stick?

I think you are right. Other people in other forum also explains to me about the same thing, which is:
1) The new type 4GB DIMM is single sided (i.e. single rank), with 4GB on a single side (rank), which makes it a high density 4GB module.
2) The old type 4GB DIMM is double sided (i.e. dual rank), with 2GB on each side (rank), which makes it a low density 4GB module.

However, you still can find this kind of confusion among sellers. If you type the keyword 'DDR3 low density' on ebay, you will get 3 types of listed products:
1) 'low density DDR3' keyword together with '2Rx8' keyword.
2) 'low density DDR3' keyword together with '1Rx8' keyword.
3) 'low density DDR3' keyword only without '2Rx8' or '1Rx8' keyword.

This means that even some of the salesman on the ebay doesnt know whether the low density DDR3 is either '2Rx8' or '1Rx8'. To be safe, I will only purchase the DDR3 with the keyword '2Rx8' on ebay (and amazon) instead of relying on the keyword ''low density DDR3'