4 DDR DIMMs in search of a motherboard...

wildcaterpillar

Junior Member
Apr 5, 2002
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So... I am looking for a motherboard (SMP preferable - but can be also non-smp) that will accept 4 (all four) DDR DIMMS that i have (standard un-registered/unbuffered/non-ECC 256 MB Crucial dimms). It's like building the house from the roof to the foundation - but I already have the memory (4 x 256 MB identical DDR 2100 Crucials), the SCSI controller Adaptec 21960 (64-bit 66 MHz PCI), the RAID IDE controller (Promise TX2000 - 66 MHz PCI) and the video card (Wildcat 5000 - works on 2x/4x AGP 1.5V).

The dimms are double-faced.

I know that he current MP(X) boards are pretty unstable or do not boot at all with all 4 dimm slots populated w nonregistered ram. The E7500 intel solution w dual xeon has no AGP contoller but it has 64-bit/66-hmz bus. the Via 333 - all are either w 3 banks or w 4 banks but suggest on non-populating all 4 banks w non-registered dimms.

So - SMP or not - does anyone have an experience such a motherboard? The emphasis would be on stability/64-bit-66MHz bus and this kind of memory.

Thank you - any suggestions are welcome.

Cat
 

Athlon4all

Diamond Member
Jun 18, 2001
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I doubt that u will get absolute stability with that many high desity DIMM's. Maybe Abit KR7A, but no guarantee's.
 

bozo1

Diamond Member
May 21, 2001
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According to Abit's website, you can use 3 unbuffered, 4 buffered.

There are many reports on amdmb.com of people even having problems using 4 buffered sticks.


 

zzzz

Diamond Member
Sep 1, 2000
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I remember Anands review saying it was stable with 4 unbuffered RAM sticks. It might depend on type of RAM used.
 

NuovoTech

Senior member
Oct 9, 1999
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I have a KR7A133 running 4 such DDR sticks as yours, works fine, tho I have to run my FSB at 136mhz for complete stability. check here as 2 why...maybe a future BIOS update will clear this up. Since I have W98, I had 2 set: "MaxFileCache=524288" under [VCACHE] in my System.ini file. Otherwise I'm happy with this setup.
 

AA0

Golden Member
Sep 5, 2001
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Get the Abit KR7A it will work most of the time, but it depends on your RAM really.

Do not get the shuttle board, it will not work with 4 DIMMs, last I've heard, one person thought he might have got 4 to work, but wasn't sure it was stable. Everyone else gets completely unstable results. Shuttle was stupid for releasing that board, why I don't recommend them.
 

NuovoTech

Senior member
Oct 9, 1999
962
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>go to muskin.com and read what they say about various boards and RAM configurations

Could you post a link? I went there & could not find any of the above info...