K8N Neo2 Platinum MEMORY issue (Who would have guessed?)

[appye]

Okay,

According to the manual, this motherboard is unable to support anything beyond ddr333 when 4 double-sided DIMMS are used. Since I want to achieve 2 GB RAM, my only choices are 4x512mb OR 2x1024mb. At first, I was going to grab FOUR OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev. 2 modules, but these are double sided (correct me if I am wrong). This (and perhaps the 2T command rate) would defeat the purpose of trying to achieve those stellar overclocks that were reached in the recent 90nm review.

So I guess I am asking for opinions as to what direction to head. If I want a decent overclock, am I stuck with 1 GB ram? Do single sided 512mb modules even exist? Are there any really overclocking friendly 1024mb modules out there I could use in dual channel mode? This would be the preferred choice, because with only 2 dims, I could still use the 1T command rate.

To avoid any ?are you sure you need so much RAM? questions, if you must know, I play around in Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro with many multilayered 6MP open at the same time. This eats up a lot of memory.

I have already purchased the CPU and the Motherboard and am trying to figure out the best RAM to go with this.

Any opinions would be appreciated.

 

[bap4201]

I like the one in my sig, and it is compatible w/ neo2.

 

[appye]

Okay, This was the ram that I was going to use as well. I mentioned that in my original message. Remember though that i was wanting to overclock with 2gb, not just 1gb. Also, keep in mind that 512mb X 4 OCZ EL Platinum Revision 2 Dual Channel memory would only achieve 333mhz due to this motherboard's limitation with 4x DOUBLE SIDED ram.

Not to be snippy, but that was not very helpful ...

Thanks.

 

[Ketchup]

You are not going to get more than 1 GB of memory to run on an Athlon 64 machine. It is not MSI's fault, it is a chipset limitation. I would probably suggest an Intel rig if you want to run that much mem (I think you can run up to 4 gigs with them) or be content to have your memory run at DDR333.

 

[Peter]

What? Chipset limitation? Bullshit. Entirely. Sorry.

Facts are: 1T command rate is beyond the specification for ANY DDR RAM chip at 200 MHz (PC3200). In fact, everyone allows it at 100 MHz _only_. Next, 200 MHz operation with unbuffered DIMMs is specified for single-DIMM operation anyhow - per channel, of course. This is a generic JEDEC specification thing, not a "chipset limitation". Want to go beyond? Works for some, doesn't work for others. YMMV.

This is all true for Intel platform mainboards just as well. As I said, YMMV, so you'll find plenty of works/doesn't work reports on both sides.

Knowing that, any socket-939 board will do 200 MHz RAM at 2T happily - as long as you're running one DIMM per channel. There are 1-GByte DIMMs now, so 2 GBytes at 200 MHz is not a problem. More than that is useless in a 32-bit environment anyway. For four GB of RAM, you'll need to step back to 166 MHz on the RAM, and use a 64-bit operating system.

If you want more RAM at 200 MHz, you need to go socket-940 and use "registered" DIMMs.

 

[Peter]

Oh, and if this machine is for serious work, you shouldn't overclock it. You want to use the machine to get stuff done, don't you? No amount of overclocking will gain you the extra time you'll lose in a single crash.

 

[Ketchup]

Originally posted by: Peter
What? Chipset limitation? Bullshit. Entirely. Sorry.

Facts are: 1T command rate is beyond the specification for ANY DDR RAM chip at 200 MHz (PC3200). In fact, everyone allows it at 100 MHz _only_. Next, 200 MHz operation with unbuffered DIMMs is specified for single-DIMM operation anyhow - per channel, of course. This is a generic JEDEC specification thing, not a "chipset limitation". Want to go beyond? Works for some, doesn't work for others. YMMV.

This is all true for Intel platform mainboards just as well. As I said, YMMV, so you'll find plenty of works/doesn't work reports on both sides.

Knowing that, any socket-939 board will do 200 MHz RAM at 2T happily - as long as you're running one DIMM per channel. There are 1-GByte DIMMs now, so 2 GBytes at 200 MHz is not a problem. More than that is useless in a 32-bit environment anyway. For four GB of RAM, you'll need to step back to 166 MHz on the RAM, and use a 64-bit operating system.

If you want more RAM at 200 MHz, you need to go socket-940 and use "registered" DIMMs.

Yeah, ok, why don't you tell the hundred of people in this forum that are running DDR 400 @ 1t they are out of specification. I am sure they will care.

Anyway Peter, you are right about overclocking. Overclocking is for the fun machine. This sounds like a work machine.

 

[appye]

No, you get it all wrong. This is primarily a fun machine. The Photoshop stuff I do is all hobby stuff. My primary goal is framerates, but I am willing to sacrifice 1T to have 2 gigs of ram for photoshop stuff. My only disappointment is that I did not do the amount of research I should have when I bought the board. I fell in love with the idea of achieving the 90nm overclocking results on anandtech and just assumed that I would be able to achieve similar results (albeit with 2T) with FOUR dimms. The 333mhz thing threw me for a loop when I saw that in the manual.

Bottom line is I guess I will just go with 2xOCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev. 2 modules. I wish there were 1gb versions of these sticks, as the only 1gb sticks I can find have pretty crappy timings. I am still using an old PC133 XP2000+ system with mixed generic RAM and am itching to actually install this new rig and get something better than 20-30 FPS in DOOM3 in medium quality at 800x600. If any of you know of a good 2x1gb kit that has decent timings at DDR500+ settings, let me know.

I hope I do not experience all the nightmares that I see people have been experiencing with this Motherboard as well.

Thanks.

 

[Killmenow]

I would probably go with just the 2 X 512 of OCZ 3200EL Platinum rev2. For me, speed/overclockability > 2gb of ram.....itll save you some money too. oh yeah, and look under your nf3 heatsink......chances are, theres only a small dot of thermal paste there I would recomend reapplying. Good luck with the overclock.

 

[gate1975mlm]

Check this out! http://www.monarchcomputer.com...amp;Category_Code=NA_2

 

[flawlssdistortn]

Originally posted by: Peter
What? Chipset limitation? Bullshit. Entirely. Sorry.

Facts are: 1T command rate is beyond the specification for ANY DDR RAM chip at 200 MHz (PC3200). In fact, everyone allows it at 100 MHz _only_. Next, 200 MHz operation with unbuffered DIMMs is specified for single-DIMM operation anyhow - per channel, of course. This is a generic JEDEC specification thing, not a "chipset limitation". Want to go beyond? Works for some, doesn't work for others. YMMV.

This is all true for Intel platform mainboards just as well. As I said, YMMV, so you'll find plenty of works/doesn't work reports on both sides.

Knowing that, any socket-939 board will do 200 MHz RAM at 2T happily - as long as you're running one DIMM per channel. There are 1-GByte DIMMs now, so 2 GBytes at 200 MHz is not a problem. More than that is useless in a 32-bit environment anyway. For four GB of RAM, you'll need to step back to 166 MHz on the RAM, and use a 64-bit operating system.

If you want more RAM at 200 MHz, you need to go socket-940 and use "registered" DIMMs.

So are you saying that 2T command rate is the default and that 1T is an extra, "not guarranteed" setting? And are you also saying that dual channel @ 200MHz is not guarranteed? I've been having dual channel memory problems with the system in my sig, and have just started to figure out the limitations of the integrated memory controller.

I mean, I thought I did my hw on this one, guess I should have looked more closely at the AMD tech docs. But the way all these websites like Anandtech have been reviewing, I took it as a given that I should be able to run dual channel DDR400 at 1T timing. Of course, 2T would have to be used in order to fill all 4 DIMMS, but the DDR333 requirement?? I hadn't heard of that one... And what about restrictions regarding the number of memory banks and whether the module is dual or single sided?

Another thing, if you are so sure the nforce3 chipset does not play a factor, then why is it that you never hear an A8V owner talking about memory issues. It's always people with the MSI or the Gigabyte board.