Motherboard with lots of RAM?

[kosta]

Hi All!

Here is same old quest for the best motherboard (yes, I did read FAQ).

I need one for the Photoshop CS2. It means a lot of CPU and memory. After looking around it seems like the best combo would be MB with single CPU (Athlon 64 X2 3800+), overclockable (X2 3800 easily gets to 4400+ or higher), have a lot of RAM (preferable 8GB or more), a lot of storage periferia: SATA, ATA and USB 2.0, and PCI-E 16x for the videocard. Audio is not important at all, all other perks also are not important.

Thing is I cannot find any Athlon 64 MB (with single CPU) that supports more than 4GB of RAM. But CPU for sure could handle more. All dual CPU MB could handle 2GB sticks. Why single CPU boards can't? May be I'm missing something, but it looks like nobody doing such MB yet.

I desperately started to look at Tyan K8WE and run single proc on it, but: opterons are way more expensive than Athlon 64 and board itself is bad overclocker (this data is gained from scarce web info - there is no evidence that K8WE BIOS has any overclock options whatsoever. I'll be happy to hear opposite).

Thank you in advance!

SY-
Kosta.

 

[Kyanzes]

"Why single CPU boards can't?"

Because what you are looking for is a high-end workstation or entry-level server solution. Also, motherboards sold in mass quantity are meant for 32 bit users. There would be no point in integrating the support if you can save, say, 3 dollars on every MBs sold. You should also take into consideration that a lot of companies buying such stuff are choosing brand systems instead of building their systems manually. Also, the market is segmented and you are clearly into a segment that is not that heavily populated by average users. Hence the market doesn't offer huge quantities of boards you seek.

 

[sixth]

Dude, more than 4GB? what the heck? i have built ALOT of high end photoshop machines with 2Gb of ram and damn, thats enough, i had two with 4Gb, and they smoked. I dunno how the need of 8GB is going to help you.

And as far as a 8GB motherboard i have not seen any with that support that high unless you look in the server market, aka Tyan. goodluck!

 

[kosta]

I knew it would be question why I need 8GB

2 GB was fine for Photoshop CS. After they released CS2 and Adobe Bridge, it's crawling (especially Bridge). My plan is to put scratch and cache files to in-memory disk (aka ramdisk). So 3GB for photoshop + system itself, 1 GB for scratch/cache file (distribution could change - these are approximare numbers). Probably that would be OK for PS CS2. What about next release? CS3? CS4? The way they program nowadays (I know what I'm talking about ) I bet CS5 would barely work even on an 8GB machine. I'm looking for futureproof at least for 2-3 years.
I started my search from 16GB of memory (not that I would buy all of it tomorrow ), but even not all of dual boards support that. I hoped for 8GB, but looks that it's not the case also for single CPU board. I hope I'm wrong. And the reason I'm looking for single CPU is that I'm not oil magnat on a shopping spree.

I was looking for i-RAM from Gigabyte, but these folks did it SATA-I interface instead of SATA-II or PCI-X/E, and also did put in on PCI slot instead of normal power like regular HDD - and there are from zero to one PCI slots on new mobos. Deadborn device.

SY-
Kosta.

 

[kosta]

"Hence the market doesn't offer huge quantities of boards you seek. "

I don't need huge quantity. I need just 1
I also don't ask for it to be cheap. $400 would be OK if it overclocks like DFI, has 8-16GB of max RAM and 16 or more SATA/UATA connectors (it looks like I'm dreaming ).
Believe me, there is a _huge_ market for such a board - almost all folks that use Photoshop, CAD etc.

 

[route66]

Here you go:

Buy a Tyan Motherboard

Newegg, ZZF and Pricewatch dealers don't carry workstation motherboards so you have to look else where. And be prepared to pay.

 

[route66]

Also, is it possible the onboard RAM controller in the A64 can't handle more than 4GB of RAM?

 

[kosta]

I know about Tyan. Problem is it is not overclockable AFAIK. May be I'm wrong, but I would like to hear for sure from people who have the board (namely K8WE) before I shell out chunk of cash.

Plus Tyan works with Opteron which is (way) more exprensive with the same performance as simple A64.

SY-
Kosta.

 

[Pathogen03]

Originally posted by: kosta
"Hence the market doesn't offer huge quantities of boards you seek. "

I don't need huge quantity. I need just 1
I also don't ask for it to be cheap. $400 would be OK if it overclocks like DFI, has 8-16GB of max RAM and 16 or more SATA/UATA connectors (it looks like I'm dreaming ).
Believe me, there is a _huge_ market for such a board - almost all folks that use Photoshop, CAD etc.

No there is not a huge market..

there are very few photoshop/cad professionals, and even those people are happy with 2-4 gigs of RAM, and they use dual processor boards, not single..

 

[route66]

Originally posted by: kosta
I know about Tyan. Problem is it is not overclockable AFAIK. May be I'm wrong, but I would like to hear for sure from people who have the board (namely K8WE) before I shell out chunk of cash.

Plus Tyan works with Opteron which is (way) more exprensive with the same performance as simple A64.

I am right, Athlon 64 can only have up to 4GB of RAM. If you want 8GB, you must use Opteron.

Interesting Article

 

[kosta]

Great article! Thank you a lot!

But it still leaves question open. Author says that A64 FX supports 4 DIMMs, and then says that it equals to 4GB. Obiously he means 1GB sticks. What about 2GB sticks? I understand that support is limited to 4 DIMMs, but are there A64 FX mobos that could handle 2GB sticks? If yes, that would give 8Gb max total for a single proc. I question this because author states that Opteron could support 8 DIMMs and then equals that to 8GB, but I know for sure that Opteon mobos do support 2GB sticks.

So let me restate my original question: is there any single A64 FX mobo that has 4 memory slots and each could support 2GB memory stick?

Again, thank you for answers!

SY-
Kosta.

 

[Lord Banshee]

I would think the A64 motherboard would work with 2GB sticks, might need a bios update though.

And on topic, seeing that now the Opteron 1xx series are coming out on socket 939 and useing normal A64 motherboard, the need for more ram dimm slots should be there if not support for 2GB sticks should pop up..

 

[Capt Caveman]

FWIW - Windows XP 32bit is limited to only 4GB of memory. In order to use more than 4GB or memory, you need to go Windows XP 64bit or a server operating system.

 

[evilharp]

8gb! Yikes!

For you, you have limited options:

-Opteron only (or Xeon)
-Server class board (Tyan/Asus/MSI/Gigabyte/iWill)
-ECC Memory ($$$$)
-64 bit OS (XP-64/Linux <== check all if all the drivers & apps you need are compatible/available before you buy)
-A big wad of cash (the ram alone will be insanely expensive)

As for overclocking, the ram effectively rules it out. Sure you can run dividers and OC the CPU, but the ram will run at stock clock.

 

[DavidNJ]

Yes CS2 uses lots of memory. The Adobe site tells how to use 6-8GB, which they recommend.

You will need an Opteron or Xeon board. A 955 board for Intel may support more with a Pentium D.