Nforce 4 issues when using 4 sticks of 512MB 400MHZ RAM in Dual Channel?

[MajorPayne]

I just got my new Chaintech VNF4 mobo last night -- everything is working OK, except that it seems to have a problem with my RAM. I installed 4 512 MB sticks of Kingston HyperX PC3200 RAM (400MHZ), which all work fine at 400MHZ in other systems (in sets of 2), but my new board detects them as 333MHZ. I have heard that the Nforce 4 chipset has problems with using all 4 of the memory channens in Dual Channel mode at 400MHZ, but if this is the case, why does chaintech advertise that this is capable on this board?

Does anyone have any experience with this, and is this something that I will be able to correct, or work around, or do I have to choose between either 1GB of 400MHZ ram, or 2GB or 333MHZ RAM?

P.S. I do NOT know if the RAM has chips on BOTH sides or just one, since it is covered with a permanently mounted heatspreader -- I have heard that having chips on one side only may be relevant to this problem.

 

[webekyle]

sounds normal to me....usually if you have a smaller mhz ram with highermhz ram the mobo sets both to the smaller mhz ram

 

[bob661]

Most desktop A64 boards won't support 4GB of ram unless the chips on the ram are on one side (single-sided).

 

[Kovie]

This is quite normal.

 

[ts3433]

With four memory modules, you'll default to DDR333, but you should be able to set it back to DDR400 in the BIOS. If this doesn't work, don't worry about it--memory bandwidth doesn't really affect performance much on the A64. (See the stickied 939 Memory Matrix in the CPU/OC forum for details.)

 

[Peter]

*sigh*

The RAM controller isn't even on the chipset, so please don't attribute these things to it.

DDR400 isn't even supposed to work with two DIMMs per channel. That's why boards set to "auto"-determine the RAM setup go back to DDR333 when you do that.

YMMV - at your own risk. www.memtest.org is your best friend, should you choose to venture past the specification and attempt DDR400 with 2x2 DIMMs.

 

[MajorPayne]

ts3433, Thanks.... I had heard that 4 memory modules might be a problem, but unfortunately NOT before I sprung for the 2nd set of Kingston HyperX.... I will play around with the BIOS settings tonight to see if I can set it back, and hopefully I will get it there. I will head over and check out the 939 memory matrix sticky too, to see what it says.

 

[MajorPayne]

Originally posted by: Peter
*sigh*

The RAM controller isn't even on the chipset, so please don't attribute these things to it.

DDR400 isn't even supposed to work with two DIMMs per channel. That's why boards set to "auto"-determine the RAM setup go back to DDR333 when you do that.

YMMV - at your own risk. www.memtest.org is your best friend, should you choose to venture past the specification and attempt DDR400 with 2x2 DIMMs.

I will be trying to get the 4 dimms back to 400 later tonight when I get home, and I ALWAYS use memtest to check my memory before venturing too far (and after overclocking). I had not been aware when I bought the 2nd set of RAM that the spec did not support this (and the mobo specs misleadingly list that it supports 4 dimms at dual channer 400mhz). Oh well, I just do not want to give up the other Gig of RAM just for a speed boost (which may be of dubious use anyway) on my remaining Gig of ram.

 

[MajorPayne]

Well, after I went home last night, I was able to get the 4 sticks of ram to work at 400MHZ Dual Channel, at 2,2,2,4, BUT it is stuck with a command rate of 2T and the motherboard will NOT let me override this. It kinda sucks, but it IS what I expected (I had heard that 4 sticks of dual channel will cause any A64 mobo to default the ram to 2T). The NICE thing is that it all specs out fine after running through memtest, so I know it is good at this speed. And benchmarked in 3dmark 03 gained 500 points over using 1 GB ram at 1T with the other timings the same, so the 2GB stays. I am REALLY glad I got this motherboard (I almost got a Gigabyte K8NF-9 but it went out of stock at the time of my order thank GOD, or I would not have found this board). The installation, setup, overclocking, and even adding too much RAM and running it WAY out of spec has been VERY EASY!! This is my first Chaintech board, but I don't think it will be my last.