PC1066 RDRAM for Gigabyte GA-8IHXP

[ssmithBH]

I spoke with a Gigabyte tech. support technician this morning regarding RDRAM for the GA-8IHXP motherboard. He said that the 184-pin 256 MB modules with Samsung chips (not the 4200 RIMMs for Asus P4T533) out recently were not working correctly, although the 128 MB and 512 MB modules worked fine. Although this was specific to Kingston PC1066 RDRAM, it may apply to other manufacturers as well. Kingston has recalled its 256 MB modules and is taking orders through its resellers for replacement RIMMs with Toshiba or Hitachi chips, but they indicate a 4-6 week delay until shipping.

This is causing me great pain, as I ordered the motherboard, 2.53 P4, Lan-Li PC60 USB case, Enermax 550W PS, ATI 9700 Pro video card, DVD-Rom drive and various fans, cables, etc. to upgrade my current P2-450 system ? all of which will sit until I get the memory (I'm not too good at being patient).

Scott

 

[Alptraum]

Gah, that is annoying. I was going to order some PC1066 256meg sticks myself this week or next. I am ordering some other stuff at the same time including MBoard so I haven't gotten any of it yet. I may look into the 32bit PC1066 Samsung and the Asus P4T533 now. I was going to get the Asus P4T533-E and kingston PC1066 16bit though. Gah.

 

[ssmithBH]

I've heard that the Asus P4T533 has major stability issues. Better do a search on it through this forum.

Scott

 

[neilm]

I was going to get similar to your setup ssmith.. I was for getting the "256MB Rambus PC1066 [32bit Samsung original]" rdram, does this mean it is an issue and will not work with the GA-8IHXP or will I be okay?

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: ssmithBH
I've heard that the Asus P4T533 has major stability issues. Better do a search on it through this forum.

Scott

Only related to overclocking. I've heard of no stability issues at stock speeds.

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: neilm
I was going to get similar to your setup ssmith.. I was for getting the "256MB Rambus PC1066 [32bit Samsung original]" rdram, does this mean it is an issue and will not work with the GA-8IHXP or will I be okay?

32 bit RDRAM will not work with the GA-8IHXP. Currently the only mobo that uses it is the Asus P4T533.

 

[neilm]

Great, I'm about to spend money on what I thought was a top of the range motherboard and it can't use 32bit rdram? Makes me wonder why I'm gonna buy this in the first place when I see threads like this.... and why isn't this displayed as a warning on the gigabyte website?

Exactly what all rdram can I get for this type of motherboard...?

 

[ssmithBH]

The Gigabyte GA-8IHXP2 should work with PC800 or PC1066 184-pin, 16-bit RIMMs, in pairs. C-RIMMs need to go in unfilled memory slots, if any (e.g., if you fill two, the other two must have C (continuity)-RIMMs. The only board that currently supports the 32-bit RIMM 4200 is the Asus P4T533 (NOT the Asus P4T533-C, which uses 16-bit PC800 or PC1066 RIMMs).

Like you, I too considered whether Intel (and/or others) would continue to support RAMBUS systems for peak bandwidth solutions, or move to other alternatives, such as DDR-II, etc. I decided, after much wailing and gnashing of teeth, that I wanted a really fast, capable system TODAY, that I didn't plan to OC in the short term, and that I couldn't keep waiting for that next best thing, or I'd still be using my P2-450 Dell.

Should Gigaybyte place a warning on their website regarding the RDRAM, let alone Kingston, which also has no warning on their site? Probably. Will they do it and kill off some business. Probably not.

 

[Alptraum]

Only related to overclocking. I've heard of no stability issues at stock speeds.


Thats good. I don't plan on overclocking at all so it shouldn't be a prob. Ill still check into it though as I always check into what I am going to get. Which I had done with the P4T533-C. But if I can't get RAM for it...sigh, lol. So the P4T533 may be the way I go and try out the 32bit RAMBUS. I just wish it were easier to find both boards in a slimmed down state. Asus lists most of the extra crap I neither need nor want (onboard sound, video, network, RAID) as optional on both boards but pretty much every place I know that has them has all that crap. Which for me just extra junk I disable so its totally worthloess to me. But I like ASUS a lot so Ill end up with one of the two boards I am sure.

Great, I'm about to spend money on what I thought was a top of the range motherboard and it can't use 32bit rdram? Makes me wonder why I'm gonna buy this in the first place when I see threads like this.... and why isn't this displayed as a warning on the gigabyte website?

Yeah, they made this more confusing then it needs to be. I can only think of one site of the top of my head (Newegg) that has a warning on this. And they don't make either part, lol.

 

[chiron]

I have a very similar setup, ssmithBH - P4 2.4B, GA-8IHXP, Lian-Li PC61, Hercules GF3 Ti500, etc etc, and 2x Kingston 256MB PC1066 RDRAM, and, lo and behold, i was getting WinXP Pro installation errors all over the place!! :disgust:

I work for an IT distributor, so I'm trying to sort this out internally, but if nothing becomes of it, it looks like I'm going to have to go to Kingston as a consumer (instead of a distributor.... damn, I'm glad this didn't happen to one of my customers......).

So, all I can do is sit and wait, I guess.... I might be able to return the RAM altogether, and just have to find some original Samsung RAM pcb's, but they're more expensive.... the RAMs cost me $550 already (in Australian $).

Damn, I wish I'd known.... :frown:

 

[nicebutt]

What problem are you talking about. I have my 8IHXP with Kingston 256 rambus. It took a while to setup Win2k but now thats its up and running it seems fine. What should I be looking for if there is a problem? So far no crashes and if it does how would I know if it was a windows problem or related to the MB or the ram?
I did have to crashes during setup and I mean bad I had to go as far as to clear the bios because the bios didn't even see my Cd drives, but after I cleared that up on my second install it went ok and seems to be running stable but thats just one day so far.

 

[GT1999]

Originally posted by: Amused

Originally posted by: ssmithBH
I've heard that the Asus P4T533 has major stability issues. Better do a search on it through this forum.

Scott

Only related to overclocking. I've heard of no stability issues at stock speeds.

Somewhat correct. There are quite a few reports of poeple having to UNDERclock in order to maintain stability, or, overclock by a few MHz via FSB in order to get stability. There's a rumor going around that Asus is making another board revision and it should fix this problem. I'm curious why they didn't just do a recall (the right thing to do..)

 

[chiron]

Originally posted by: nicebutt
What problem are you talking about. I have my 8IHXP with Kingston 256 rambus. It took a while to setup Win2k but now thats its up and running it seems fine. What should I be looking for if there is a problem? So far no crashes and if it does how would I know if it was a windows problem or related to the MB or the ram?
I did have to crashes during setup and I mean bad I had to go as far as to clear the bios because the bios didn't even see my Cd drives, but after I cleared that up on my second install it went ok and seems to be running stable but thats just one day so far.

There seems to be problems with a new batch of this 256MB RAM from Kingston - in particular, those with the model # of "036.A01" printed on the chips. Sometimes over/underclocking will fix the problem, but sometimes not (as in my case).

My RAM is currently on it's way back to my suppliers - I'm sure hoping they don't send me more stuff from the same batch :frown:

 

[neilm]

Just a whole mess if you ask me, what do you people suggest I do, as I was selecting parts to buy for the new system relating to this motherboard for a good month (just about to get it and everything...)

The gigabyte motherboard by the way...