Rock Solid board for a Q6600?

[jsedlak]

Currently have a Gigabyte DS3L (or is it D3SL?) and want to replace it. I am getting sick of seeing the BSOD and have tested every single stick of memory. So I am just going to start throwing parts at the thing.

Needs to be reliable as it will be on 24/7/365. Needs to support 8gb (4x2) of DDR2 RAM and of course X64 bit Windows...

Doesn't need to be fancy or have overclocking support. Just needs to be plug, play, go.

So what should I get?

Thanks
-John

 

[elconejito]

Hmmm. I was going to suggest the DS3L, LOL. I've got a q6600 in one running at 3Ghz, currently with 4GB but it had 8GB at one point and was just fine.

You might look at the UD3R or UD3P (crossfire support and a few other feature differences) from Gigabyte. It has a lot of extra features on it, but it's really not that expensive at about $120 or so for the UD3R.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

UD3R

 

[PCTC2]

Originally posted by: BTRY B 529th FA BN
UD3R

Yup. GA-EP45-UD3X (Replace X with R or P).

 

[jsedlak]

Originally posted by: elconejito
Hmmm. I was going to suggest the DS3L, LOL. I've got a q6600 in one running at 3Ghz, currently with 4GB but it had 8GB at one point and was just fine.

You might look at the UD3R or UD3P (crossfire support and a few other feature differences) from Gigabyte. It has a lot of extra features on it, but it's really not that expensive at about $120 or so for the UD3R.

haha!

Maybe I should pose the question in a different way:

Who here runs Vista (or Win 7) X64 with 4gb or more of DDR2 RAM and hasn't had a BSOD? What mobo do you run?


I was looking at the UD3R but I am worried that it will suffer the same problems.

This is off-topic, but what is the best screw in heat sink? I hate these damn "press hard as hell" heat sinks.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

My game machine in my sig is 4Gb, vista u 64, UD3R, DD2 1000; the only reason I've ever BSOD'd was because of the network card. It is stable at that multi and fsb = 9 3/4hrs prime stable or 1 full cycle

 

[elconejito]

my UD3R has only BSOD'd once, during OC testing (usually just reboots, or i see P95 errors). All OC'ing has been with 8GB installed. The DS3L (not as good as UD3, but much cheaper) never BSOD'd but it's only running at 3Ghz, with 8GB first, and then 4GB. My little brother is running an EP35-DS3L with a Q6600 and I think 4GB. He's running at either 3 or 3.2Ghz.

 

[Sylvanas]

The MSI P45's are solid boards in my experience- running above 4gb can be hit and miss with some boards and it may be best to get what others are using with a similar setup- Google is your friend here, sometimes it can be as simple as a newer BIOS to fix the issue.

 

[VirtualLarry]

You want a nice board? Get a DFI X48 board. I have two of them and I love them. They are a tad bit pricy though.

You might consider this hot deal if you want an X48 board.

 

[jsedlak]

Ok, neither of these boards specifically support my RAM (Corsair XMS2 2gb sticks - TWIN2X4096-6400C5C). The closest match is "CM2X1024-6400C4"...

Is this cause for concern, should I get new RAM or what?

By the way, what is with the support list not supporting many 2gb sticks? Most of the sticks listed are 512/1024mb... ugh!

 

[PCTC2]

Originally posted by: jsedlak
Ok, neither of these boards specifically support my RAM (Corsair XMS2 2gb sticks - TWIN2X4096-6400C5C). The closest match is "CM2X1024-6400C4"...

Is this cause for concern, should I get new RAM or what?

By the way, what is with the support list not supporting many 2gb sticks? Most of the sticks listed are 512/1024mb... ugh!

I may be rash and irresponsible, but for me, RAM is RAM and I just buy whatever and pray that it works. RAM that's not on the support list is not guaranteed to work, but that doesn't mean it's guaranteed to not work.

And I can't say that I've run Vista or Windows 7 64 bit on it. I have Mac OS X install on my GA-EP45-UD3P with Windows 7 32bit and Windows XP x64 in virtualization. Neither have ever BSOD'd, but Windows 7 is not 64bit and virtualized hardware drivers are not at all like the drivers for the board itself.

 

[Shippy]

Originally posted by: jsedlak
Ok, neither of these boards specifically support my RAM (Corsair XMS2 2gb sticks - TWIN2X4096-6400C5C). The closest match is "CM2X1024-6400C4"...

Is this cause for concern, should I get new RAM or what?

By the way, what is with the support list not supporting many 2gb sticks? Most of the sticks listed are 512/1024mb... ugh!

You know what? It just might be the ram. I also got 4 sticks of this memory (from Fry's) pretty cheap. I needed a motherboard that would support 8gb so I picked up an ASUS P5E-VM HDMI (g35 chipset). I would get periodic BSOD or reboots (stock, no overclocking). Running MEMTEST 86 showed ram errors. I took the suspected faulty ram and placed them in an ECS G31-T and they passed memtest no problems. The other 2 sticks I placed in an ECS GVT7100 and they passed memtest no problems. I took 4 2gb sticks of the crucial valueram (that was in the other 2 mobos) and placed then in the ASUS and all the problems went away.

Also, the Corsair sticks would pass individually in the ASUS but not all 4 at once.

 

[sharad]

I am using Asus P5Q Deluxe board in my Windows 7 64bit system with 8GB RAM and Q6600 G0 stepping. No problems to report.

Memory is: Corsair TWIN2X4096-8500C5 2x2GB DDR2-1066 XMS2 CL5