Underclocking the RAM for Intel P43 board from 1600MHz to 1333MHz.

[Faisal McMissile]

Good day,

Last week I bought a used Gigabyte GA-EP43T-S3L board from ebay, as shown in the link below:
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard...-S3L-rev-14#ov

I have no intention to overclock the CPU, memory, and FSB of this P43 board. The board supports DDR3 up until 1333MHz without overclocking. However, the price of the DDR3 1333MHz and DDR3 1600MHz are just the same at my area.

If it is possible to install the 1600MHz on the board, then set the board to underclock it to 1333MHz easily? The reason why I would like to do this is because I think the DDR3 1333MHz will have better resell value than DDR3 1333MHz.

If it is difficult for a newbie like me to underclock the memory from 1600MHz to DDR3 1333MHz however, I will just purchase the DDR3 1333MHz.

Thank you.

 

[Iron Woode]

assuming the ram modules don't have any issues with that board, the ram will run at 1333 any way as that is the max frequency without overclocking.

 

[Faisal McMissile]

I just realised that the memory for the Gigabyte P43 board that I purchased can go up until 1600MHz without overclocking. All this time I mistakenly thought that all P43 boards from other brands are the same with ASUS P43 boards, because ASUS says that only 2 out of 4 slots of their P43 boards are usable if the memory is oveclocked to 1600MHz. The example of the ASUS boards are shown in the links below:
1) P5P43TD PRO
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P5P43TD_PRO/overview/
2) P5P43TD
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P5P43TD/overview/
3) P5P43T
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P5P43T/overview/

 

[VirtualLarry]

Just set RAM speed to "2.0" in the BIOS.

 

[Faisal McMissile]

Good day.

I already received the board in good condition last week.

While trying to shop for a DDR3 memory in a shop nearby my house however, the shopkeeper told me that there are 2 types of DDR3 ram - the old type high density memory and the new type low density memory.

The shopkeeper told me that some older motherboards are not compatible with the new type low density memory. To make the situation worse, the brand new DDR3 available in the market nowadays are the new type low density memory.

I went to the shop without bring the motherboard. The shopkeeper told me to come again with the motherboard so that I can test it with the new type low density memory before deciding to purchase it.

The shopkeeper said some old motherboards can detect the new type low density memory after the BIOS are updated, but some old motherboards still don't detect the new type low density memory even after the BIOS are updated.

Co-incidentally, there are few desktops at my office with the old type high density DDR3. I borrowed the memory temporarily to install windows 10 on system with the P43 motherboard. So far the system is ok.

I even take this opportunity to update the BIOS to the latest version. One of the version even have remark saying 'improving memory compatibility', but I'm not sure whether the update has anything got to do with the new type low density DDR3.

I will go to the shop again with the motherboard this weekend. Hopefully the motherboard can accept the new type low density DDR3. Otherwise I might have to forget about this building P43-based system project.

 

[LTC8K6]

Why not just go to the memory support list for the board:

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-EP43T-S3L-rev-13#support-doc

 

[Faisal McMissile]

I think that list was released when the motherboard was new around 10 years ago and not updated with the latest DDR3 available in the market nowadays, am I right?

Btw, the DDR3 that is sold at the shop near my house is Kingston KVR16N11S8/4, as shown in the photo below. So far I could not find the KVR16N11S8/4 in the memory support list for the board.

 

[LTC8K6]

You should be able to tell if it supports high/low density ram from the list, I'd think?

Kingston's memory finder says they don't make ram for that board anymore, but there are quite a few online finders that guarantee compatibility and list ram for the GA-EP43T-S3L.

 

[Faisal McMissile]

Bad news. I went to the shop yesterday with my p43 motherboard to test its compatibility with the Kingston DDR3 low density ram /single sided ram. Unfortunately, the motherboard was not working and produces fast beeping sound. Since receiving the motherboard, I did set-up the system the motherboard using a borrowed Hynix DDR3 high density ram / double sided ram - I took the Hynix ram off from an old seldomly used HP desktop in my office.

Now it is already confirmed that the p43 motherboard is working, but not compatible with new generation of DDR3. Even though I've already updated the BIOS to the latest version (with some version says that it improve memory compatibility), the board still doesn't work with the Kingston DDR3 low density ram /single sided ram sold by the shop. My last resort is to find used DDR3 high density ram / double sided ram on ebay, amazon etc.

The photos of the incompatible Kingston DDR3 low density ram /single sided ram sold by the computer shop and the compatible Hynix DDR3 high density ram / double sided ram borrowed from my office are shown below.

The compatible Hynix DDR3 high density ram / double sided ram borrowed from my office.


The incompatible Kingston DDR3 low density ram /single sided ram sold by the computer shop.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but seems like 2x of same picture?

 

[Faisal McMissile]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but seems like 2x of same picture?

Sorry, I accidentally copied and pasted the link of the same photo twice. I've already made the correction in the posting. Thank you very much for highlighting