Xeon E3 1230 V1 (Sandy Bridge) Memory Speeds

[yogs]

Hello,

I've just picked up a Xeon E3 1230 CPU and I am trying to decide on a MoBo and RAM.

According to the Intel Ark 1333 is the fastest RAM supported.

I've got an H67 based system (Pentium Dual Core 840, 4GB DDR3 1333) which supports 1333MHz memory. I could use this board with the Xeon and pair it with 8GB of 1333 RAM. I would then get an H61 board (cheap) for the existing system.

However has anyone successfully paired the Xeon chip with faster RAM; 1600, 1866, 2133?
If so I will seek out a Z77 or H77 board and faster RAM for the Xeon.

Cheers

 

[PG]

Be very careful and do plenty of research. Make sure whatever board you get lists that specific cpu as supported.

Why am I saying this? Well, I have some related experience and it was painful. I bought one of those Sandy Bridge Xeon cpus and an Intel DP67BG motherboard a year or so ago. The cpu was not listed as supported, but I thought it was an oversight by Intel. Other Sandy Bridge cpus were listed, and some Ivy Bridge Xeons are supported as well so I didn’t know why this Sandy Xeon was not listed as supported.
See board details and supported cpus here: http://processormatch.intel.com/Processors/CompatibleProcessors?componentName=DP67BG
Anyway, I had random shutdowns and reboots, even at idle or while browsing the web. I reseated the cpu and heatsink but still had the same issues. I tinker a lot and later tested a Pentium G620 and an i5 3450 on that Intel board. These worked perfect. Later I got a different board which listed the Xeon as supported. That combo worked fine. Because of this further testing, it seems each part was fine, but there was some compatibility issue with the original Intel board and the Sandy Xeon. I’m not sure what the problem really was.

As for RAM speeds, the fastest official speeds that Intel lists are not usually the maximum that will work. I have run 2133 ram with Ivy Bridge cpus and maybe even Sandy, but I just don't remember. Get what you can at a reasonable price. Worst case you can run it at a lower than max XMP speed for stability if you need to.

edit: I have a theory that the number of pci-e lanes supported by the Sandy Xeons have something to do with the compatibility issue. It seems like the xeons of this generation have some extra features enabled which some boards may not support properly. Of course it's just my theory.

i7 2600
Max # of PCI Express Lanes 16
http://ark.intel.com/products/52213/Intel-Core-i7-2600-Processor-8M-Cache-up-to-3_80-GHz

E3 1230
Max # of PCI Express Lanes 20
http://ark.intel.com/products/52271/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E3-1230-8M-Cache-3_20-GHz

 

[yogs]

Thanks for the reply, I've gone for a z77 board to get the SATA3 and the extra DDR3 speed if it presents itself; the difference in price of DDD3 1333 and DDR3 2133 was only £5.

Both the H67 (ASUS P8H67-i) and Z77 (ASUS P8Z77-i deluxe) list support for the E3-1230.

 

[yogs]

Just thought I'd complete this thread.

I now have my Xeon E3-1230 running in an ASUS P8Z77-i Deluxe with 2x4GB of Corsair DDR3 2133 (LP Vengeance), which runs fine at 2133MHz.