Motherboard & Memory Indecision!

Bablos

Bablos

Bablos

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Joined
19 Oct 2002
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139
Location
Liverpool, UK
Hi There...

I'm trying to spec myself a new system based around a Conroe E6600, but I'm having difficulty picking out a motherboard, and even more trouble choosing some RAM sticks.

As I'm gonna go for a Conroe-based system, it's almost criminal not to overclock from what I've heard, but I'm a complete oc-virgin, so I wouldn't know where to start, or where to head component-wise to make things easy for me.

Motherboard - I was gonna go for either an Asus P5B Deluxe, or an Asus P5W DH Deluxe. Any feedback from owners, potential owners, previous owners or people who have picked alternatives would be most welcome.

RAM - I'm after 2x1GB sticks. Initially, I was gonna go for the GeIL sticks, but there seems to be a fair bit of disagreement in the forums regarding this. I don't mind spending a little more, so I was wondering about the Corsair C4 sticks as an alternative.

So, I need feedback. Which mobo! Which RAM! Help! Any mobo owners of the above two use any of the RAM sticks I mention? Would anyone suggest an alternative mobo?

Sorry for all the questions! Just want to be sure...
 
The G.Skill kits are really good value for money at the moment.
Plus the majority of conroe owners seem to be using them at the moment, so there will be no shortage of advice on how to set them up nicely if you have trouble.
 
I'm in the exact same boat - wondering what Motherboard to get and then what RAM to go with that board! The difference in my case is that I'm going to build around an X6800 and that I have an X1900XT as my GPU.

I'm also an oc-virgin :)

Looking forward to replies!
 
hyper_piper45 said:
I would go for the geil ram. Its what i'm using and im at 430fsb at 4-4-4-12 easily. I could probably go higher, ive just not tryed yet.
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4-4-4-12? I don't even know what that means :( I see people on these forums say it all the time when talking about RAM but I never know what they're talking about.

Geil seems reliable enough though - read plenty of people using that and being happy with it. We still need to know what motherboard is best though (which would then determine what RAM to get, correct?).

Thanks!
 
I have the Asus P5W DH and 2x1Gb Geil PC6400. Both work great for me, no issues at all.

I got the ram up to 885Mhz 4,4,4,12 and I've had the cpu at 3.3Ghz (I haven't pushed vcore past spec yet, so there's more to go).

A few guys had problems getting the Geil ram to run at it's rated speeds, which is a bit weird since it was all from the same batch, but most people are getting good results with this ram.
 
I still don't understand this 4-4-4-12 malarky!

Did you have to do anything like Flash the Bios to get the motherboard working? Or did it run with your conroe straight out the box?
 
Worked straight from the box, 0701 BIOS.

The 4-4-4-12 etc, are the ram timings.

Basically, 'Timings' are the time taken to perform the search for, and retrieval of, data from a specific location in memory.

There are a few operations required to retrieve data, first find the row, then find the column, then move the data to a buffer, etc. Each operation is allotted a certain amount of time to perform it's job, and these time allotments are known as the 'timings'. Obviously, the lower the timings, the faster data is retrieved. If an operation can't finish in the allotted time, then that timing is too low and the PC crashes.

That's a very basic description of timings, I hope it makes some sense.
 
At the risk of going a bit off topic, what temperatures are u getting with that setup Sir Random? I see u have quite a good overclock but i have heard that motherboard gets very hot even at idle. I have a similar setup to u except for the motherbaord, i have AB9 Pro but am looking to replace it due to memory problems. However as im trying to build a silent system i want the heat kept to a minimum. Also what voltage do u run that RAM at to get 885mhz?
 
raptor4216 said:
At the risk of going a bit off topic, what temperatures are u getting with that setup Sir Random? I see u have quite a good overclock but i have heard that motherboard gets very hot even at idle. I have a similar setup to u except for the motherbaord, i have AB9 Pro but am looking to replace it due to memory problems. However as im trying to build a silent system i want the heat kept to a minimum. Also what voltage do u run that RAM at to get 885mhz?
Click to expand...
Yeah, the P5W mobo (chipset) gets quite hot, even at idle. I put a 40mm fan on the southbridge, (like many other P5W owners) and that keeps it cool.

CPU temps are fine, 32c idle 45c load. They were even lower before I fitted a Zalman 9500 on my X1900XT, the stock cooler blew the hot air out of the case.

I've kept the voltages at safe levels, the CPU is @ 1.35v. (as stated on the box) and the Ram is at 2.1v (as printed on the modules). My cpu cooler is a TT Blue Orb II, which cools the ram too. I'm not running the ram at 885Mhz, that's just the highest I could go at 2.1v.
 
I bought 2 sticks of geil ram with the ASROCK mobo and i'm having no end of problems getting the sticks to work.

I can get them both working individually on both ram slots on the mobo but trying to pair them causes applications to crash left right and center. Memtest shows no errors though. I'm presuming it's a timing thing or voltage but they should work out of the box and they don't :(

I'm having to run 1 stick at the moment at 533 3-3-3-9 when it should be 667 4-4-4-12 when i bump it to 667 I get errors galore.

But then again i'm a noob when it comes to memory timings so what do I know....
 
Hmm... when you say the P5W gets pretty hot, how bad are talking? Is it bad enough that it might damage itself or other components during a long session of gaming?
 
jas72 said:
I'm having to run 1 stick at the moment at 533 3-3-3-9 when it should be 667 4-4-4-12 when i bump it to 667 I get errors galore.
Click to expand...
Have you set the vdimm to 2.1v?


SeriousStu said:
Hmm... when you say the P5W gets pretty hot, how bad are talking? Is it bad enough that it might damage itself or other components during a long session of gaming?
Click to expand...
By hot, I mean 46c which isn't that hot, but Asus probe sets the temp warning level at 45c so it triggers the alarm when temps reach 45. I doubt it would do any damage though, I'm sure we'd have heard about it by now.
 
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