Adding Ram to Computer w/ ASUS A8V MB

[KdLaneJr]

This will most likely be a non-understood ramble for those that don't do build their own systems.

I finally decided that it was time to move CS2 off of my AMD 2600+ system w/1gb ram and put it on my AMD 64 4000+ system w/1gb ram. That 1gb ram thing bothered me though so I ordered 2gb of Corsair matched DDR to go in the MB (ASUS A8V Deluxe).

Well the new 2gb of DDR ram worked fine if I took out the initial 1gb of ram but naturally, that was not what I wanted. I wanted all 3gb to run in the system. (Wouldn't you?)

So off to Corsairs website to see what gives. After a lot of searching and reading through their help forum I pretty had figured out that the two different sizes and revisions of DDR ram just were not going to play together. (Seemed to be their mantra. No matching size and rev, no nice playing together)

What was worse is that if I left the two matched 512 mb sticks in, the system ignored the two matched 1gb sticks. So I had to pull the two 512 sticks.

A couple of times in Corsairs help forum flashing the BIOS to a newer BIOS came up as a possible way to get the system to see two sets of ram. My MB came with rev 1007. They are already up to rev 1017 and even have a beta 1018 out.

The new 2gb of DDR came with stickers on it saying 3-3-3-8. My old DDR was 2-2-2-5. Corsair recommends running the 2gb at 2-3-3-6 (3-3-3-8 is the JEDEC standard).

Well I set the BIOS to 2-2-2-5 and the 2gb booted and tested (memtest) fine. So today I flashed to the BIOS to 1017 and set the BIOS the way I wanted. Confirmed the 2gb was still fine at 2-2-2-5 w/MB overclocked 5%.

Next Step, re-introduce the intitial 1gb of DDR. Success!

The system now sees both sets of Ram for a total of 3gb w/2-2-2-5 memory settings.
The OS loads off of two striped Raptors (boot speed and program load speed is pretty quick). There are two other hard drives set up for data storage and scratch discs.

If I don't build another system this fall, I'm thinking I might upgrade my raptors and my storage and scratch discs as Core 2 Q6600 processors are still a bit pricey for me. That and I'd have to invest in a new case, power supply, video card, etc.

I did find it annoying that the MB was released with specs that support 4gb of RAM, yet
the initial BIOS rev was 1003, my initial was rev 1007 and it took newer that that to get proper ram support on the MB.

Now to check if I can see any real performance gains in CS2 and LR.

Ken

[Ahh!]

I just went thru the throes of building 2 systems this week. The fellow at Micro Center showed me some website that indicated the Dual that I bought was only marginally faster than the Quad that was about 2x the price...I wish I had the website he used, but it asked exactly what program I was most concerned about running. I had some problems with the Corsairs running diagnostics, but got thru it and all seems fine now. They are 800mHz and run a little hot.

The other system was just used for disk storage, so I used the cheaped MB/CPU combo they had at Compusa. It works fine.

I'll have to keep you in mind in case I need some advice on MB / Memory issues in the future.

[KdLaneJr]

Remembering that website might be a good thing...

[capreppy]

Originally Posted by KdLaneJr

The system now sees both sets of Ram for a total of 3gb w/2-2-2-5 memory settings.
The OS loads off of two striped Raptors (boot speed and program load speed is pretty quick). There are two other hard drives set up for data storage and scratch discs.

If I don't build another system this fall, I'm thinking I might upgrade my raptors and my storage and scratch discs as Core 2 Q6600 processors are still a bit pricey for me. That and I'd have to invest in a new case, power supply, video card, etc.

I did find it annoying that the MB was released with specs that support 4gb of RAM, yet
the initial BIOS rev was 1003, my initial was rev 1007 and it took newer that that to get proper ram support on the MB.

Now to check if I can see any real performance gains in CS2 and LR.

Ken

In 11 days (July 22nd), there will be price cuts across the board. The Q6600 (Quad Core) will be down to ~$266. The dual core chips will plummet as well. http://www.hkepc.com/bbs/itnews.php?tid=789466

I am planning a build myself that I'll start at the end of the month using this chip. It'll be completely brand new build. It'll be a little pricey, but definitely worth it. I'm planning to go 8GB now because ram prices are predicted to go up astronomically within the next 3 to 4 months. Ram is VERY cheap right now. A new MoBo will probably be in order if you go to a Quad Core. It is unlikely that your MoBo will support it. Also, these chips run very hot and you'll want a board with 3 party HSF (Heat Sink & Fan).

Plus most of the newer boards come with SATA II and built in RAID (0, 1, 5, & 10). There is research that say some of the cheaper SATA II HDD (cheaper than a Raptor) in a RAID 0 configuration is faster and quieter than the raptor drives. Plus if you go with a RAID 5 or a RAID 10 solutiuon, you have redundency and speed. I plan to get 4x500GB WD SE16's in a RAID 10 solution. This will give me 1TB effective storage with a 1TB mirror and speed of the Raptors without the noise. 500GB WD SE16's can be found for as little as $90 each (if you time it right).

[Ahh!]

Originally Posted by capreppy

...of the Raptors without the noise...

That was the funny thing! I got a compliment on the fact that the user can now hear the disks working, which she preferred! Go figure...

[capreppy]

Originally Posted by phorn45

That was the funny thing! I got a compliment on the fact that the user can now hear the disks working, which she preferred! Go figure...

Now that IS funny. I prefer to hear silence myself. It's very difficult to make a quiet PC. Fans are usually the biggest culprits of noise with HDD being the second. Fans are a necessary evil, but they can be a pain if you're trying to silence your PC. This is a good website on making your PC quieter.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/

[KdLaneJr]

I have to ask...

If you're going with 8gb of ram, are you planning on installing 2 4gb sticks or 4 2gb sticks?, and if you go with 4 2gb sticks; Do you know of any motherboards currently on the market that will maintain proper operation (full bandwidth) of the memory?

Good info on the coming price drop by the way!

[capreppy]

Originally Posted by KdLaneJr

I have to ask...

If you're going with 8gb of ram, are you planning on installing 2 4gb sticks or 4 2gb sticks?, and if you go with 4 2gb sticks; Do you know of any motherboards currently on the market that will maintain proper operation (full bandwidth) of the memory?

Good info on the coming price drop by the way!

for 8GB, I'm planning to go 4x2GB. Most of the newer boards fully support 8GB of DDR2 memory (or DDR3 if you have lots of money burning in your pockets) . Obviously to take full advantage of the memory, you'll need either XP 64 or Vista 64. Frankly I've heard that XP 64 is terrible for driver support. A lot of the drivers for 32bit have been redone for Vista 64. There are still some issues, but it'll get better over time (much like when XP first came out).

I'm currently looking at G.SKILL 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory. I'm looking at $460 for 8GB.

[KdLaneJr]

I hadn't heard about XP 64-bit still having driver issues.

Will have to keep that in mind.

[capreppy]

Originally Posted by KdLaneJr

I hadn't heard about XP 64-bit still having driver issues.

Will have to keep that in mind.

Some of the peripheral manufacturers never made or made poor 64-bit drivers. I don't remember any off hand, but 64-bit driver support for Vista has been much better. I'm looking at an EVGA 8800GTX video card and the nVidia drivers are finally stable for Vista 64.

[zeroendless]

A few vendors are already started dropping Q6600 slowly to anticipate the price cut. I've seen $150 rebate here and there and Fry advertised a $299 Q6600 + mobo at July 4th sale.

I still using the oldskull 955x chipset and will likely get p35 instead of the coming x38 for Q6600 when the time come, not ready to get ddr3 yet.

[capreppy]

Originally Posted by zeroendless

A few vendors are already started dropping Q6600 slowly to anticipate the price cut. I've seen $150 rebate here and there and Fry advertised a $299 Q6600 + mobo at July 4th sale.

I still using the oldskull 955x chipset and will likely get p35 instead of the coming x38 for Q6600 when the time come, not ready to get ddr3 yet.

I heard a lot about that sale. Quite a few from another board got in on the sale and got their Q6600 early. The MoBo wasn't bad, but wasn't that great either. Most sold the included MoBo for $30 and brought the CPU down to 269 which is about where it will be after the price cut.

The P35 MoBos are very nice. I'm looking at a Gigabyte P35-DQ6 or an EVGA 680i-A1 (if I decide I'm definitely going SLI).

[zeroendless]

The P35 MoBos are very nice. I'm looking at a Gigabyte P35-DQ6 or an EVGA 680i-A1 (if I decide I'm definitely going SLI).

I got my eyes on DQ6, the extra 2 J-Micron sata-2 won't hurt... The last p965 - DQ6 was a brilliant mobo and the review on current model doesn't look bad either. And my reason for P35 than 680/650i is better drive management and speed. ICHR9 is a much mature and faster interface than whatever Nvidia can come out with. Since i don't do any gaming at all, storage performance is on top of my very list. :)

[KdLaneJr]

My biggest hurdle to overcome is deciding on which PCI Express video card or cards to use in the next system.

Figure on picking up a Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4Ghz or better if prices are right and either an ASUS P5W DH or an Intel D975XBX2.

Haven't decided on 4gb or 8gb yet on ram. Will most likely use Corsair ram.

Drives are easy. It's still the video card options that I don't know anything about right now.

I don't need a gamers card but I would like to run two dual head cards that don't interfere with each other and have at least 256MB ram on the card.

The rest is minor details.

[capreppy]

Originally Posted by KdLaneJr

My biggest hurdle to overcome is deciding on which PCI Express video card or cards to use in the next system.

Figure on picking up a Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4Ghz or better if prices are right and either an ASUS P5W DH or an Intel D975XBX2.

Haven't decided on 4gb or 8gb yet on ram. Will most likely use Corsair ram.

Drives are easy. It's still the video card options that I don't know anything about right now.

I don't need a gamers card but I would like to run two dual head cards that don't interfere with each other and have at least 256MB ram on the card.

The rest is minor details.

I've got most of the details nailed down myself. I still go back and forth on the GFX card. I go between the 8800GTS and the 8800GTX. And then I complicate it even more between SLI and non-SLI.

My box is primarily gaming and then work is secondary on it. It is more than capable of handling what I will throw at it work wise and for PP, it'll be plenty quick (with fast RAID 0 drives, 4 or 8GB memory and a Quad Core Processor [Q6600]).

I have to do some more research to determine what benefit I'll gain from going SLI or not.