** Building a new AMD system / need advice **

[o0paradox0o]

Ok I've been reading alot of posts on this forum regarding memory issues / bsod / and the Phenom II series having issues with getting the right memory speeds out of the ram.



First off this is my line up:

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CPU: AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition Heka 2.8GHz

MOBO: ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3

MEMORY: G.SKILL Trident 4GB DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000) F3-16000CL9D-4GBTD

GPU: MSI R5770 Hawk Radeon HD 5770

( Still working on picking a cooler. But I have my eyes on the Spire Thermax Eclipse II or the Scythe MUGEN-2 Rev.B )

===========


Now here's what I want to know.. I will break it down into parts.

What is the deal with the AMD CPU's having issues getting the right memory speeds?

Is this with ALL of the DDR3 memory out there? What is the issue realated / rooted with?

What processors have the main / most issues?

Are the BSOD Crashes people are referring to related to these very same issues? If not what are they related to?

What is the best combination of parts I can use to give me a good SOLID system that can perform well and avoid these memory issues & crashes? ( w/ AMD for the CPU )

Any and all help will be appreciated greatly...


- o0paradox0o

[GSKILL TECH]

Bad memory controller. May be not enough R&D? They are cheaper for a reason.. Intel's not ripping people off in the plain open. Their products are pricier for a reason.

The memory controllers within the CPU are unable to support high memory frequencies or load (4 modules, full slots). This is why AMD states "One DIMM per channel", meaning for DDR3-1600+, you can only operate 2 slots on a 4 slot dual channel motherboard. Many people buy DDR3-1600 or DDR3-2000, and expect to plug it in and just get 8GB of flying speed. Well, if only it were that easy... DDR3-2000 and full slots require voltage tweaking to stabilize. Not ALL DDR3, just DDR3-1333+; that's why AMD states to stick with DDR3-1066.

They are not necessarily "issues", the memory controllers just aren't nearly as good as Intel. Black Edition Quad Core CPUs are capable of DDR3-1600 with a CPU-NB Voltage (memory controller) boost. The new Hex Core CPUs are capable of DDR3-2000. You basically need to know your hardware's actual limits.

BSODs happen for many reasons, but most AMD users have a problem because they purchase DDR3-1600. As stated, not all CPUs will fully support it, so tweaks other than the basic memory settings may be needed. But if you notice, most will work just fine once we troubleshoot the problem for them such as the CPU-NB Voltage boost. Without the voltage bump, the system will BSOD and cause headaches.

Your 720 is perfectly fine for DDR3-1600 8-8-8-24 with this memory kit. You will simply need that CPU-NB Voltage +0.1V boost. To run this memory at rated specs, you will need a six core CPU.

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

[o0paradox0o]

Ahhh so then... that is to say....

it's pointless to have the DDR3 2000 without the Phenom II X6?

Hmmmm....


I read on Toms Hardware with the G.SKILL Trident 4GB DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000) F3-16000CL9D-4GBTD running @ DDR3 2000 with stellar performance at LOW timings. That was what drew me to them..

What 4 gig (2x2gig) ram kit of G.Skill would you recommend then?

Thanks again for all the help

- o0paradox0o

[GSKILL TECH]

Essentially, yes. That's why we never had any DDR3-2000+ for AMD (all stated for Intel i5/i7... etc. etc.) because only Intel could support that high of memory.

Only now that the 6 Cores are released, we have the new Flare series, and AMD memory clocking is more popular.

The Trident kit you have is great, but you would need to operate them at DDR3-1600 8-8-8-24, then work your way up to see how high it can go, and that will be your best configuration.

Thank you
GSKILL TECH