Ram Suggestion

[Nate Rowe]

I have a Gigabyte EP45-UD3P with a E6600. I am currently running 4x1GB Kingston with 356x9 FSB with my current ram running at 712MHz. CPU is at 3.2GHz and BSOD's at higher speeds even with more voltage, I think it's my current ram but it might not be. I would like to stick around 3.2GHz

I'm looking to get 8GB at higher speeds. I was originally looking at the XP2-8000 Redline from mushkin but for $120+ it doesn't really seem worth it. More recently I was thinking of getting 2 of the Pi Black Kits. But now I'm wondering if I can get 2 of these kits and run all 8gb at 1066MHz on my board.

Will the memory controller support it? Have you guys tested it? Would it be better to save time and money and just get the Pi Black kits and possibly overclock them to 900MHz?

Thanks.

BTW, I've never boughten a G.SKILL product before so this will be a new experience for me

[Nate Rowe]

I think I'm gonna buy the PI Black tonight. Is there any reason why I shouldn't run 4x2GB PI Black on this motherboard? I'll wait a while for a response, thanks.

[Tradesman]

Not that I know of, I've made a number of builds (8) with Gigabyte Ultra mobos, even one for myself - a UD3R, am currently running the F2-8500CL5D-4GBPI (8 GB), a sister to the Black, with no problems. 5-5-5-15-2T @2.0 volts, it's very stable. Also tested 8GB of F2-9600CL5D-4GBPI, in this mobo with no problem (that RAM went into a client's system....so, you should be fine with the GB mobo and the PI RAM, the GB mobos handle a wide range of RAM quite well

[Nate Rowe]

Wow 1200mhz in 8gb, that's quite a bit on the memory controller. Did you have to up the MCH voltage at all for that?

I think I'll skip the PI 800mhz knowing that I can go up to 1200mhz. Which ram would be better then, does one overclock more than the other?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231166
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231145

Or perhaps there's one at that price range that I'm missing? Maybe there's a set that's a little more that's totally worth the extra dollars?

Thanks.

*EDIT*
I've heard the two above are actually the same chips? Isn't the 1066 a newer version though?
The PI 800MHz is out of the question, the price just jumped like $16 a set. I think it's between the two above in this post and anything else you guys would recommend.

[G.SKILL]

we'd recommend you to choose F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK
it would be more possible to overclock higher than 1000 PQ series
and normally it could run fine with 4 sticks, but we only guarantee for 2 sticks in dual channel
not every 2 pairs could match with each other
thanks


G.S

[Nate Rowe]

I've been thinking more and more about the F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK kit more and more. I'm hoping that purchasing the 2 kits at the same time will get them close to the same batch and manufacture date.

Thanks for the advice/knowledge/recommendations guys I'm sure I'll come back with timing questions for this kit when I get it.

*EDIT*
Ordered from Newegg! YAY!

[Tradesman]

Believe you'll be able to run at stock settings 5-5-5-15-2T, prob want to go 2.1v. Insert the pairs, as pairs. i.e. package 1 to slots to slots 1,3 and package 2 to slots 2,4. After testing can switch the pairs if you plan to try OCing, as the packages they arrive in is how they would be tested from the manufacturer. At times, when OCing, you can get slightly better performance depending on the pair that goes into the 1,3 (lead) slots. Didn't notice what OS you running, but you'll need a 64bit version to utilize all 8GB. Have fun!

[Nate Rowe]

Good pointers. Yea, I have Vista Ultimate 64-bit I learned the bit about operating systems a while back. Thanks.

[Tradesman]

On a side note: to your question on the 1200 - it was at 2.1v, and on your possible other choice the
DDR2 1000. I personally tend to shy away from RAM like the 1000, 900 etc, and stick with JEDEC standard speeds whenever possible. Seems like speeds like 1000, 900 etc, may often be sticks that were actually slated for higher speeds but couldn't pass testing/stability at the higher, i.e. 1000 or 900 may actually have started out as 1066. Haven't had much luck trying to OC the oddballs at all. Can well be same with stock speeds, some will OC while others won't, hence changing the pairs from slots 1,3 to 2,4, you sometimes can do better with one pair as lead, opposed to second pair.

[Tradesman]

Just got your reply when I sent, if you like Vista 64 Ultimate, you may want to look at Win7 64 Ultimate, it's a little snappier and works better with SSD drives, almost instantaneous responses and boots in half the time or less than Vista 64. I'm running dual boot on my UDR3. Q6600 @3.2, 8GB 1066, BFG OC2 285.

[Nate Rowe]

Just got your reply when I sent, if you like Vista 64 Ultimate, you may want to look at Win7 64 Ultimate, it's a little snappier and works better with SSD drives, almost instantaneous responses and boots in half the time or less than Vista 64. I'm running dual boot on my UDR3. Q6600 @3.2, 8GB 1066, BFG OC2 285.

I'm sneaky 2.1v still isn't bad in my book for 1200mhz. My biggest fear though this whole thing is that I'll waste money on 1066 ram and my memory controller will crap out but I've seen a few people run 1000mhz and 1066mhz in a 4x2gb configuration and I also have found a few threads on settings for this motherboard. One of which I found very odd, says that lowering MCH voltage fixed memtest errors for 2 people o.O

I actually have a dualboot with Windows 7 64 Ultimate. I like the features it has, however I'll definitely be sticking with Vista though for several months after Windows 7 comes out just for bug fixes and driver compatibility. It will probably be a long time before I do anything with ssd's. I gotta get through a new cpu and gpu first

[Tradesman]

The UD3P is rated through 1333 for RAM, and while it defaults to 800 (as do most mobos, legacy JEDEC standard) 1066 is the basic standard for it. i.e. the 680i came out initially as an 800 mobo, and down the line the BIOS upgrades ended up with it coming to a 1066 standard.

[Nate Rowe]

Well, just like a general fps number in games, that doesn't mean a whole lot without specifics. Are they rating a single sided stick of 512 @ 1333MHz? Or are they testing 4x4GB @ 1333MHz. Which are two very different things as far as the memory controller is concerned. I saw other people having problems with 4x2GB on their motherboards but I knew before I bought this one that it was a beefy motherboard but the question is, how beefy According to you it will do 4x2GB @ 1200MHz and others have had success with 4x2GB @ 1066. But there are some that couldn't get it to work without different voltage settings.

I hope I don't come across as mean, I just try to inform myself before I ask questions so the answerer doesn't have a hard time

[Tradesman]

I don't take it as mean...your asking good questions, wish more people would. I've been building for what seems like forever (did mainframes and minis before PCs arrived), now primarily doing high end PCs (gaming, video, simulation, etc) as well as networks, upgrades, training. For the most part, I try and provide information from first hand knowledge (i.e. boards, RAM, etc I've dealt with) and then sort of go with opinions based on the manufacturers and past experiences. A good example of what you're saying though would be GSkills SSDs. While most ' 'vendors rate their SSDs speeds along the lines of normal use, gskill 'rates' their SSD speeds not at the norm, but at the highest speeds their engineers could get out of (sounds like) a single drive (no telling how many drives were actually tested to get that one single high speed rating. Unfortunately I bought a pair of the 64GB drives ('rated' as 155/90) which didn't come close out of the box, even with some testing and tweaking couldn't get them to run near that at sustained speeds.
But I digress, back to the UD mobos, as I said before I've built a few systems with these various boards and they have taken about everything I've thrown at them. I'd also add that a number of other consultants/builders I keep in touch with are also very pro Gigabyte, and while ASUS has long been a favorite, it has been losing grace slowly but surely.

[Nate Rowe]

Naughty G.Skill. But you know, if I had a company like this, I'd probably do the same thing. It's not lying, just extremely optimized conditions and a lucky drive.

I moved up to this UD3P from a Asus P5NSLI which is a NF4 motherboard. I couldn't POST past 290FSB and even at that speed with stock voltages, the northbridge burned me. Not to mention the problems with 64-bit OS, memory usage, X-Fi crackling, onboard ethernet failing. The UD3P has been a world of difference and has done ANYTHING I throw at it without thinking twice. I hope this G.Skill ram will be the same way.

I will say I was leary about buying G.Skill because (no offense) there only appears to be one or two forum tech's and they don't type with great english. Mushkin on the other hand was very appealing but it was like $130 for 4x2 of 1000mhz and that's with a 10% off coupon. I fell in love with the epic deals G.Skill has on ram now.