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16GB DDR3 Compatibility with a P45 board

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  • 16GB DDR3 Compatibility with a P45 board

    Hello everyone!

    I am planning to buy a second hand motherboard in order to upgrade my computer at low cost, while being able to increase (a lot), my RAM amount (i need to play with a lot of VMs!)

    The kit i am planning to buy is this one :
    F3-10666CL9Q-16GBRL

    4 sticks of 4GB totalling 16GB.

    The board i would like to known if compatible or not is this one
    MSI P45 Diamond.

    I noticed on the QVL page on gskill.us about the ram kit that only Asus and Gigabyte P45 boards are qualified for use with this kit. I was under the impression that all p45 boards compatible with DDR3 were able to use up to 16GB, but on MSI's website, they state that this motherboard is only compatible with up to 8GB (well this is not the case everywhere, i found references of the board beeing compatible with up to 16 gb in the manual of the board...).

    Well my question is quite obvious, but can i buy this kit with confidence that it will work, even not at stock speed/timings.

    I am currently owning a Asus P5Q Deluxe (i understand now i should have taken P5Q3 road 3 years ago), which is only compatible with DDR2 (so pricey now! Buying a second hand DDR3 P45 board and DDR3 is MUCH cheaper than buying straightly 16GB of DDR2), and currently have only 4GB (2*2GB). I know P45 are tricky regarding 16GB of DDR2, and was hoping DDR3 would be easier...

    I buy this MSI board specifically for 16GB so i am currently fearing i may have troubles with 16GB... :/

    Do you guys have any experience with this MSI board? The ram configurator only gave me DDR2 references, up to 16GB kits but obviously not compatible with this board...

  • #2
    I believe this is a 8GB max motherboard, it is best to ask MSI to see if a BIOS update changed this.

    Thank you
    GSKILL TECH

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    • #3
      Damn, thank you very much for your answer, I will try to find a way to ask them then...

      Comment


      • #4
        Yes the Diamond was released as 8GB, don't remember seeing anything about it going to 16, but may have via a BIOS update


        Pls offer comments on support I provide, HERE, in order to help me do a better job here:

        Tman

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        • #5
          Well i asked in their forum, and they advised to open a ticket to be sure, which i did.

          On their forum, here is my topic : http://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=150939.0

          I will put their answer when there is one...

          Let's cross my fingers... :/

          Comment


          • #6
            Will take a look next time I'm over there, but your best bet will be see what MSI says...their forums are all users, the company doesn't really get involved, unless they've changed


            Pls offer comments on support I provide, HERE, in order to help me do a better job here:

            Tman

            Comment


            • #7
              MSI's support made it clear this motherboard is only supposed to use up to 8GB, no BIOS upgrade increased that limit...

              This is unfortunate, as it make this motherboard irrelevant for my use, i will need to resell it and find another one which does suit my needs.

              Is it even possible the 16GB would still work, even if not supported?

              Well i don't want to buy 16GB and be left with a crappy configuration, geez i should have read a lot more than i did!!




              EDIT : IF i decided to still keep this motherboard and put just 8GB of DDR3, any recommendation for a kit? Will for instance F3-10666CL9Q-8GBECO work fine?
              Last edited by Blubster; 08-01-2011, 04:11 AM. Reason: New question added

              Comment


              • #8
                Might take a look at GIGABYTE GA-P45T-ES3G, think $80-$85 at the Egg, to be honest I'm not sure about the low voltage ECOs with your board, might look at F3-10666CL9Q-8GBRL


                Pls offer comments on support I provide, HERE, in order to help me do a better job here:

                Tman

                Comment


                • #9
                  Thanks a lot for this information, i found a retailer here in France selling F3-10666CL9Q-8GBRL, so i will review my options...
                  I have not yet decided if i will keep the motherboard when it arrives and get this kit, or scrap everything and wait for the socket 2011 to arrive and get everything then...

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Lucky 4GB modules are super cheap now, so it may be worth it to hold you over until the new stuff comes out.

                    Thank you
                    GSKILL TECH

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Well, yeah i decided finally to resell the motherboard and wait for the socket 2011 to arrive, there is no point in going with a 8G max motherboard given the current prices of 16G kits...

                      Thanks everyone for your help, gskill became my favorite brand after all the troubles i had with corsair on my other P45 (DDR2......) rig.

                      I bought 8G of DDR3 for my laptop (F3-10666CL9D-8GBSQ) and couldn't be happier with it!
                      Just painless, stable, fast, etc.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        BSOD or won't boot "F3-10666CL9Q-16GBRL"

                        My desktop is configured:

                        OS:
                        Windows 7 x64 Ultimate

                        MB:
                        Gigabyte GA-EP45T-DS3R

                        RAM:
                        F3-10666CL9Q-16GBRL 4x4

                        CPU:
                        Intel? Core?2 Quad Processor Q9650
                        (12M Cache, 3.0 GHz, 1333 MHz FSB)

                        GPU:
                        GeCube Radeon HD3870X2 (R680) (X-Turbo Dual) Quad DVI 1GB GDDR3

                        Power:
                        ZEPHYR 750w

                        I upgraded my RAM in July 2011 from 8GB Corsair 2x4 to GSKILL F3-10666CL9Q-16GBRL 4x4, everything seemed to work well until I recently started to get the dreaded BSOD one right after another and each different.

                        I ran a series of diagnostic test on the MB, CPU GPU and RAM the results were that the RAM (each stick 1-4) had errors:

                        chaotic addressing error
                        microtopology error

                        I RMA'd the memory and when I got the "new" memory back the best I can get to work is 8GB (2 sticks) (boot), 16BG (4 Sticks) won't boot.

                        What should the BIOS settings be for the RAM, right now it's set on auto, but where I could and did run all 4 sticks now the best I can do is run with 2 sticks.

                        Thank you for your help...

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Weird, do you have the latest BIOS for the motherboard?

                          Test one module at a time to see if 1 or 2 may be bad causing problems.

                          Check that basic settings are DDR3-1333 9-9-9-24 1.50V

                          With four modules, you can try raising MCH Core Voltage a tad to see if that helps.

                          Thank you
                          GSKILL TECH

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            16GB 4x4

                            Originally posted by GSKILL TECH View Post
                            Weird, do you have the latest BIOS for the motherboard?

                            Test one module at a time to see if 1 or 2 may be bad causing problems.

                            Check that basic settings are DDR3-1333 9-9-9-24 1.50V

                            With four modules, you can try raising MCH Core Voltage a tad to see if that helps.

                            Thank you
                            GSKILL TECH
                            Added the other 2 sticks (total 4 sticks 16GB) and it booted up and with in a minute I got another BSOD "bsod driver mismanaging system ptes"

                            Rebooted and changed the BIOS "MCH Core Voltage" as suggested from "Auto" to 1.200V. This time it got another BSOD immediately "Modification of system code"... When I went back into the BIOS there was a big red WARNING that the system had experienced a boot failure because of over clocking or change of voltage.

                            Next time I set the MCH Core to "normal" and BSOD immediately, reset it to "auto", this time the BSOD was "system service exception".

                            Where do we go from here FYI the BIOS is F4A.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              They have a beta BIOS F4C available here:

                              http://www.gigabyte.us/products/prod...?pid=2851#bios

                              Could try that, might also try raising DRAM voltage to 1.55-1.6........also might want to drop them a line and see if they have any input


                              Pls offer comments on support I provide, HERE, in order to help me do a better job here:

                              Tman

                              Comment

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