Hoping to avoid memory issues

[ralphf926]

After reading some of the comments about the Asus P5N32-E Sli MB I'm somewhat concerned about all these memory issues and hope I'm not over my head. I'm building my first computer and feel like I'm in a hornets nest. I have not started build yet so maybe there's hope. Hopefully this forum can help avoid problems. I used Corsair memory configurator on ZipZoom Fly web site and it said I should purchase Corsair TWIN2x2048-6400C 2gb kit. When I did same on Corsair web site it said I should use TWIN2x2048-6400c4DHX. I ended up getting TWIN2x2048-6400C4 2gbkit DDR2800 XMS2-6400 Xtreme. Am I Ok with this memory choice. Just as an aside I could not find anywhere in Asus land where any of this Corsair memory is qualified by Asus. I've read that this board will not accept 4 sticks of DDR2800 memory but a max of 3 even though the user manual states that "the motherboard can support up to 8gb". How would I configure the memory if I wanted to use all 4 memory channels. Can I use 4 sticks of either 667 or 553? Can I mix different memory speed such as 800 on channel a and 667 or 553 on channel b. Never seemed to have these kind of problems with my MSI Board. I don't know if this is relavent but I also purchased an Intel Quad 6600 cpu to use with this board. Look forward to working with you all and thanks in advance for any help.:eek:

[DerekT]

It's a real crapshoot with the 680i chipset. Some boards do fine with 4 banks filled and some do not. There is no method to isolate the issue to any format. It's just a throw of the dice. I advise those who want to use 4GB to purchase 2 X 2048 and those who want to fill all four banks to transition to the P35 chipset as it seems more forgiving with all four banks filled. It's not a guarantee even then, just more likely.

 

Mixing and matching DRAM is never a good idea.

 

I wish I could advise a perfect solution to this issue, but at this time, I have not seen any. And an MSI board with 680i will be as problematic as any other 680i board.

[RAM GUY]

I would agree with DerekT. IN addition, I would have to say that you have to take a few things into consideration one being there are lots of users that you never see as they do not have any problems. And we are a major manufacturer and so is ASUS they are one of the largest MB Makers in the world and do dominate the enthusiast market of which we are a major manufacturer in this market as well. Last time I looked they told us we have about 60% market share . Dont know if that is still the case but it does not matter just that we have a big presence and for that reason you will see more people have problems with our module and any of the major makes MB's. The big questions is what do you see when you see people having problems; are they getting the problems solved for the most part and are they finding a solution? In most cases once users have the BIOS set properly for their configuration they are not having problems.

 

And XM2S-6400C4 and Xm2s-6400C4DHX are the same module just different package and the DHX part does not support EPP profiles.