Scorn Posted February 23, 2008 Share Posted February 23, 2008 Hello all, I'm planning on buying a new system and since RAM prices are relatively low I have been thinking about getting the maximum amount of RAM for it. I have my eyes set on the ASUS Maximus Formula which supports 8GB (naturally I will be running a 64 bit OS). Now I haven't been able to find any tests of that board actually running 8 GB of RAM and thought I'd ask here before buying something I won't be able to use. The memory I was thinking of buying is Corsair TWIN2X4096-6400C5 (twice, that is). Will that work? If not what do you recommend? Thanks for your trouble. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scorn Posted February 24, 2008 Author Share Posted February 24, 2008 After doing some browsing I haven't found an answer yet but did manage to find an online retailer that sells TWIN2X4096-6400C4DHX for a good price. I would actually prefer that over the TWIN2X4096-6400C5 I mentioned earlier. Anyway, any information is most welcome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekT Posted February 24, 2008 Share Posted February 24, 2008 When you populate all four DRAM banks you will very likely need to drop your bandwidth to allow the memory controller to be able to access and load the now doubled slots. For 800 (PC6400C4Mhz) DRAM, you will very likely need to drop to 667Mhz with 4-4-4-12 and also might well have to raise the voltage on the Northbridge (MCH). Two slots populated will not cause this issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scorn Posted February 25, 2008 Author Share Posted February 25, 2008 Thanks for the reply, in short, it should be doable then. Any idea as to whether I need to review my airflow and cooling if I raise the voltage on the Northbridge? I am planning on putting the Maximus Formula in an Enermax Chakra which has a 250 mm fan in the side panel and two 120 mm fan slots in the front and the back, which I plan to use. As the Maximus Formula is an 'enthusiast' motherboard I take it that raising the voltage a bit won't afffect the warranty, does anyone know? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekT Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 Thanks for the reply, in short, it should be doable then. It should be doable" is the definitive statement. Not will, but should. Any idea as to whether I need to review my airflow and cooling if I raise the voltage on the Northbridge? I am planning on putting the Maximus Formula in an Enermax Chakra which has a 250 mm fan in the side panel and two 120 mm fan slots in the front and the back, which I plan to use. As the Maximus Formula is an 'enthusiast' motherboard I take it that raising the voltage a bit won't afffect the warranty, does anyone know? The Maximus Formula has the Intel X38 chipset which is known to run as hot as the 680i/780i so yes, it is indeed a hot chipset. I personally would go for a P35 chipset that runs very cool. P5K-E/Deluxe are fine boards. If you stick with the Maximus formula, you may wish to add the Thermaltake Xtreme Spirit II chipset cooler. It is a very good cooler for the Northbridge. Takes a bit of work to install, but well worth it. Raising the voltage will not effect the warranty of the board. However, if you raise it too high, then the chipset will show the physical characteristics of high overvolting and you will very likely lose your warranty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scorn Posted February 25, 2008 Author Share Posted February 25, 2008 Well, I think I'll stick to 4GB for now then. I'll wait for 4Gb modules to appear and then I'll switch to 8GB. Mostly because I've had my share of tinkering overly long with pc's and just want things to work, spending extra money for a 'maybe' isn't my thing. Thanks for your time DerekT, it is greatly appreciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekT Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 You're very welcome and really, in the scale of things, 8GB is overkill, there are not many programs that will make use of such an amount of DRAM. Photoshop and a few other more specialized applications will allow you the use of DRAM for a scratch disk and there are some audio multiplexing programs that also allow for real time converting <--> streaming in DRAM, but otherwise it's not very useful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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