RMA-ing Gigabyte GA-X48-DQ6

Had enough...this board is going back. After lots of grief, I've determined
that it's suffering from the 4 sticks of RAM issue. It was an expensive
board, so I expect much better. I don't want to have to do loads of tweaking
just to get it to work on spec!

I made a complete balls-up with my choice of this board...any other
recommendations for a board with the following config?

- FSB 1333MHz to support Q9450
- DDR2 support for PC2-8500 RAM
- needs 1 IDE slot for DVD drives.

Cheers

JW

John Whitworth wrote:

Had enough...this board is going back. After lots of grief, I've determined
that it's suffering from the 4 sticks of RAM issue. It was an expensive
board, so I expect much better. I don't want to have to do loads of tweaking
just to get it to work on spec!

Of course you tried bumping the MCH voltage a tad?

"Fishface" ? wrote in message
news:[email protected]
John Whitworth wrote:

Had enough...this board is going back. After lots of grief, I've
determined
that it's suffering from the 4 sticks of RAM issue. It was an expensive
board, so I expect much better. I don't want to have to do loads of
tweaking
just to get it to work on spec!

Of course you tried bumping the MCH voltage a tad?

I tried the memory voltage at 1.8V and 2.2V (as per EPP). No difference.
Still intermittently fails on Memtest, and behaves strangely in Windows
(prolonged startup and BSODs). In fact, at 1066MHz, there was no difference
in performance between 1.8V and 2.2V.

Cheers

JW

"Fishface" ? wrote in message
news:[email protected]
John Whitworth wrote:

Had enough...this board is going back. After lots of grief, I've
determined
that it's suffering from the 4 sticks of RAM issue. It was an expensive
board, so I expect much better. I don't want to have to do loads of
tweaking
just to get it to work on spec!

Of course you tried bumping the MCH voltage a tad?

Sorry...just realised that my last response is talking about DDR voltage
levels, not MCH.

What sort of amount should I raise MCH by? And is this an acceptable 'tweak'
for a top-end board. Shouldn't it just work, out of the box - at least at
stock speeds?

JW

Somewhere on teh intarweb "John Whitworth" typed:
Had enough...this board is going back. After lots of grief, I've
determined that it's suffering from the 4 sticks of RAM issue. It was
an expensive board, so I expect much better. I don't want to have to
do loads of tweaking just to get it to work on spec!

I made a complete balls-up with my choice of this board...any other
recommendations for a board with the following config?

- FSB 1333MHz to support Q9450
- DDR2 support for PC2-8500 RAM
- needs 1 IDE slot for DVD drives.

Asus P5K-E. Or anything in that range above it (i.e. P5K Premium...) The P35
NB has proved to be a reliable chip. Coupled with the ICH9R you have what's
pretty much the best combo at a good price.

I've built a few machines around these boards now using quad and dual core
CPUs and am very impressed at features, stability and overclockability. I
personally have a P5K-E WiFi/AP that currently has an E4500 @ 3.3GHz in it,
(413MHz [1653] FSB) just waiting for the 45nm parts to come down in price.

I still haven't decided whether to go dual or quad. It seems that, for most
things, dual is more overclockable, meaning faster, more snappy response in
Windows. The only reason I'm intending to upgrade my E4500 at some stage is
for more L2 and more speed (although it doesn't break a sweat with anything
I throw at it at the moment).

Good luck with whatever you decide.
--
Shaun.

John Whitworth wrote:

What sort of amount should I raise MCH by?

Maybe try a couple tenths or so?

And is this an acceptable 'tweak' for a top-end board. Shouldn't
it just work, out of the box - at least at stock speeds?

It's not uncommon to bump for four sticks or high FSB, but you'd
think it could at least handle the four sticks at default.
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/ledze...oursticks.html
How high can you get with 2 sticks?

"Fishface" ? wrote in message
news:[email protected]
John Whitworth wrote:

What sort of amount should I raise MCH by?

Maybe try a couple tenths or so?

And is this an acceptable 'tweak' for a top-end board. Shouldn't
it just work, out of the box - at least at stock speeds?

It's not uncommon to bump for four sticks or high FSB, but you'd
think it could at least handle the four sticks at default.
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/ledze...oursticks.html
How high can you get with 2 sticks?
OK, thanks...I'll try upping it by about 2/10ths. Haven't tried taking 2
sticks any higher than stock, as with the problems I was having, didn't
think it was worth it. If I can see light at the end of the 4-stick tunnel
though, I'll start going higher! :-)

Cheers

JW

"John Whitworth" wrote in message
...

OK, thanks...I'll try upping it by about 2/10ths. Haven't tried taking 2
sticks any higher than stock, as with the problems I was having, didn't
think it was worth it. If I can see light at the end of the 4-stick tunnel
though, I'll start going higher! :-)

Well, fingers crossed, touch wood, throw salt over left shoulder, stand
underneath pigeon etc... raising MCH voltage by 0.2V seems to have done the
trick. It's still a bit annoying that it's needed, but at least it will save
me packing this board up and sending it back. Now to cancel the RMA! :-)

Thanks for your help,

JW