Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (
More info?)
>You should be using groups.google.com to research the issue. I tried
>A7V and "three sticks" as two search terms (incl. the double quotes
>so that the two words three and sticks are found together).
>
>http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=Xns917FBA9956FBbobmarleycom%40216.221.81.119
Yeah, looking, not really finding much useful info yet.
>You could also try private forums specializing in your board, like
>a7vtroubleshooting.com .
Already done, nothing useful yet.
>Experience with RAM will vary from board to board, and with different
>brands of memory DIMMs. The basic problem is, a shared memory bus has
>poor signal integrity, so the speed versus number of sticks problem
>will _always_ be an issue. (The upcoming Intel FB memory stick will
>solve this problem once and for all, as Intel has some kind of
>hub architecture for memory in the works.)
Lets hope so
>First of all, try to get two sticks running, using slot1 and slot3.
>Leave slot2 blank for now. You may be able to run at full speed that
>way.
I had a combination working that way, I forget what it is now, if I
find it again I'll write it down. It doesn't solve my problem of
needing to get 3 sticks working in this mobo, however.
>To run three sticks, might require using single sided RAM (which of
>course does nothing good for you in terms of total RAM on board - two
>double sided sticks will give more total RAM). Using a double sided
>in the slot furthest from the processor, and two single sided nearest
>the processor, is another potential config, again doing nothing for
>you in terms of max memory.
Trying that as I type this. Perhaps this board prefers single-sided
memory...I'm not certain. Unfortunately, if that's the case, I don't
have enough single-sided sticks to make a total of 3. I only have 2
single sided sticks the rest are double-sided. Right now it's on test
#4 with the single sided stick closest to the CPU and hasn't thrown a
million errors yet...interesting. It would have by now in any other
configuration, however I'm not holding my breath! It'll probably just
fail at a later test. I'll post again after I test some more.
>I have read accounts of this problem with later board models, and
>occasionally someone will manage to get a board full of RAM running
>at full speed, but it doesn't happen that often.
Not encouraging news
>There are a couple of solutions to the problem.
>
>One is boards that use registered memory. This is typically server
>boards, but there are some desktop boards that can use registered
>as well. Registered memory has a latch on the address bus, and its
>main benefit, is the fact that the latch drives the address to the
>memory chips, removing the heavy capacitive load from the address
>bus. This allows the Northbridge to drive more memory loads without
>a problem. The single electrical load of the latch chip causes much
>less transmission line discontinuity than does 16 memory chips in
>parallel sitting on the address bus.
Well I'm not sure if this board can take ECC or not, I've never tried
it, and none of my sticks are ECC. I'd also rather not pour any money
into this old system if I don't have to.
>A second solution, is for a motherboard to have multiple address
>busses with the same info on them. The Athlon64 S754 processor does
>this, and there have been a number of chipsets in the past that
>have done this as well (Nforce2 is an example).
>
>So, I wouldn't single out Asus as the only maker suffering from the
>problem. If you know a bit more about the electrical nature of the
>problem and its solutions, that can make finding a board that can
>take a full load of DIMMs a bit easier.
>
>For example, dual channel boards with four sockets, have two
>DIMMs on one bus and two DIMMs on the other bus. That is one way
>of buying a product with two address busses. However, you still
>have to check Google, and read the manual for a given board,
>before buying, because some chip designers still don't get it.
>For example, the ATI chipsets don't seem to be up to the job,
>based on some comments I've read yesterday in a Corsair forum.
>
>HTH,
> Paul
Just for what it's worth, I've put all these sticks in my Abit board
(same chipset, too I might add!) in any combination and run full
memtests without incident.
Thanks for the info
-GV