P5B-E plus and RAM

[larsdidriksen]

the Asus P5B-E plus, seem to be picky about Ram, and since the QVL over at asus is way out of date, the Ram listed mostly does not use the IC chips spicified at that time. (corsair twin2x-6400C4 use to have micron chips now they use Promos )

anyway can anyone recomend any good Ram for this board?

I was looking at Cellchocks ddr2-6400 @ 4-4-4-12 i know they use Micron, but is it compatible with the P5B-E plus.? Will it boot first time from stock Bios, without having to get any other Rammfirst to adjust any settings in bios?

thanks for any help

 

[kcrush]

This board is very very picky about RAM. I suggest searching these forums to see what people managed to get working and use only those as your choices.

When the board doesn't like the ram, you will get no warning. You hit the powerbutton, power cycles and thats it. No beeps, no video nothing.

I managed to get OCZ Platinum PC DDR 800 PC 6400 working on it, but not PQI pc 5400 DDR2 667 (hated it).

Whatever avenue you purchase the chips from be sure you can exchange them in case the board is having a bad day.

BTW bios udpates do not fix its ram compatability.

 

[qrhetoric]

I had no trouble with Corsair XMS2 667 4-4-4 ram.

Bruce

 

[larsdidriksen]

trouple with both those kits, are that they use to have Micron D9 chips in them, witch hit high in every review. The old!! corsair 6400C4 is acctually the same as the new 8500 Ram. But now they use either Promos or Elpida chips witch are really really bad IC's and not worth the money (Even if the price was cut by half, i woulden get them)

 

[larsdidriksen]

Ok si i finally got some cellshock PC6400 Cas4 Ram, and my Mobo booted right up. turns out it was the Ram after all. I started with some corsair Pc6400C5 (those that USE to have Micron chips 8) but now have Promos chips) and it wouldent boot. so i returned the Ram RMA'ed the Mobo, got mobo back tried a new pair of Corsair C5 no boot, returned Ram got money back from new reseller, tried some corsair XMS6400 C4 same problem, no post, then some dominator C4-no post- then finaly i got some OLD C4 from a friend v.1.2 with Micron D9 chips-succes my P5B-e plus comes alive, sadly he needed those stick back, ok so i tried some cellshock that uses Micron chips, and YES its alive, a month after getting my new system im finaly able to boot into windows. im never ever getting corsair again. for all of you out there that has a P5B-E plus, with Ram trouble, Cellshock fixed my problems. (P5B-E plus rev. 1.01G, C2)

 

[irocem]

I built a system off this board and it wouldn't post..I was using a 1 gig pqi module.. Yesterday,I picked up a gig of pc 800 super talent..Problem solved..

 

[larsdidriksen]

thanks. I just got some Cellshock Ram and they work great. posted the first time. tried all maner of corsair (XMS 800 C4, C5, Dominator, etc.) only one that worked was the OLD v1.2 C4, the rest was junk. any way like i said i got some cellshock and its a dream to work with so im happy.

 

[madmurph]

A lot of the memory incompatibility problems with the Asus P965 boards can be resolved by making certain you have the latest BIOS installed, especially when the RAM voltage has to be stepped down, for example, from 2.2v to the required 1.8v. I have the Corsair XMS 6400C4 sticks in my P5B Deluxe, and they work fine. (Not sure which chipset they have.)

 

[larsdidriksen]

true, but thats when you have a system that will allow you to acctually boot. with bad ram in the P5B-e plus there are often no warnings just plain Black screen. so updating the bios before you have the correct Ram is not going to happen. anyway the Delux model is different from the Plus version, so i dont know, the Ram might work in one, but not the other. anyway summery is i have tried over 6 pairs (XMs2-6400C5(2 kit's), C4 (3 kit´s), C4D and 8500C5D)of corsair memmory, the only ones that would alow me to even post were the ones with Micron chips (Dominator 8500, and XMS2-6400 C4 v1.2!! only, not v2.1, or Dominator so my gues is that P5B-E plus has issues with the new Promos chips Corsair is using for there 6400 series now. eg: read my disapointed post that corsair decided to swich the chips, for me at least this posed a real problem not just OC wise, but i simply was not able to boot. anyway i am now. i even pushed those cellshock 6400c4 to 1024Mhz. cant say anything other then MicronD9 chips rock.

 

[madmurph]

Agreed. A lot of users that can't get it to boot buy or borrow an inexpensive stick of RAM that will allow them to boot, just so they can flash the BIOS. Then they can install the preferred sticks.

 

[flatbone]

I have the P5B-E plus and the 6400C4 v2.1
At first I had problems (it worked at first, then started to fail booting) with one kit and took it back to warranty. Now I got another kit that is working ok, it's just that I have problems with installations. Almost everytime I try to install a game or a program I get an error referring to missing or corrupted cab files. Also I'm getting CRC errors in installations or extractions of (big) archives. Sometimes, the computer would self reset (I've seen a BSOD error for a fraction of a second before self-rebooting) or some application crash (explorer.exe, outlook). The computer is brand new and the OS (XP SP2) is freshly installed so the problems are strictly connected to the RAM or MOBO.
Although I have reasons to believe that the board is the faulty one becuase I've tried the RAM sticks on my brother's computer (exactly same configuration) and it works with no errors. He is also using a 2 GB kit of same Corsair 6400C4 v2.1 and has no problems.
What do you guys think of this ?
I'm out of ideas so I'm hoping for some advice.
Thanks in advance.

 

[madmurph]

In my experience, when there are file extraction errors, esp. cab files, it has to do with a memory problem. So, if it's not the sticks, it's prob the memory controller on the MB.

 

[sluzbenik]

When did Corsair start using the Promos chips? I got my 6400C5 in August and it booted fine. I think you can tell by looking at the revision but I am too lazy to open up my case right now and check...

As for your memory errors, check the subtimings, I have warned about this on several forums - if you are running RAM manually the subtimings may be set to 10-10-10 which ain't right at all, and the Asus p5bs don't even usually read the main timings right when you go manual (mine was set to 5-6-6-18, instead of 5-5-5-12).

Still, I was running with bad subtimings (because I didn't know and my overclock was stable enough) for months an didn't have those kind of problems. Memtest failed only after about an hour once I tested them.

 

[flatbone]

What do you mean by "subtimings may be set to 10-10-10 which ain't right at all". What should these subtimings be set to ?
I had the timings on auto in BIOS and I now put them manually on 4 4 4 12 and 2.05V.
In windows, with default-auto timings, CPU-Z showed 5 5 5 18.
When I set timings to "manual" in BIOS it showed the 5 6 6 18 settings which I modified into 4 4 4 12. :?
It is quite weird how this all goes and it's even weirder because I don't know much about these things.
In meantime I updated to the latest ver. of BIOS (0504 - 26.01.2007) for the P5B-E plus. I installed a game (with 4 4 4 12) and got 1 cab file error instead of 4 or 5 which I got when I tried installing before(with auto 5 5 5 18).
I don't know what the cause is, but it seems that the new version of BIOS didn't solve it.
Maybe I should play more with these timings and voltages but I would need some support on this.
Thanks.

 

[larsdidriksen]

When did Corsair start using the Promos chips?

Allmost all corsair pc2 6400 are promos, with a few ecceptions. the C3 kit, and the early XMS2 kits (v1.1 and 1.2) use Micron. all the new Dominator6400 use promos chips. if you have a v1.1 or 1.2 of the 6400 ram, you are fine, if not you might see dificulties on the P5B-e plus, and any OC wont come near (not even close to) the specs on the v1.1 and v1.2.

it caused problems for many, (No post, or boot, bad OC) when they swiched the cips... read my other post about it here

in corsairs defence: they did do something about it: corsair response to Promos dificultied

and here is a list of chips used in there ram: Corsair official list

a different list for other brands

anyway like i said the cellshock 6400c4 dillivers, i can run them at ddr2 8500 speed with 5-5-5 timings

 

[larsdidriksen]

i just read a review of the cellshock ram, its Danish but here is the link.

The reviwer had them running at 1200Mhz 8O 8) with 5-5-5-12 timmings and a divider of 2:3 on an Asus P5B Deluxe. This is an OC of 100%!

I havent gotten that far since this would require my to OC my CPU wich im not doing right now since it running fairly hot since i killed all but the PSU and CPU fans, (i hate noisey computers) i am running them on a P5B-E plus at max setting witch is 1066Mhz (i think) i havent gotten to adjusting the timings further yet.

Anyway thanks for all the imput on Ram. and all the help with chosing the right ones for my picky Mobo