8 gig of ram with GA-X48-DS4?

[JohnD]

Hi all;
I'm about to buy:
■GA-X48-DS4
■e8500 processor
■8 gigs worth of this ram: OCZ Reaper HPC Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227267

I plant on running vista 64.

Can you folks offer any warnings / advice before I proceed?
■Can I get 8 gigs in this sucker?
■Is this the ram to use with this mobo?
■Will I be able to OC to get the timings between the e8500 and the ram set properly?

As always, many thanks for your suggestions / advice!

 

[bdollar]

yes you can get 8gb but what do you need it for? typically 4 (2x2) is more than enough. also you want to get ram at the standard 1.8v and then oc from there with your cpu as necessary. that is the newest trick by ram companies is selling cl4 with higher voltage which basically means they oc it. gives you less control. here is a cut and paste job of an explanation on another thread about ram:

"you'll get an apples to apples comparison. A higher voltage that you apply manually may then let you adjust to a higher speed and/or tighter timings, BUT, if your BIOS is ever reset, you won't need to play games just to get your RAM working and/or stable; it WILL work at 1.8V, and be stable, at its advertised timings (possibly looser than the ones you set). If your RAM requires 2.1V out of the package to work at DDR2-800 speeds, who knows how or if it will work at 1.8V, or how stable it will be. "

 

[bdollar]

sorry forgot to say who i quoted. jtt283. if i am not making any sense with my explanation you may want to pm him. he has explained it on several threads this was the first i could find and it seems to make sense.

back to your build:

1. budget?
2. resolution of monitor?
3. Use of computer?
4. GPU and any other components buying (like hdd, dvd rom, etc)?

all of these things work together and will help with the overall analysis and recommendations we can give. typically there are other areas where the money is better spent then 4 more gbs of ram. but if those areas are all looking great and you decide you really want 8gb then one potential use for the extra ram is to turn off your windows page file cache and let the ram handle it. but again, that is assuming there isn't a better area to spend the money and typically there is. sorry to ramble so long, hope that helps.

 

[JohnD]

1. Budget is about $1500
2. Monitor is 2560x1600 30"
3. Gaming.
4. And here's the rest of the build:

■GA-X48-DS4
■e8500 processor
■4870x2 (yes, that $560 beastie)
■CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V NVIDIA SLI Support ATI CrossFire Support 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply - Retail
■Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
■Sony NEC Optiarc 20X DVD±R Burner Black SATA Model AD-7200S-0B - OEM
■XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler - Retail
■XIGMATEK ACK-I7751 Retention Bracket - Retail
■Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - OEM

All that's left is the memory. I'd like the beastie to post, so your suggestion of 1.8v ram sounds good to me, especially as I like to OC and synch ram + processor up as I read here:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/252206-30-obtain-ratio-ddr800-intel-e8500

Any help you can provide with the system / with ram selection is greatly appreciated!

Also, 4 gig of ram is fine by me - if 8 wont do anything for me / complicates matters, the heck with it.

 

[bdollar]

for sure on the x48 with that resolution. will see benifit if/when you can crossfire another 4870x2.

build looks very good. make sure 750w is enough for eventual crossfire would hate to have to get new psu if/when you do that. i think it is but am not sure. corsair is great brand for psu. so is pc power and cooling.

great hdd choice. nothing better price per gigabyte

haven't had much luck with sony burners. had a few problems and haven't heard great things. don't know a ton about it though so maybe not the best person to ask but may want to look into that one.

mushkin makes good ram. haven't heard any complaints about it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146692

 

[JohnD]

Oh, the PSU will not support two of these cards. For that, I'd need to get a 1000 to 1200 watt PSU.

I may do that at some point, but for now, I thought I would start here. Another option is to crossfire with a 4870 rather than the x2. Might, maybe be enough power here for that. I may try that one day, but for now this will do nicely.

Thanks for all your help with the ram. I think I'm finally ready to buy.

 

[bdollar]

are you sure? that seems like an awful lot. 750w will for sure handle one x2. for some reason i thought it was 750-800 or so for 2 of them? hmm. anyway it is a very good build and at least your options are open as far as your mobo. at that res it would probably be worth it at some point. but if 800 or 850 will do it might be worth it to make sure since that wouldn't cost that much more and then your system would be fully crossfire ready when you are ready to do that and all you would be doing is adding a gpu?? just a thought. like your build though.

also x2 beats 4870 crossfired so no need to toy with that.

 

[wtfchuck]

I am using 6 gb of ram 3x2 in "Flex Mode" with this mobo with no issues. Great board.

 

[airblazer]

Anyone using 8gbs on this board?
Most boards state support upto 8gigs but try getting a board that will actually do this

 

[bilbat]

There's a GREAT Gigabyte forum over at:
http://forums.tweaktown.com/f69
I've heard that Gb boards, in general, 'like' Mushkin RAM. Not to say others' WON"T work, just that Mushkins seem to take less fiddling with, and if you ARE willing to fiddle, might

OC better. I'm planning a new workstation, and was going to buy 8Gb OCZ 1066 as it was a little cheaper, & they seem to have good support (especially at NewEgg) but, it seemed to me, I'd GLADLY pay $15 a stick to cut several hours of cursing at the BIOS while tweaking.

They have a 'sticky' with a very thorough approach to OCing memory on these boards, and yes, the board will support 8Gb, it just may take a little work to get it optimized...

Good Luck-

Bill