Noob builder armed with his first mobo :P

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Last response: March 19, 2010 1:22 PM in Motherboards

BernardC

March 19, 2010 2:23:30 AM

I just picked up Asus M4A89GTD Pro/USB 3 and hope someone can explain something to a new system builder. This board has 4 dual channel ram slots, yet I am reading that many people are saying that AMD based boards can not handle having all 4 memory slots filled. IF 4x2gb is still 8gb and this is below max memory capacity why can't all 4 slots be utilized.

Windows7 x64 is such a resource hog I don't understand how 4gb is enough. And going with (2) 4gb sticks is far beyond my budget so I'm looking for some guidance please.

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EXT64

Motherboard Expert

March 19, 2010 2:30:50 AM

They can do all 4, otherwise they wouldn't be there. However, in the past (haven't tried it with the newer chips) you had to do a little lower speed/looser timings if you filled up all four slots.

Windows 7 is not a resource hog. 1GB is not enough, however 2GB is plenty for normal tasks and 4GB is plenty for demanding tasks/games.

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chefboyeb

March 19, 2010 3:48:42 AM

Windows vista was a resource hog, windows 7 would barely use 3 out of the 4 gig of ram you have available... If you're concerned about the board not being able to handle having all four slots filled, get the newer revisions of the AMD phenoms IIs... They have improved memory controllers, run a little cooler, and have been tested to do all four slots without any hustle at all...