Gigabyte UD3R MOBO not loading 6 sticks of RAM

[getacarlos]

Hi, I made sure first of reading the manual throughly, also the post guidelines, so here we go:

The Components:

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R Bios version FA
RAM: 6x4GB OCZ Reaper 1333. Timing 9-9-9-20, Cas 9, Voltage 1.65v. I bought these as 2 sets of 3 sticks.
CPU: Core i7 980X
Storage: 4x1 terabyte drives 3Gps 72k rpms, setup as 2 pairs in RAID 0 each pair. One pair for the OS, the other pair for drives (I know about the dangers of no redundancy, but first, help me get the RAM situation working first, i'll set them up in RAID 10 later on)
Video Card: Quadro 5000 (I do 3D animation, fluid and particle simulations, hence the need for 24 gigs of ram and this type of video card. And NO, I'm not planning on playing Crysis)
PSU: Seasonic Gold 750w
Case: Coolermaster Cosmos 1000
OS: Windows 7 Professional 64bit
Optical: Lightscribe BlueRay-R DVD-R


The Issue:

The motherboard doesn't seem to recognize the RAM sticks. I made sure they were compatibe with the Mobo. When all of them are installed (6 sticks for 24 gigs), if lucky I get 16 gigabytes usable. On restart I might get 8 gigabytes usuable (and this is after restarting multiple times, can't get a pattern here). Then I try only 3 sticks in DIMMs 1,3,5 as indicated in the manual, and then I get 4 gigs usable most of the time, 8 gigs if lucky, on 12 gigs and I should have played the lottery then. Trying only 2 sticks in 1,3 I get 4 gigs usable most of the time.

MB Intelligent Tweaker (MIT) sometimes picks up 4 Gigs, then Windows has 8 usable.

I have made sure to use the same set of Ram sticks according to the serial number trying to identify a bad set, it never gets consistent results. Also, I have tried the beta Bios version FB16, same results.

I would like to believe that it's a bad MOBO because the RAM is detected sometimes, then again it could be that the RAM is bad as well. That's why I'm posting here.
I asked for a MOBO exchange from Newegg and might have to do the RAM as well, they're great about that, but before having them do the exchange (by the way, I only have this week left to do it), I would like to get to the bottom of this problem.

Let me know your suggestions.

P.S. Thank you Tomshardware Forum comunity for heading me in the right direction when choosing the parts. I saved at least a grand in that. The build, except for the ram problem, runs amazing, can't wait to do Maya and Softimage. it makes me wanna try Crysis on it, foshow.

Thank you all.

Carlos

 

[silversurfernhs]

Bottom line is that mobo is incredibly finicky

heres a small sample:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/forum2.php?config=tomshardwareus.inc&cat=30&post=279335&page=1&p=1&sondage=0&owntopic=1&trash=0&trash_post=0&print=0&numreponse=0&quote_only=0&new=0&nojs=0

i know you saved a bit - but it might be worth the little extra in changing to a rampage

 

[getacarlos]

It's interesting Tom's Hardware didn't encounter that problem when they tested that board. Iit seemed to run so well and it was recommended. My intent with the board wasn't to save money, as that is an important component, where I saved was the hardrives, as I was planning on getting 15k rpms but was told in the forums that the price ratio to value just didn't make sense.

Would you mind suggesting a rampage model? I need it to fit the Cooler master Cosmos 1000 case (7 slots), work with Core i7, support up to 24 gigs of Ram (6 sticks), Nvidia Cards and hopefully have USB 3. I'll check it on the website my self, but if you have a good idea it would be appreciated.

 

[daship]

You have the first release of the bios. There is a newer beta release available.

 

[getacarlos]

You have the first release of the bios. There is a newer beta release available.

I noted in the first post that I also tried the Bios version FB16 (the one you're referring to) without success.

Thank you anyhow.