Inexpensive board with support for the largest and fastest ram

[alohascott]

Aloha
any ideas out there about which motherboard supports the largest amount of ram.
I am playing around with ramdrives and this subject is now on top of my list of things to find out.
I am actually trying for a lower cost build.
i can sometimes find 8gb ram for $30 so that is pretty cheap but that is 4gb memory modules so i need lots of slots.
I missed a deal like that yesterday
probably I am more concerned with largest then fastest since 1600 is probably the fastest ram i can get for cheap.

anyway I don't know if i can really afford a server board and I don't think I can find DDR2 ram at those prices either so that eliminates a few choices.

any input would be appreciated.

 

[itzdanielp]

First of all, which chip are you planning on running. AMD or Intel. That is going to be a big factor as you have to choose that before you can choose the board.

Also, what series of CPU.

 

[alohascott]

well its not actually
i have an i3-2120 and and x4 955 (unlocked x2) but i have noticed that the boards with most slots (6) are actually older 1366 so if i need to do that i will just swap cpus.
and go with one of those

 

[itzdanielp]

for the i3 (socket 1155) the max slots you can have is 4, and the max speed the CPU supports natively is DDR3 - 1333.

for the 955 x4 (AM3 / AM3+) the max slots is also 4.

 

[alohascott]

thats good info
do other chips support more?
like i5 or i7?
or x6?

 

[itzdanielp]

as you mentioned the LGA1366 chipset (i7) can have 6 slots.

x6 still uses the AM3 / AM3+ socket so still 4.

XEON servers can use more sticks, but as you said they get pricey.

 

[alohascott]

OK well its possible I could set this up with a server motherboard and start out with just the cheapest set up possible with room for growth in both cpu and ram.

I would of course want to use regular memory not expensive server memory.

so which sever motherboards would support using regular desktop memory and have lots of slots for ram?

 

[itzdanielp]

well, if you want overkill you could go with...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813151219 and
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819105266

but.... that is probably a bit out of your price range. and those are the cheapest CPU's for that socket.

Or one of these for a more reasonable price
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182240

 

[alohascott]

yes
that is a very nice setup indeed.

yes the last board is closer to my price range for sure.

so the next question is can I use regular inexpensive desktop ram with that board?

 

[alohascott]

and maybe I need to consider also how much exactly i am going to be paying for those two extra slots. vs a 6 slot board that can run faster memory.

something like this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157163R

 

[alohascott]

or for a few dollars more this might be a better quality board

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131665R


oh oh
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182176R
wow nice

with this cpu
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117259

but the cpu is running at 1.6ghz Is it going to be a lot slower then a phenom x4 955 as far as the processor goes?

the reviewers said it good for running virtual machines which is what i would run on it

 

[alohascott]

I got cut off to many messages in a short period of time.
I guess its not polite to talk to yourself on this board.
anyway

I did notice for a few dollars more some cpu with .5ghz higher clock rates so I would get those for sure.

Does anybody know if there would be any overclocking on those? I would guess probably nobody overclocks server chips.

 

[itzdanielp]

I am kind of curious what you are going to be using this machine for. even though the faster / cheaper non server boards use less slots you still can put up to around 32GB or RAM into them 0_0

OCing the server chips... While it is technically possible, I highly doubt those MB's would have a BIOS that allows you to control voltages. The whole premise around servers is a stable unit that has almost no need for downtime. OCing kind of defeats that purpose.

 

[alohascott]

yep on the OC

if you know where I can get 8gb chips then let me know
but I think when you combine the cost of the board and the chips to build the same size ram you are going to pay much more for 4 * 8gb sticks then 8 * 4gb sticks

 

[itzdanielp]

http://www.buy.com/prod/pny-optima-md8192kd3-1333-8gb-ddr3-sdram-memory-module-8-gb-2-x-4-gb/q/sellerid/2083092/loc/101/218847761.html

 

[alohascott]

those are not 8gb sticks

 

[alohascott]

Actually the cpu seems to have more effect on speed of ramdisk then the memory speed, So now I need to consider the CPU that I can afford for each board.

Looking for very strong cpu equal to or above I7-2600k
how about opteron 6128?

 

[alohascott]

what makes this board so expensive?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188069

compared to similar models from the same company?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=EVGA+X58&x=0&y=0

 

[itzdanielp]

The first board (although it doesn't say it on NewEgg) is EVGA's 1366 "Classified 3" board, which is their top of the line 1366 board.

most of the price difference is marketing, although it is definitely geared to OC higher than the others. Especially with the heatsinks across the PCB and NB/SB

 

[alohascott]

Thanks

 

[alohascott]

Aloha
well I won't be doing anything with this for now.
I will just have to stick with what I have.
but I think the question I asked on this thread was best answered as follows.

Or one of these for a more reasonable price
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182240&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-RSSDailyDeals-_-na-_-na&AID=10521304&PID=4176827&SID=p36fs6wn959a

 

[alohascott]

Best answer selected by alohascott.

 

[alohascott]

just got a 2500k

so I am back investigating this subject of ram disks
if anyone has any info or experiences please share them.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey