What Conroe board DOES DDR2 6400 work on?

[Baddriver]

This is largely for the attention of ABit UK as a related thread (http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.php?t=82926) isn't attracting a reply.

I'm the unhappy owner of an AB9 Pro, Core 2 Duo 6600 and Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400C4. I'm fairly certain that it's a memory incompatibility because the system works absolutley fine when I use cheap replacement memory and with limited stability when I de-rate the memory settings with the Corsair memory.

So, back to the original question: what board are you guys using that does work with a Conroe and 800 MHz DDR2?

Stuart

[FordPrefect]

No offense I have the exact same kit with a 600W PSU and am having no problems. What exactly are you having problems with I had real problems getting windows installed to start with but found out how to fix that as per my other thread.

[Baddriver]

Hi FordPrefect

I have read your thread and am glad that your system is running now. Since Friday, I've been able to get my system running too but with a work-around (see the more recent posts on http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.php?t=82926) providing reduced performance.

I would ask if you would run CPU-Z to verify what speed (an latency) your memory is running at as I believe 533Mhz to be supported and that 800MHz is causing a problem. Would you also mind my asking what memory you have purchased and if it can be run as rated?

By the way, very good move to get a 600W power supply. Although a Conroe isn't particularly hungry, the system stability and reliability (MTBF) should benefit from having an over-rated PSU.

Stuart (also using a 600W power supply)

[FordPrefect]

Just double checked on CPU-Z and the memory is running at 400MHz, FSBRAM 2:3.

[Baddriver]

I'm happy for you and yet feel horribly gutted at the same time

[FordPrefect]

The only thing I can suggest is if you have access to any other kit you try swapping bits out, maybe you are just unlucky and got some bad RAM? Try speaking to your vendor they will more than likely have some kit lying around they can test your setup with(problem if buying online I know). If you bought online try speaking to the vendor and see what they suggest, they might suggest swapping out various components, especially if you bought everything from one vendor.

[Baddriver]

Hmm

Good idea to swap out the memory but unfortunately the only other stuff I have available is 512MB of 533MHz value memory (which is the speed I've ended up running at anyway).

I'm reluctant to believe that my current memory is faulty as memtest86 gives the RAM a clean bill of health at reduced speed and at the same time there are US forums (http://forum.abit-usa.com/forumdisplay.php?f=48) positely heaving with news on this subject with some posts by people beta testing new ABit BIOSes built to resolve related problems.

For now I'm moderately contented with a system that is stable at stock CPU and reduced memory speeds

[dancingmatt]

I'm running an E6600 and 2x 1GB of Geil DDR2-800 (PC6400) 4-4-4-12 on an Asus P5W DH Deluxe board. I have to set the speed and timings manually in the BIOS because the SPD is set low.

My only problems are a) it doesn't report it's running in dual channel, and b) CPU-Z says the RAM is actually DDR2-533.

So I don't know if that's better or worse than your board!

DM

[Baddriver]

Cheers Dancingmatt

I've built a number of systems for myself and friends over the last 9 or 10 years and do tend to stick with ABit and Asus boards. It's my view that both can suffer from being early implementers of new technology and that BIOS upgrades tend to sort everything but take a while to catch up. I do rate stability over speed and both of these vendors do make quality motherboards although I've had a negative experience with an ABit graphics card in the past. My decision to plump for an AB9 Pro was influenced by a number of reports from P5W DH owners complaining that the early boards couldn't boot with Conroe until the BIOS was updated and couldn't have the BIOS flashed without an alternative LGA775 processor.

Is your system stable at the minute? I suppose that once you're running a reliable system it's just a matter of waiting for the next BIOS release to upgrade your performance but I can't help but feel that we're all taking part in some extremely large beta testing phase.

Stuart

[FordPrefect]

One thing I did notice was that the RAM voltage seems to be lower on these boards than the corsair details. I have left it at default as I am having no issues, might be worth checking?

[Baddriver]

I still can't use anything other than a 1:1 memory multiplier (BIOS v1.3) regardless of memory voltage but have now increased the FSB to 300MHz and the memory is therefore running at 75% of it's rated speed (800MHz at 4-4-4-12) even if the E6600 process has to rise to 2.7GHz to allow this. Still, it's rock solid and as soon as BIOS v1.4 stabilises then I'll try this and take things up a notch further.