Memory issue with Asus P5QL-EM motherboard

[tfboy]

I'm a bit annoyed here.

Just bought the above motherboard which has 4 DIMM slots, and also picked up 2 2x2GB OCZ kits to give me the 8GB RAM I wanted. The Asus website also says this motherboard supports up to 8GB so all's fine. But on powering up, I could only get a beeeeeeeep beep beep BIOS warning.

After a bit of digging, it turns out that if more than 2 DIMM slots are used, only single-channel RAM can be used.

So, I'm considering my options.
1) Try and find some 2GB single sided RAM sticks. I don't think they exist.
2) Change the 2GB modules for 4GB modules and have 2x 4GB modules instead. But 4GB modules are a lot more expensive.
3) Exchange the motherboard for something else.

At the moment, the last option seems the cheapest, but just involves more effort on my behalf as I'll have to strip the PC to bits to box the motherboard back up.

If I change motherboard, what would you recommend? It's to run a Q6600 with 8GB RAM. I went for the one I have at the moment because it offered everything I could need (6x SATA, loads of USB, firewire - amazing how many motherboards don't have firewire!). I could ditch the firewire though as I don't think it will be required.

Thoughts?

[staffsMike]

you can get 4GB modules?

I would change the board anyway (I dislike the board just on it's layout lol).

The biostar P45 represents good values for money at around £80. I personally wouldn't touch any of the cheaper boards at the moment, there are no decent bargains (BOOOOOOOO ABIT!!!).

[tfboy]

Hehe. BTW, I forgot to thank you Mike on your £500 PC build thread, as it had loads of useful pointers.

I guess the Biostar P45 gets staffsMike's layout seal of approval?

[staffsMike]

Yeah looks very nice. In fairness most boards these days are acceptable, I don't see why asus felt it necessary to make the one on the cheap P4*'s so rubbish.

[tfboy]

I guess it's not possible to find another G43 mobo (with built-in graphics) that supports 8GB RAM? I was hoping to avoid having to spend another £20-50 for a cheap graphics card.

[staffsMike]

Oh dear I judged without reading closely enough, shame on me. That board is actually quite nice

So do you need uATX?

http://www.intel.com/Products/Deskto...3-overview.htm

That doesn't say anything about single channel.. but i suppose they wouldn't want to highlight it. But in "Dual DDR2" it mentions 16GB of RAM.

The G45 is £10 more..
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Asus-...-Micro-ATX-VGA

[tfboy]

I know, that's why I missed it!

Looking at it again, if you check Asus' webpage on that motherboard, it does mention the single-side limitation
http://uk.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=...46&modelmenu=2

I may change it out for the P5Q-EM which appears to be to all intents and purposes the same, but the G45 chipset which on Asus' motherboard supports up to 16GB RAM with no silly single-sided limitation.
http://uk.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=...13&modelmenu=2

It costs around £13 more, so cheaper than a standalone PCIe GPU assuming the P4x motherboard is similar price.

I take your point about their mobos though, the layout, particularly the power connector is horrible near the end (by the backplate). Negotiating around a Sythe Ninja 2 ain't easy

[staffsMike]

Welllll the ninja II has exceed expectation in both size and performance. So I have a couple of shreded knuckles but awesome temps and noise