Debate, and discuss, just dont Bore me.
Without a High Price
Published on December 17, 2008 By Dr Guy In Personal Computing

Does anyone out there have a recommendation or 2 about a good Motherboard that takes LOTS of RAM (at least 8gb folks - what good is 64bit processing if you cant use it?)?

My wife asked me my christmas wants, and so I started looking.  Not on my normal sites!  Seems 4gb is the top end before you get to the nose bleed sections (we are not that rich).

I am looking for Intel (bad taste from AMD) if at all possible.

 


Comments (Page 1)
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on Dec 17, 2008

Whoa,    you guys are too advanced lol

on Dec 17, 2008

Can't answer your question but I've had both intel and AMD and have had no problems with either.  I don't have a 64 bit CPU just a duel core and 4 gig is enough ram.(intel)  Roommate has a 64 bit but only a gig of ram.(AMD)

on Dec 17, 2008

Newegg.  Newegg, Newegg, Newegg.

Use 2GB DIMMs and run 4x2GB for your 8GB.  Although there are beginning to be some 4GB modules available, they're horrendously expensive (2-4x as much as your 2GB modules), so although you may be able to locate a board that can handle 16GB, now might not be a good time for it.

I'm partial to Gigabyte myself, and this board in particular looks good, but you might want to check here for all the 16GB-capable boards if you're looking for something else-namely, SLI or CF support.

I assume you've simply been looking in the wrong places (perhaps looking at LGA 1366 by mistake?) and that you don't consider $100 to be ludicrous for a motherboard (although I would agree with you that $300 for instance is).  No offense intended; please correct me if I'm wrong in that regard.

-

WOM, unless you're using an early Pentium 4 or a Core Duo (not Core 2 Duo) based laptop, your CPU is 64-bit, even if you're using a 32-bit OS.  Don't ask-I'm just nitpicking.

on Dec 18, 2008

Sorry for deviating off-topic here but this just reminds me of the countless iterations of Moore's law that I've experienced in my technical lifetime of close to 30 years.

In my first job for Honeywell Information Systems in 1979 I designed a 1 MB memory card for the Honeywell Level 6 computer. It consisted of a 15" square PCB that contained all the memory controller logic (memory refresh counters, address buffers, read/write prefetch buffers, ECC logic, etc.), The actual memory chips were on four 6" square daughter cards and consisted of the hottest new chip on the market, a 64Kbit dram organized as 64Kx1.

This chip had a packaging issue that made it susceptible to data changes due to alpha particle radiation damage that necessitated the ECC logic. The first chips that we received to do initial board debug cost $200 per chip. Each of the four daughter cards required 39 chips (32 bit word plus 7 bits of EEC) which totaled out to a tad over $30K which I thought to be one hell of a lot of money since at the time that was slightly less than twice my yearly salary.

Anyway not only were the chips $200 each, but each chip had a serial number and had to be returned to the vendor by the end of the beta program. However the $200 wasn't returned, I suppose it was considered rent.

Anyway with the above as context check out http://www.simmtester.com/ which follows the spot market price of memory modules and chips. The 1Gbit chip listed at $2.00 today is 16 thousand times larger (but only 800 times faster) than the $200 chip from 30 years ago.

The net effect of all this is that software wastes 99% of these thousand fold hardware size and speed increases to deliver a net productivity benefit of tenfold (and that tenfold productivity benefit is a generous assumption).

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

[edit] BTW Simmtester reports a low price of $45, a high price of $48 with the trend being up for the 2GB DDR2 667MHz DIMM [/edit]

on Dec 18, 2008

I don't have a 64 bit CPU just a duel core and 4 gig is enough ram.(intel)

If you have a dual-core Intel CPU, you probably have a 64-bit processor.

on Dec 18, 2008

I got an ASUS P5K-E mainly so i could overclock my Q9450, but i've also got 8gig of ram in it and Windows XP 64bit, runs like a dream .

on Dec 18, 2008

I'm partial to Gigabyte myself, and this board in particular looks good, but you might want to check here for all the 16GB-capable boards if you're looking for something else-namely, SLI or CF support.

Thanks!  That is what I am looking for! I just could not locate one of the suckers.  And Newegg is one of my vendors of choice, so that is even better!  I wasactually just looking for anything that would not break the bank, so $300 was not out of the question.  The one you linked to has all that I am looking for.  Now I have one at least to look at!

Thanks again!

on Dec 18, 2008

Sorry for deviating off-topic here but this just reminds me of the countless iterations of Moore's law that I've experienced in my technical lifetime of close to 30 years.

No need to appologize!  I love trips to the past.  I guess I am a few years behind you.  I built my first network in 1984, and the file server had a whopping 33mb hard drive!  The thing was the size of a small pig, sounded like a jet plane, and costs $5000!  And died a year later.

I remember trying to upgrade a file server with the old DIPS.  The daughter card took 72 of them for a grand total of 4mb (this was in 1990).  I hate DIPS!  To this day!

on Dec 18, 2008

8 gigs for a 100 bucks, It wasn't that long ago I paid 450 for 4 gigs

Hey!  Back in 93, I paid $1000 for 32mb!

on Dec 18, 2008

Nividia motherboards are top notch. I'm using the 680i with my 3ghz q6600, 8gigs of ram, and x64 bit vista ultimate.

The 680i is a dream for overclocking, extremely stable, and well in a word... perfect.

on Dec 18, 2008

I got an ASUS P5K-E mainly so i could overclock my Q9450, but i've also got 8gig of ram in it and Windows XP 64bit, runs like a dream

8 is ok.  And I do like ASUS.  Thanks!  Now I got 2 to look at.

on Dec 18, 2008

My current system as follows:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 @ 3.40GHz (1600MHz FSB) | Gigabyte EP35-DS3P
Sapphire ATi HD 4870 X2 | OCZ SLI DDR2 800 8GB (4x2GB)
Seagate 250GB SATA II (Primary) | Corsair 750W PSU | Vista Ultimate 64-Bit

Great overclocking board, most of the high end Gigabyte boards are top notch and well supported. This board is getting a bit old but still runs everything perfectly. I would suggest looking into the X38/X48/P45 chipsets such as the Gigabyte EP45-UD3R(this particular one supports 16GB of memory) as mine is P35 and lacking in certain areas.

on Dec 19, 2008

Nividia motherboards are top notch. I'm using the 680i with my 3ghz q6600, 8gigs of ram, and x64 bit vista ultimate.

A Third choice!  I love this forum!  I knew you guys would come through!  NOw I got to figure out which one.  My wife told me to "order it yourself".  It is going to be a merry Christmas!

on Dec 19, 2008

board is getting a bit old

A bit old?  I am still using a 2.4ghz Pentium Board (no Dual Core or Core 2).  If yours is getting old, mine is ready for the SMithsonian!

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