ASUS P5N32-E SLI mobo and 4GB RAM

[Bryon Lape]

I have four sticks of Corsair DDR2 memory for my ASUS P5N32-E SLI mobo.
Two I've had for awhile and they are version 2 while the latest pair is
version 5.1. The full number is CM2X1024-6400C4DHX XMS2-6400 800Mhz 4-4-4-
12 2.10V. Each pair works fine by themselves with my Core 2 Quad Q6600,
but when all of them are placed, the computer locks up during OS boot. I
switched the POST to full memory test and not the quick and it goes through
the test fine. Any thoughts?

 

[John Doe]

I have four sticks of Corsair DDR2 memory for my ASUS P5N32-E SLI
mobo. Two I've had for awhile and they are version 2 while the
latest pair is version 5.1. The full number is CM2X1024-6400C4DHX
XMS2-6400 800Mhz 4-4-4- 12 2.10V. Each pair works fine by
themselves with my Core 2 Quad Q6600, but when all of them are
placed, the computer locks up during OS boot. I switched the POST
to full memory test and not the quick and it goes through the test
fine. Any thoughts?

Does the manual say it can handle four sticks?

I would put the older in bank one/A (staggered slots) and the newer in
bank two/B (staggered slots).

 

[Bryon Lape]

Does the manual say it can handle four sticks?

I would put the older in bank one/A (staggered slots) and the newer in
bank two/B (staggered slots).

Yes, it will take up to 8GB.

Already tried that configuration.

 

[Paul]

I have four sticks of Corsair DDR2 memory for my ASUS P5N32-E SLI mobo.
Two I've had for awhile and they are version 2 while the latest pair is
version 5.1. The full number is CM2X1024-6400C4DHX XMS2-6400 800Mhz 4-4-4-
12 2.10V. Each pair works fine by themselves with my Core 2 Quad Q6600,
but when all of them are placed, the computer locks up during OS boot. I
switched the POST to full memory test and not the quick and it goes through
the test fine. Any thoughts?

You may not be alone. Check the Asus forum, and see how people are
doing with four sticks on that board. For example, the very first post
in the list, has a problem.

http://vip.asus.com/forum/topic.aspx?board_id=1&model=P5N32-E+SLI&SLanguage=en-us

You can fight with it, or perhaps just buy a 2x2GB kit and use that
instead.

DDR2 has ODT (on-die termination), which should help with the
quality of the bus signals. A controller can switch from
Command Rate 1T to Command Rate 2T, as a means of compensating
for timing problems caused by additional bus loading. It
may be possible to fool around with the settings and fix it.
Downclocking (changing memory bus clock speed) is a last resort.
But those forum threads, if you can find a thread with an
experienced memory tuner, may give you a better idea whether
the motherboard/BIOS revision has issues or not.

I don't participate in that forum, so none of the posts are
by me

Paul

 

[Bryon Lape]

You may not be alone. Check the Asus forum, and see how people are
doing with four sticks on that board. For example, the very first post
in the list, has a problem.

http://vip.asus.com/forum/topic.aspx?board_id=1&model=P5N32- E+SLI&SLang
uage=en-us

You can fight with it, or perhaps just buy a 2x2GB kit and use that
instead.

DDR2 has ODT (on-die termination), which should help with the
quality of the bus signals. A controller can switch from
Command Rate 1T to Command Rate 2T, as a means of compensating
for timing problems caused by additional bus loading. It
may be possible to fool around with the settings and fix it.
Downclocking (changing memory bus clock speed) is a last resort.
But those forum threads, if you can find a thread with an
experienced memory tuner, may give you a better idea whether
the motherboard/BIOS revision has issues or not.

I don't participate in that forum, so none of the posts are
by me

Paul

Ah, thanks for the pointer. I will check them out.