P4S8X-X and 1GB PC2700 DDR Ram

[RJ]

Hi All,

I'm running ASUS P4S8X-X with Intel 3.06 Ghz Hyperthreading on Windows XP
Home.
(Yes, Hyperthreading does work on XP home, and does show 2 graphs in Task
Manager).

I recently bought a single module of 1GB PC2700 Ram, removed my existing
256Mb modules and installed the single 1GB.
The system is very very unstable, randomly rebooting after random periods of
time.
I've tested the Memory module using the DOS utility Memtest86 and it is
fine.

Anyone had any luck with 1GB PC2700 Memory Modules on the above board?
ASUS Tech support said "in theory" the board should support it (and upto 3GB
in total) but I can't get the 1GB module to work!

TIA

RJ
http://www.shopman.co.uk

 

[Paul]

Hi All,

I'm running ASUS P4S8X-X with Intel 3.06 Ghz Hyperthreading on Windows XP
Home.
(Yes, Hyperthreading does work on XP home, and does show 2 graphs in Task
Manager).

I recently bought a single module of 1GB PC2700 Ram, removed my existing
256Mb modules and installed the single 1GB.
The system is very very unstable, randomly rebooting after random periods of
time.
I've tested the Memory module using the DOS utility Memtest86 and it is
fine.

Anyone had any luck with 1GB PC2700 Memory Modules on the above board?
ASUS Tech support said "in theory" the board should support it (and upto 3GB
in total) but I can't get the 1GB module to work!

TIA

RJ
http://www.shopman.co.uk

You have to be very careful when buying 1GB or larger modules. Many of
these are "stacked", where two chips are placed on top of one another,
or two die are stuffed inside one IC package (it will be thicker than
normal). This doubles the number of loads the memory address bus has
to drive.

A second technique, is to use x4 memories. It takes 16 of these to make
one bank. Even though the module looks like it is double sided and
consists of two banks, in fact it is one large bank. This doubles the
load that some of the control signals have to drive.

To see what a good module would look like, check the Kingston site:

http://www.ec.kingston.com/ecom/con...sp?SysID=+14133+&distributor=0&submit1=Search

Both of the 1GB modules use x8 bit wide chips. It takes 8 chips to make
a bank, and the modules are double banked. The modules are also
tremendously expensive.

http://www.valueram.com/datasheets/KVR266X64C25_1G.pdf
http://www.valueram.com/datasheets/KVR333X64C25_1G.pdf

Samsung announced the necessary chips in Jan2003, but they still don't
seem to be available in volume.

Micron seems to have some modules listed, with a status of "production".
They are at the bottom of the page:

http://www.micron.com/products/modu...count=184-Pin&version=Unbuffered&package=DIMM

but they don't show up on the crucial website -

http://www.crucial.com/store/listpa...ards&mfr=Asus&cat=RAM&model=P4S8X-X&submit=Go

There are a couple of entries in Pricewatch, claiming to use x8 chips,
but caveat emptor...

HTH,
Paul