Brand new used GA-EP45-UD3P motherboard RAM questions

[Spork Schivago]

Hello,

I just received my brand new used Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P motherboard in the mail today and boy am I excited. This thing looks beautiful. The seller accidently sent a CPU with it so I have to contact it to see if he wants it back. It's just a Core 2 Duo E8400 3.00GHz SLB9J CPU, nothing fancy. The revision of the board is v1.6. I've heard rumors that the v1.1 is more stable than v1.0 but haven't heard much about v1.6.

Anyway, this motherboard supports DDR2 up to 1333MHz (o.c.). The maximum amount of RAM it can handle is 16GB. I wanted to know if anyone had this board and if they knew of any _good_ sticks that would work with this. I've checked the qualified vendors list and they only list 1 stick for 1333MHz and it's only a 1GB stick. I'm looking for at least 8GB (if not 16GB) that will run in dual channel mode.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what type of RAM I should pop in this bad boy? Thanks!

[dmill89]

Re: Brand new used GA-EP45-UD3P motherboard RAM questions

I've got the GA-EP45C-UD3R (running a Core2Quad Q9450 in mine) which is essentially the same board but with both DDR2 and DDR3 slots, but minus the 2nd PCI-Express X16 slot. I've never had any real issues with RAM with this board. I was originally running a pair of 2GB Super-Talent DDR2-800 sticks when I originally built this in 2009, I've since upgraded to a pair of 8GB Corsair DDR3-1333 (of course DDR3 isn't an option on your board) sticks, no issues with either. If you go to Gigabyte's website there is an "official" memory support list but it is dated 2009 and likely too outdated to be useful. In general these boards don't seem to be very "picky" with ram.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Brand new used GA-EP45-UD3P motherboard RAM questions

I've got the GA-EP45C-UD3R (running a Core2Quad Q9450 in mine) which is essentially the same board but with both DDR2 and DDR3 slots, but minus the 2nd PCI-Express X16 slot. I've never had any real issues with RAM with this board. I was originally running a pair of 2GB Super-Talent DDR2-800 sticks when I originally built this in 2009, I've since upgraded to a pair of 8GB Corsair DDR3-1333 (of course DDR3 isn't an option on your board) sticks, no issues with either. If you go to Gigabyte's website there is an "official" memory support list but it is dated 2009 and likely too outdated to be useful. In general these boards don't seem to be very "picky" with ram.

Thank you for your response. I had already looked at their "official" memory support list. When I mentioned qualified vendor list, that's what I was referring to. I am so glad to hear that these boards aren't very picky on the RAM. From what I've read, these are supposed to be really really good boards. Once I purchase the memory, I'd like to work on modding the BIOS a little bit to update the oROMs or whatever you call them.

I noticed on their list though, there are some sticks that won't work in dual channel mode. My fear is if I spend the cash on some really good 1300MHz 4GB sticks (I'd like to max it out, so four 4GB sticks), it might drop down to single channel like my old Asus P5N72-T Premium board did.

So, what's everyone's personal favorite RAM?

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Brand new used GA-EP45-UD3P motherboard RAM questions

I was thinking maybe G.Skill F2-8500CL5D-4GBPI-B or F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK. I like the way the Pi physically looks more so than the second ones.

They're two gig sticks (you get two 2GB) and they run at 1066MHz. I wouldn't be able to reach 1333MHz with them I don't think or have 16GB but I highly doubt I'll ever need 16GB. It was more or less just something I wanted to do. Just max it all out, you know? What do you guys think?

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Re: Brand new used GA-EP45-UD3P motherboard RAM questions

while the p45 chipset supports 16gb of ddr2 ram, u can only realistically have 8gb of ddr2 ram because 4gb ddr2 modules are practically non-existant. even if u can find them, they will likely cost u an arm and a leg. likewise, 1333mhz ddr2 modules are also practically non-existant. a more realistic maximum for your board to run is 4x2gb ddr2 1066mhz.

lastly, avoid corsair ram for gigabyte boards. they have a known history of just not playing nice with each other. kingston ram is instead highly recommended for gigabyte boards but the gskill ram will work fine too... just dont expect to overclock the ram like hell past the rated 1066mhz speed. iirc it uses powerchip ram ics and they dont really scale well with voltage. those tall heatspreaders may just be for decoration or function as white elephants only since the ram ics cant scale well with more voltage.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Brand new used GA-EP45-UD3P motherboard RAM questions

while the p45 chipset supports 16gb of ddr2 ram, u can only realistically have 8gb of ddr2 ram because 4gb ddr2 modules are practically non-existant. even if u can find them, they will likely cost u an arm and a leg. likewise, 1333mhz ddr2 modules are also practically non-existant. a more realistic maximum for your board to run is 4x2gb ddr2 1066mhz.

lastly, avoid corsair ram for gigabyte boards. they have a known history of just not playing nice with each other. kingston ram is instead highly recommended for gigabyte boards but the gskill ram will work fine too... just dont expect to overclock the ram like hell past the rated 1066mhz speed. iirc it uses powerchip ram ics and they dont really scale well with voltage. those tall heatspreaders may just be for decoration or function as white elephants only since the ram ics cant scale well with more voltage.

Thank you ChaosLegionnaire. I did find some 4GB sticks of DDR2 but none over 800MHz. After looking at the specs of the G.Skill RAM I posted, I believe both models are practically the same, just one with a bigger heatsink. It also appears that maybe they're both really 800MHz chips just overclocked to 1066MHz and G.Skill is guaranteeing they run stable at 1066MHz. Here's a link to the first one:
http://www.gskill.com/en/product/f2-8500cl5d-4gbpi-b

I know there was some company that made some 1200MHz DDR2 but I guess they're really hard to find. I would like to go with the best brand name that I can find. It's been a long time since I had to order "performance" RAM so I'm a bit out of the loop. I've seen some people talking about D9's. I believe they're talking about the IC on the RAM. I'll go for 4x2GB sticks.

I have a quick question. If I purchase some sticks and they run at 1066MHz at 4-4-4-12 but I can overclock it to 1200MHz by relaxing the timing a bit, to something like 5-7-7-22, would it be faster to let it run at 1066MHz with the tighter timing? And does Kingston overclock pretty well?

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Brand new used GA-EP45-UD3P motherboard RAM questions

Thanks for letting me know about the G.Skill stuff not working well with this board! I ran across a post on the G.Skill forums with this board and that RAM. G.Skill said they were working with Gigabyte trying to fix it via a BIOS update. The G.Skill tech said that the American office just said bad RAM. The Twain office was actually working with them trying to figure out what was going on and how to fix it. I don't know if they ever did fix it or not, but boy am I glad I came here and asked before purchasing that RAM!

What do you think of that HyperX memory? I saw some 2GB 1066MHz sticks that didn't look too pricey.

[eccerr0r]

Re: Brand new used GA-EP45-UD3P motherboard RAM questions

I have a GA-EP43-UD3L ... I had bought G.Skill but had to RMA one set, the second set worked fine. Alas the board after all the years of using it, corrupts data and crashes now. Caps look ok on the board (Gigabyte claims polymer caps???!), swapped board and system is stable...

[dmill89]

Re: Brand new used GA-EP45-UD3P motherboard RAM questions

I have a GA-EP43-UD3L ... I had bought G.Skill but had to RMA one set, the second set worked fine. Alas the board after all the years of using it, corrupts data and crashes now. Caps look ok on the board (Gigabyte claims polymer caps???!), swapped board and system is stable...

Kind of surprised it failed, these tend to be pretty solid boards, though the UD3L was the "budget" version and doesn't have as good of cooling (smaller heatsinks and no heat-pipe on the north/south bridge and no heatsinks on the VRM mosfets) and a less robust VRM as the UD3R/UD3P, so I suppose it is possible that the heat finally got to it (it would be 7-8 years old now).

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Brand new used GA-EP45-UD3P motherboard RAM questions

Speaking of heat and heatsinks, I was thinking of pulling the sinks on the board and replacing the thermal paste under them, with AS5. What do you guys think? Good idea or no? I've noticed over the years, some heatsinks are meant to have those thermal pads and when you put paste on them, the heatsinks don't really touch the chip anymore. I guess if that's the case, I could use some shims or something.

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Re: Brand new used GA-EP45-UD3P motherboard RAM questions

I know there was some company that made some 1200MHz DDR2 but I guess they're really hard to find.

u dont really need 1.2ghz ddr2 unless your board's fsb is super overclockable to 600 mhz. most boards will crap out at 425-450 fsb even the x38 and x48 ones much less the p45 chipset ones and no amount of tweaking will get it to play nice at such a high fsb.

If I purchase some sticks and they run at 1066MHz at 4-4-4-12 but I can overclock it to 1200MHz by relaxing the timing a bit, to something like 5-7-7-22, would it be faster to let it run at 1066MHz with the tighter timing?

u can only test this out for urself by running a memory benchmark once u get the modules. if the overall bandwidth and latency is faster at 1200, 5-7-7-22 than at 1066, 5-5-5-15 but note what i said above about the fsb and said previously in another post about high speed overclocking ram and overclocking the cpu to take advantage of this. running the memory faster than the fsb results in little to no noticeable performance gain. the only ram benchmark i saw benefit from faster than fsb ram speed is with the winrar/7zip file compression/decompression workload. in that workload, overclocking the ram noticeably increased the file compression/decompression speed. so unless u like playing with file compression programs or maybe even ramdrives all the time, the optimal fsb to ram speed ratio is 1:1.

example: base fsb speed is 400 mhz. therefore the optimum base ram speed is also 400 mhz or ddr 800.

Thanks for letting me know about the G.Skill stuff not working well with this board!

i said corsair not gskill. never said gskill wouldnt work with gigabyte boards. only said kingston was a better choice for gigabyte boards.

i thought gskill would work too cuz it uses a lower ram voltage of around 2v. lower voltage is always better becuz it is less stressful for the vdimm vrms and northbridge mch.

I've seen some people talking about D9's.

while micron d9s are famous for their overclockability and scalability with voltage, it only applies to the 1gb modules. they are also infamous at the same time for their high failure rate and excessive overheating. micron d9 is known to just randomly SUDS (sudden unexpected death syndrome) without any warning or cause. micron is also unable to produce any good 2gb ddr2 modules. all the good d9s are 1gb modules which is not what u are looking for.

anyway, if u want to be guaranteed micron d9s, the best choice for you is to buy crucial ballistix ram with the red heatspreaders. crucial is actually a subsidiary of micron, so crucial almost always uses micron ram for their ram modules.

And does Kingston overclock pretty well?

What do you think of that HyperX memory? I saw some 2GB 1066MHz sticks that didn't look too pricey.

kingston uses elpida ics in their hyperx line which is not as overclockable as the micron d9s.

also, continuing what i said earlier about the gskill ram voltages, the kingston hyperx 2gb 1066 requires 2.3v which is a rather high vdimm to use. running such a high vdimm may be detrimental to the board and nbmch in the long run. depends on how long u want to use the board for.

Speaking of heat and heatsinks, I was thinking of pulling the sinks on the board and replacing the thermal paste under them, with AS5. What do you guys think? Good idea or no? I've noticed over the years, some heatsinks are meant to have those thermal pads and when you put paste on them, the heatsinks don't really touch the chip anymore. I guess if that's the case, I could use some shims or something.

yes u can. most of the time, the stocks tims are crap. sometimes the tim applications are also crappy due to alacrity being required at the factory to pump out as many things as quickly as possible.

also, i had a case of two asus maximus 2 formula boards which i posted here sometime ago. for some weird reason, one ran hotter than the other regardless of bios version, components used etc. i pulled the asus stack cool 2 board heatsink on the hotter one and found that the tim application on the nb was poor. only half of the nb die was covered with tim! no wonder it ran hot! the sb was also not covered with tim fully esp at the corners and edges so i reapplied the tim properly and the temps were on par with both boards.

as for the thermal pads, just use 0.5mm thick compressible thermal pads to cover the smd caps on the substrate to prevent the heatsink from shorting them out. some northbridges have smd caps on the edges of the substrate or near the die preventing u from using shims or copper pads.

[dmill89]

Re: Brand new used GA-EP45-UD3P motherboard RAM questions

Speaking of heat and heatsinks, I was thinking of pulling the sinks on the board and replacing the thermal paste under them, with AS5. What do you guys think? Good idea or no? I've noticed over the years, some heatsinks are meant to have those thermal pads and when you put paste on them, the heatsinks don't really touch the chip anymore. I guess if that's the case, I could use some shims or something.

Yes, it wouldn't be a bad idea, though I would stay away from AS5 (or any other silver-based/electrically conductive) thermal paste on the mosfets (and NB/SB if there are surface munt devices or exposed contacts on top) given their small size and exposed leads on the sides. I've never pulled the heatsinks on my board so I can't say if there is paste or pads (if there are pads, it is usually best to stick with those as ChaosLegionnaire said) under those, but if you use paste on them stick with something non-conductive like Artic Silver Ceramique 2.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Brand new used GA-EP45-UD3P motherboard RAM questions

u dont really need 1.2ghz ddr2 unless your board's fsb is super overclockable to 600 mhz. most boards will crap out at 425-450 fsb even the x38 and x48 ones much less the p45 chipset ones and no amount of tweaking will get it to play nice at such a high fsb.

Thanks! I'm a bit confused though. The board says FSB 1600. That's well over 600 MHz. From Gigabytes site about this board, I see

Based on the Intel P45 chipset the GA-EP45-UD3P delivers a record-setting 1600MHz FSB for the latest Intel® Core 2™ multi-core processors, and supports dual channel DDR2 memory at speeds of up to 1366MHz and even higher.

When you say, "unless your board's fsb is super overclockable to 600 mhz", do you mean the 1600MHz + 600MHz? I heard this board was supposed to be one of the more better boards for overclocking.

u can only test this out for urself by running a memory benchmark once u get the modules. if the overall bandwidth and latency is faster at 1200, 5-7-7-22 than at 1066, 5-5-5-15 but note what i said above about the fsb and said previously in another post about high speed overclocking ram and overclocking the cpu to take advantage of this. running the memory faster than the fsb results in little to no noticeable performance gain. the only ram benchmark i saw benefit from faster than fsb ram speed is with the winrar/7zip file compression/decompression workload. in that workload, overclocking the ram noticeably increased the file compression/decompression speed. so unless u like playing with file compression programs or maybe even ramdrives all the time, the optimal fsb to ram speed ratio is 1:1.

I thought there was some formula to calculate the time it takes for data to go from the CPU to the RAM and back again. I never really got into this stuff before, so it's kind of new to me. I know how to calculate the CAS Latency. Now, what do you mean by the fsb to ram speed ratio? If my FSB is 1600MHz and I had a CPU that utilized the 1600MHz FSB, optimally, 1600MHz RAM would be best? I know that 1600MHz DDR2 3200 isn't obtainable, I'm just trying to understand this the best I can.

i said corsair not gskill. never said gskill wouldnt work with gigabyte boards. only said kingston was a better choice for gigabyte boards.

i thought gskill would work too cuz it uses a lower ram voltage of around 2v. lower voltage is always better becuz it is less stressful for the vdimm vrms and northbridge mch.

I saw the higher voltages with some of the sticks I was looking at and they scared me a bit. I mean some people had to crank the voltage up to something like 2.4v to get it to work. That's insane! I thought that'd kill the chip quicker than shit. For some reason, I thought you said G.Skill. So, do you think the G.Skill would be better than the Kingston? Or should I just stick with the Kingston?

while micron d9s are famous for their overclockability and scalability with voltage, it only applies to the 1gb modules. they are also infamous at the same time for their high failure rate and excessive overheating. micron d9 is known to just randomly SUDS (sudden unexpected death syndrome) without any warning or cause. micron is also unable to produce any good 2gb ddr2 modules. all the good d9s are 1gb modules which is not what u are looking for.

Thank you for pointing this out to me. I think I will avoid the D9's because, like you said, I am looking for more than 4 gigs total.

...also, continuing what i said earlier about the gskill ram voltages, the kingston hyperx 2gb 1066 requires 2.3v which is a rather high vdimm to use. running such a high vdimm may be detrimental to the board and nbmch in the long run. depends on how long u want to use the board for.

I'd like to use the board for a while. I think I will avoid the HyperX because of the higher vdimm. I remember years ago, I bought some OCZ 800MHz sticks for my old Asus board. It wouldn't POST. I called Asus and they said they have a fail safe where they won't automatically set a voltage over something like 2.1 because that's high, but these OCZs required 2.2, at the minimum, to run, and that I had to manually set it to that to get it work. The RAM lasted a couple years and that was that. I always thought maybe the higher voltage caused some issues.

yes u can. most of the time, the stocks tims are crap. sometimes the tim applications are also crappy due to alacrity being required at the factory to pump out as many things as quickly as possible.

Does tim mean Thermal Interface Material?

as for the thermal pads, just use 0.5mm thick compressible thermal pads to cover the smd caps on the substrate to prevent the heatsink from shorting them out. some northbridges have smd caps on the edges of the substrate or near the die preventing u from using shims or copper pads.

[/QUOTE]
Thank you for pointing this out. If I see any SMD caps on the substrate that look like they're going to touch copper, I'll be sure to pick up some of those dang thermal pads and just apply new ones.

Thank you for taking the time to answer all my questions and explain this to me. It's much appreciated. I've been repairing PCs for such a long time now that I've just forgot a lot of what I learned in college or throughout the years. Technology changes constantly and if you don't keep up with it, next thing you know, the knowledge you have no longer applies to the new technology. Mostly, for repairs, I just have to reinstall an OS because of viruses / malware / rootkits, etc. Occasionally, I'll have to replace some caps on a board, usually on the VRM circuit.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Brand new used GA-EP45-UD3P motherboard RAM questions

Yes, it wouldn't be a bad idea, though I would stay away from AS5 (or any other silver-based/electrically conductive) thermal paste on the mosfets (and NB/SB if there are surface munt devices or exposed contacts on top) given their small size and exposed leads on the sides. I've never pulled the heatsinks on my board so I can't say if there is paste or pads (if there are pads, it is usually best to stick with those as ChaosLegionnaire said) under those, but if you use paste on them stick with something non-conductive like Artic Silver Ceramique 2.

Okay, why would I want to avoid the AS5 on the MOSFETs? They usually don't have SMD parts on them from my experience. Is AS Ceramique 2 the white stuff? I used one of those ceramique ones once, I think from AS. And it was nearly impossible to get off. It acted more like glue. Wish I could find that stuff again because I need some thermal paste that acts like glue for another project of mine.

[dmill89]

Re: Brand new used GA-EP45-UD3P motherboard RAM questions

Okay, why would I want to avoid the AS5 on the MOSFETs? They usually don't have SMD parts on them from my experience.

No, but they are surface mount chips themselves (and relatively small ones), with contacts on the sides, you have to be extremely careful with conductive thermal compounds on these, if you move the heatsink even slightly during installation (once it has contacted the thermal compound) you risk potentially getting it on the contacts and shorting something out.

Is AS Ceramique 2 the white stuff? I used one of those ceramique ones once, I think from AS. And it was nearly impossible to get off. It acted more like glue. Wish I could find that stuff again because I need some thermal paste that acts like glue for another project of mine.

Ceramique 2 is white, but I haven't found it to be exceptionally adhesive in nature (not more than most other thermal compounds) and it comes off relatively easily with isopropanol or acetone.

Artic Alumina (also white) is the one that is supposed to have adhesive qualities

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Brand new used GA-EP45-UD3P motherboard RAM questions

No, but they are surface mount chips themselves (and relatively small ones), with contacts on the sides, you have to be extremely careful with conductive thermal compounds on these, if you move the heatsink even slightly during installation (once it has contacted the thermal compound) you risk potentially getting it on the contacts and shorting something out.

Gotcha! Thank you!!! I would have hated to ruin this board by doing something simple like adding good thermal paste.

Ceramique 2 is white, but I haven't found it to be exceptionally adhesive in nature (not more than most other thermal compounds) and it comes off relatively easily with isopropanol or acetone.

Artic Alumina (also white) is the one that is supposed to have adhesive qualities

The I had was probably the Arctic Alumina. It was white and man, that stuff was like cement. I have an oscilloscope module for my logic analyzer and I need to replace an IC. I now have the IC but the heatsink on it, it's only attached with thermal paste, no screws / brackets / whatever. So I'll probably use that Arctic Alumina for that and the Ceramique 2 for the NB / SB and the MOSFETS.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Brand new used GA-EP45-UD3P motherboard RAM questions

I think I found some. The timing is 4-4-4-12, voltage is 1.9v. It's Kingston KHX6400D2LLK2. Price isn't too bad. It might not be very overclockable, but if it gives me that 1:1 ratio like you were talking about ChaosLegionnaire, then I think it's probably worth it, rather than going for the faster 1066MHz with the 5-5-5-15 timings....

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Brand new used GA-EP45-UD3P motherboard RAM questions

I was wrong about the OCZ. I still have it. It's OCZ OCZ2P8004GK Platinum. I have 8GB total (4x2GB) and the timing is 5-4-4-15 @2.1v. I might throw that in the machine until I place the order for the new RAM so I atleast can use it.

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Re: Brand new used GA-EP45-UD3P motherboard RAM questions

Thanks! I'm a bit confused though. The board says FSB 1600. That's well over 600 MHz.
When you say, "unless your board's fsb is super overclockable to 600 mhz", do you mean the 1600MHz + 600MHz? I heard this board was supposed to be one of the more better boards for overclocking.

i was referring to the base clock of the fsb. in pentium 4 and up to core 2 chips the fsb is quad-pumped or runs at qdr (quad data rate) so u have to divide by four to get the base fsb clock or multiply by four to get the effective fsb clock. its sometimes confusing for the uninitiated overclocker. i will explain more later.

I thought there was some formula to calculate the time it takes for data to go from the CPU to the RAM and back again.

umm no, it depends on too many variables like the asic quality of the nbmch, the quality of the ram ics, the length of the traces which vary from board to board. there isnt a reliable formula to do this type of calculation im afraid.

Now, what do you mean by the fsb to ram speed ratio? If my FSB is 1600MHz and I had a CPU that utilized the 1600MHz FSB, optimally, 1600MHz RAM would be best? I know that 1600MHz DDR2 3200 isn't obtainable, I'm just trying to understand this the best I can.

if u have an effective fsb clock of 1600mhz and the bus used is 64 bits wide, the bus would then have an effective bandwidth of 1600x64/8 (8 bits in a byte) = 12800 megabytes per sec or 12.8 gigabytes/sec.

if u have an effective ram clock of 800mhz and because the memory runs in dual channel mode due to two identical modules being used, then the memory bus would be 128 bits wide. the bus would then have an effective bandwidth of 800x128/8=12800 megabytes per sec or 12.8 gigabytes/sec.

so do u see now how the dual channel "trick" allows the slower ram to "catchup" to the faster fsb? it got pretty confusing because of this, i'd bet... so typically most bios will just display the base fsb clock and effective memory ddr speed. which is the same way i "talk" fsb and ram speeds.

So, do you think the G.Skill would be better than the Kingston? Or should I just stick with the Kingston?

I'd like to use the board for a while.

i cant really give u reliable advice as i have never used gskill ram before. i can only tell u that in theory, the lower voltage and coolness of the powerchip ics is better in the long run. i recall reading about some ppl on xtremesystems pushing the ram to 1100+ with 2.3v and it still doesnt get very hot unlike the micron d9s.

i have a couple of 2gb kingston hyperx 1066 modules and one module failed after a few weeks of use. it also ran quite hot to the touch during memtest. i'd bet 2.3v had something to do with it overheating and failing. that is the first time ever in my 15+ years of dabbling in computers that i ever had a ram failure! but the 1gb kingston hyperx 1066 modules i had were fine despite running hot and i had them for a longer time. never had any stability problems with them.

Does tim mean Thermal Interface Material?

yes.

Okay, why would I want to avoid the AS5 on the MOSFETs?

Gotcha! Thank you!!! I would have hated to ruin this board by doing something simple like adding good thermal paste.

for mosfets, i recommend u use thermal tape to attach heatsinks to them instead. why? because revered fellow member momaka has said before that the black epoxy body of a mosfet is a poor conductor of heat in itself. therefore, the bottleneck of heat transfer is at the metal leg to body interface of the mosfet. this makes it a white elephant to use good tim on the mosfet body to attach heatsinks when the heat transfer bottleneck is before that!

for thermal tape, i recommend the 3m 8810 or 8815 thermal tape because it doesnt fall off easily but do remember to clean (with 99% IPA or arcticlean) the body of whatever chip u want to attach it to as well as the underside of the heatsink that is getting attached. dust can make adhesive bond poorly regardless of whether its tape or paste. u dont want the mosfet heatsink falling off in a tower case and shorting something out on the way down when it falls off! or even worse, if its a reverse atx case with the psu on the bottom, u dont want it falling inside the psu and shorting the primary side of the psu which will result in some pretty spectacular fireworks!

that stuff was like cement.

use arcticlean two step tim remover to clean it off. its selling for like dirt cheap in the states ($5.95). lucky u guys...

I think I found some. The timing is 4-4-4-12, voltage is 1.9v. It's Kingston KHX6400D2LLK2. It might not be very overclockable. rather than going for the faster 1066MHz with the 5-5-5-15 timings...

its actually 1.95v. i have 2x1gb modules of the 800mhz 4-4-4-12 hyperx and they overclocked to 1066 5-5-5-15 speeds using 2.2v just fine like some ppl said. good bargain, i must say. but i cant speak the same for the 2gb modules tho. u might wanna try your luck... but i dont recommend it if u have to run it at 2.3v to be stable @ 1066 5-5-5-15... defeats the purpose... strictly speaking, 1066 ram is actually more for benchmarking and setting a record benchmark score. the extra ram speed will just give u a slight edge to "push" your benchmark score a few pts higher than your competitor.

if u are feeling adventurous, u can always overclock your 800 ram to 1066. in fact, as a newbie overclocker, its good homework for you. successfully overclocking the ram means u got promoted to pro overclocker. lol!

Price isn't too bad.

i saw planet memory on ebay selling 8gb (4x2gb) Kingston KHX6400D2LLK2 for $56.99 with free shipping to the 48 continental states. is that where your price is from?

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Brand new used GA-EP45-UD3P motherboard RAM questions

Thank you so much for explaining all of this to me! The link you posted to e-bay, that's the exact same one I was looking at buying.

So, I still have some questions here. I'll quote what you wrote first and then ask my question:

if u have an effective fsb clock of 1600mhz and the bus used is 64 bits wide, the bus would then have an effective bandwidth of 1600x64/8 (8 bits in a byte) = 12800 megabytes per sec or 12.8 gigabytes/sec.

if u have an effective ram clock of 800mhz and because the memory runs in dual channel mode due to two identical modules being used, then the memory bus would be 128 bits wide. the bus would then have an effective bandwidth of 800x128/8=12800 megabytes per sec or 12.8 gigabytes/sec.

So, if both buses have an effective bandwidth of 12.8 gigabytes / sec, what would be the point of overclocking the RAM? Would it only make sense to overclock the RAM if I overclock the fsb clock? If I had the fsb effective bandwidth of something like 15 gigabytes / sec but the address bus was still 12.8 gigabytes / sec, I wouldn't really notice the 15 gigabytes / sec bandwidth from the fsb, right? Because it'd still have to wait on the address bus which is only 12.8 gigabytes / sec, right?