8GB Ram on NF3 Ultra Possible?

[d1c1ple]

Anyone know if anyone has certified 2GB Dimms x 4 sticks on any NF3 Ultra board? I have the MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum and would like to do AMD64 X2 Processor and more ram. I use virtual machines alot and would like the memory capacity and SMP that the X2 provides. Vmware Workstation 5.x on XP or XP X64?

[LowRun]

I think the NF3 is limited to a total of 4GB but i could be wrong.

[babalouj]

k8n neo2 has a max capacity of 4GB, i dont know about any of the other nf3 mobos.

[Waxman]

The max mem capacity is limited by the cpu/chip7 combo.

Single core A64's can only adress 4 gigs of ram I believe.

Since that board came out before the dual cores it must be limited to the maximum ram capacity of the a64's at the time it got out - 4gb.

[d1c1ple]

thx - 4GB will have to do or maybe time for a new more powerful dual socket board from asus/tyan, etc and 2 2xx Opterons perhaps...

[IvanAndreevich]

A64 can only address 3 gigs of ram, you can use 4 1gig sticks but it will only see 3gig

That's not true. A64 can address 2^48 bits of memory.

[Major]

I stand corrected, I was just looking up the white papers for the 64.

[IvanAndreevich]

Well, my answer didn't really help the OP. I have not seen any 2GB modules. As long as they are dual-bank (i.e. 16 chips of memory on each stick), I don't see why it shouldn't work.

Here's a question back at ya. Why do you need THAT much RAM? I doubt your stuff actually uses that much

[omega65]

Anyone know if anyone has certified 2GB Dimms x 4 sticks on any NF3 Ultra board? I have the MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum and would like to do AMD64 X2 Processor and more ram. I use virtual machines alot and would like the memory capacity and SMP that the X2 provides. Vmware Workstation 5.x on XP or XP X64?

MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum

DIMM Module Combination

Each DIMM slot supports up to a maximum size of 1GB. Users can install either single- or double-sided modules to meet their own needs.

•This mainboard DO NOT support the memory module installed with more than 18 pieces of IC (integrated circuit).

•Due to the South Bridge resource deployment, the system density will only be detected up to 3+ GB (not full 4GB) when each DIMM is installed with an 1GB memory module

[IvanAndreevich]

omega65
That may very well have been written at a time when 2GB sticks were simply not available. (Are they now?!)

[kiwi]

There are 2GB ECC registered and unbuffered sticks available. Not sure about Non-ECC. As you know most desktop boards support only the latter.

[Der_KHAN]

Anyone know if anyone has certified 2GB Dimms x 4 sticks on any NF3 Ultra board? I have the MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum and would like to do AMD64 X2 Processor and more ram. I use virtual machines alot and would like the memory capacity and SMP that the X2 provides. Vmware Workstation 5.x on XP or XP X64?

make sure to run X64, cuz 32bit XP can only adress 2gb per threat

[spurious]

if you have XP professional or server 2003, you can add /3gb to your boot.ini file and get 3GB per process.

[d1c1ple]

thx all - i'm familiar with the boot.ini options too; as far as needing that much ram? No 4GB would probably be ok and VM's would work fine..not sure if I read correctly above but why would the board be advertised to support 4gb of ram; but can only see 3GB?

[omega65]

omega65
That may very well have been written at a time when 2GB sticks were simply not available. (Are they now?!)

2GB Sticks as well as 4GB DIMMS have been available for some time. The server market requires larger memory sizes than the PC market, but these things trickle down in price (eventually)

You may be right however in that the larger sticks just weren't vaildated for the mothebroard....


The Register: 2003-03-20 Micron touts first 4GB DDR DIMM

Memory maker Micron yesterday sent what it claims is the industry's first 4GB DDR SDRAM registered DIMM to Intel - presumably for verification and (it hopes) endorsement.

The DIMM is based on Micron's 1Gb 2.5V 266MHz DDR chip. It is a standard 184-pin PC1600 and PC2100 memory module. The DIMMs enable system vendors to offer machines with up to 64GB of memory.

Around the same time, Samsung announced a 4GB DIMM based on its own 0.1 micron 1Gb DDR chips. Samsung said it plans to mass produce the chip in the second half of the year.

[spurious]

i am not sure about NF3 boards but most of the NF4 boards have this disclaimer:

Due to the South Bridge resource deployment, the system density will only be detected up to 3+GB ( not full 4GB ) when each DIMM is installed with an 1GB module.

i don't know if this means for Windows only. i have heard people using linux get 4GB

i have checked a few other motherboard manuals. some say anywhere from 3gb to 4gb will be detected. try turning off all unused sourth bridge functions in BIOS and maybe you can recover a little more memory.

[Der_KHAN]

thx all - i'm familiar with the boot.ini options too; as far as needing that much ram? No 4GB would probably be ok and VM's would work fine..not sure if I read correctly above but why would the board be advertised to support 4gb of ram; but can only see 3GB?

pci-bus and agp/pci-e devices eat tons of adress room. which can be several hundred mb. so u will only be able to use 2.5-3.5GB of ur 4GB depending on the devices in ur system

to avoid this u need a function called "memory remapping" - which is currently only supported by NF4 chipsets i believe.

also the bios of ur mobo has to make this function available. i dont know about the dfi but i heard the asus a8n has it.

... and u need XP-X64 of course

[spurious]

downloaded the A8N-SLI Premium manual and it does have remapping.

just waiting for the 4400+ to be back in stock now.

[adz]

there is that option on my a8n sli deluxe
4 me is useless but 4 u...