Tom's Guide > Forum > Overclocking > Motherboards > Motherboard Help for C2D, 4-4-4 RAM, watercooling

Motherboard Help for C2D, 4-4-4 RAM, watercooling

Forum Overclocking : Motherboards - Motherboard Help for C2D, 4-4-4 RAM, watercooling

TomsGuide.com: Over 800,000 questions and answers to address all your high-tech questions. Sign up now! Its free!
Word :    Username :           
 

OK, I need some help. I have built several computers before and have supported hardware for several years, but have never messed with overclocking or watercooling.

I have everything I need to build a new rig, except a motherboard (well, I have the free piece of crap from frys that came with the CPU...). I bought some high end RAM from frys that was cheaper than the cheap stuff after rebate, but it has 4-4-4-15 timings. I was looking at the P965 chipset motherboards on newegg, but they all have this disclaimer:

"Notice: Only DDR2-800 memory supporting JEDEC approved 1.8V operation with timings of 5-5-5 or 6-6-6 is supported on Intel Desktop Boards based on Intel 965 Express Chipsets."

Does this mean I cannot use my fancy new RAM with any P965 board? I know I can change some stuff in the BIOS, but I don't want to mess with it if I can't get it to be as fast as it is capable of. If I can't use P965, does anyone have a good recommendation on a board that I could use? SLI would be nice, but I will probably replace the board and video card eventually when the DX10 cards get cheaper, so that is not a must. I just need it to work with the stuff listed below, and play nice with overclocking.

The stuff I have so far is:

RAM: 2GB DDR2 PC2-6400 800MHz CL 4-4-4-15 / Platinum / Revision 2 / Mirrored XTC Heatspreader Dual Channel Kit OCZ2P800R22GK
CPU: C2D E6300 (maybe a better one soon)
Video: EVGA 7900 GS (bought a cheap one until DX10 cards come down in price)
HDD: WD Raptor 150GB (or whatever the size is close to that)
Case: Koolance PC3-724BK (I think)
PS: 650W (overkill, but it was cheap and is nice)
and all the other various stuff I need for watercooling, cabling, optical drives, etc.

This rig is going to be for gaming/multimedia only. I am tired of playing games with the economy settings or watching divx files and not being able to IM at the same time. I have another few computers, one with 1.6TB in RAID 5 (1.2 useable) for downloading and storage, so very little will ever go on the computer that is not a game or multimedia file. As I said, I do not have much practical experience with overclocking, so feel free to correct any bad assumptionst that I made. Thanks!

Sponsored Links
Register or log in to remove.

Worst that can happen is that you need to get some cheapo 1.8V ram to boot, set ram volts to 2.1 and reboot with new ram...

Ram should default to slacker CL5 timing and be fine to run though

Reply to Anonymous
- 0 +

So that means that the 965 boards will support the RAM with the 4-4-4 timings if I change the BIOS?

Reply to storl

Yup, you can download the manual of the board you are looking to get and see for yourself, most board should go down to CL3 timing!

Anyway it is probably a good suggestion to peak at the manual before buying the board =)

Reply to Anonymous
Tom's Guide > Forum > Overclocking > Motherboards > Motherboard Help for C2D, 4-4-4 RAM, watercooling
Go to:

There are 13 identified and unidentified users. To see the list of identified users, Click here.

Please mind

You are about to answer a thread that has been inactive for more than 6 months.
If you still wish to proceed, please ensure that your posting is original and does not duplicate or overlap any prior responses to this thread.

Add a reply Cancel
Google ads