Motherboard supports RAM w/ four "ranks" max.

[Synomenon]

I'm thinking about getting the new Asus P5QL-EM G43 mATX motherboard. I have four sticks of this RAM:

Patriot 2GB DDR2 800:
http://www.patriotmem.com/prod...oupid=38&id=593&type=1


Total of 8GB of RAM.

The manual for the P5QL-EM says this though:

Due to chipset limitation, this motherboard only supports up to the total of four ranks (four sides in total) of RAM at max.
This motherboard does not support memory modules made up of 128 Mb chips.


The manual says it supports up to 8GB of RAM. How do I tell if all four sticks (8GB) will work on this motherboard?

 

[Peter]

One DIMM side (usually) constitutes a "rank". You do the math ... the answer to your question most probably is No, since two-gigabyte DIMMs typically are made from two ranks of eight one-gigabit chips.

 

[NXIL]

Hi,

the other mobo you were looking at, the G45 version, apparently does not have this limitation:

http://www.asus.com/products.a...l1=3&l2=11&l3=761&l4=0

Again, G45 chipset seems a bit better....

NXIL

 

[Synomenon]

Yeah, but the thing about the other board (the P5Q-EM) is that my 9800GX2 will block four of the six SATA ports. I know this because the P5Q-EM has the exact same SATA port layout as the P5E-VM HDMI which I currently have.

Anyway, someone has already told me that my RAM will work on the P5QL-EM, just not at the rated speed of the RAM. It'll probably run at DDR2 667 speeds vs. the 800 speed they're rated for.

 

[NXIL]

Angled SATA-2 cables?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16812123191

Different Video card? (I know, yours is very nice.....)

Different case?

Rock. Hard place.

NXIL

 

[GundamF91]

What is P5QL-EM? I have P5Q Deluxe, and I'm using 4 banks of 2GB Mushkin DDR2-800, they work very well.

 

[Synomenon]

Originally posted by: NXIL
Angled SATA-2 cables?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16812123191

Different Video card? (I know, yours is very nice.....)

Different case?

Rock. Hard place.

NXIL

I like my case so no way I'm replacing it. Have you read what I posted above? There are right angle cables and left angle cables out there. I can get use of the top two ports with left angle SATA cables and use of the bottom two with right angle SATA cables, but the two in the middle are definitely blocked no matter what SATA cable I use.

The on you linked to above is a right angle SATA cable. Only a couple of places I know of carry left angle SATA cables (Performance-PCs, Rainier PC, and some other places that carry this plain, red Startech 18" left angle SATA cable).