Underclocking the RAM for Intel P43 board from 1600MHz to 1333MHz.

Good day,

Last week I bought a used Gigabyte GA-EP43T-S3L board from ebay, as shown in the link below:
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard...-S3L-rev-14#ov

I have no intention to overclock the CPU, memory, and FSB of this P43 board. The board supports DDR3 up until 1333MHz without overclocking. However, the price of the DDR3 1333MHz and DDR3 1600MHz are just the same at my area.

If it is possible to install the 1600MHz on the board, then set the board to underclock it to 1333MHz easily? The reason why I would like to do this is because I think the DDR3 1333MHz will have better resell value than DDR3 1333MHz.

If it is difficult for a newbie like me to underclock the memory from 1600MHz to DDR3 1333MHz however, I will just purchase the DDR3 1333MHz.

Thank you.

 

This is from Gygabyte's site. It says your motherboard will support 1600mhz DDR3 Ram. But it does say revision "1.0 and 1.3".

I didn't read the differences in the revisions. Which revision do you have?

 

The one that I bought is revision 1.4.

 

Might be good to go then since the page I linked is 1.4 and it says that DDR3 1600mhz is supported.

 

All right, understood. I will try the DDR3 1600MHz straight away without any setting first by the time I receive the board.

Thank you very much.

 

All this time I mistakenly thought that all P43 boards from other brands are the same with ASUS P43 boards, because ASUS says that only 2 out of 4 slots of their P43 boards are usable if the memory is oveclocked to 1600MHz. The example of the ASUS boards are shown in the links below:
1) P5P43TD PRO
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P5P43TD_PRO/overview/
2) P5P43TD
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P5P43TD/overview/
3) P5P43T
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P5P43T/overview/

 

Gigabyte has revisions on theirs. I didn't notice if the links you posted of the ASUS boards had any revisions or not. Maybe Ram speed was part of their revisions?

 

I see. All right, understood. I will update the result in here once I get the board.

Thank you.

 

Good day.

I already received the board in good condition last week.

While trying to shop for a DDR3 memory in a shop nearby my house however, the shopkeeper told me that there are 2 types of DDR3 ram - the old type high density memory and the new type low density memory.

The shopkeeper told me that some older motherboards are not compatible with the new type low density memory. To make the situation worse, the brand new DDR3 available in the market nowadays are the new type low density memory.

I went to the shop without bring the motherboard. The shopkeeper told me to come again with the motherboard so that I can test it with the new type low density memory before deciding to purchase it.

The shopkeeper said some old motherboards can detect the new type low density memory after the BIOS are updated, but some old motherboards still don't detect the new type low density memory even after the BIOS are updated.

Co-incidentally, there are few desktops at my office with the old type high density DDR3. I borrowed the memory temporarily to install windows 10 on system with the P43 motherboard. So far the system is ok.

I even take this opportunity to update the BIOS to the latest version. One of the version even have remark saying 'improving memory compatibility', but I'm not sure whether the update has anything got to do with the new type low density DDR3.

I will go to the shop again with the motherboard this weekend. Hopefully the motherboard can accept the new type low density DDR3. Otherwise I might have to forget about this building P43-based system project.

 

Have to ask was there a reason why your using a DDR3 board and not a newer DDR4 board?

 

Well if you can find an LGA 775 motherboard that takes DDR4 RAM...

 

I have an old HP dc5800 small form factor desktop with noisy CPU fan. So far I am still unable to identify the root cause of the noisy fan. I've been troubleshooting this problem since around 2 years ago. The reason why I would like to purchase the p43 motherboard is to transfer the CPU from the HP dc5800 small form factor to the P43 motherboard. HP dc5800 small form factor uses proprietary motherboard, so the whole board could not be transferred to a new ATX case.

For more detail about the HP dc5800 small form factor desktop with noisy CPU fan problem, you may go through the following links:
1) http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...actor-if-possible.795605/page-6#post-10698220
2) http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...chipset-compatibility-with-windows-10.814924/


Anyway, I have a bad news. I went to the shop yesterday with my p43 motherboard to test its compatibility with the Kingston DDR3 low density ram /single sided ram. Unfortunately, the motherboard was not working and produces fast beeping sound. Since receiving the motherboard, I did set-up the system the motherboard using a borrowed Hynix DDR3 high density ram / double sided ram - I took the Hynix ram off from an old seldomly used HP desktop in my office.

Now it is already confirmed that the p43 motherboard is working, but not compatible with new generation of DDR3. Even though I've already updated the BIOS to the latest version (with some version says that it improve memory compatibility), the board still doesn't work with the Kingston DDR3 low density ram /single sided ram sold by the shop. My last resort is to find used DDR3 high density ram / double sided ram on ebay, amazon etc.

The photos of the incompatible Kingston DDR3 low density ram /single sided ram sold by the computer shop and the compatible Hynix DDR3 high density ram / double sided ram borrowed from my office are shown below.

The compatible Hynix DDR3 high density ram / double sided ram borrowed from my office.


The incompatible Kingston DDR3 low density ram /single sided ram sold by the computer shop.

 

You mixed up both types of DDR3 RAM.

The Kingston 4GB DIMM is single sided (i.e. single rank), with 4GB on a single side (rank), which makes it a high density 4GB module.
The Hynix 4GB DIMM is double sided (i.e. dual rank), with 2GB on each side (rank), which makes it a low density 4GB module.

Early DDR3 motherboards (Intel 4-series and 5-series) can only take low density 4GB modules, that's why the Hynix module works and not the Kingston.

As for the northbridge heating up, that's to be expected for C2D-era desktops. After all, Intel northbridge contains memory controller and iGPU which heats up as they work, in particular the northbridge chip on your HP has 15W TDP, about the same as many AMD Bobcat CPUs. It has nothing to do with Windows 10, in fact W10 should have already installed the latest chipset driver from the MS Catalog as soon as you install W10 onto your HP.

 

I think you are right. Other people in other forum also explains to me about the same thing.

However, you still can find this kind of confusion among sellers. If you type the keyword 'DDR3 low density' on ebay, you will get 3 types of listed products:
1) 'low density DDR3' keyword together with '2Rx8' keyword.
2) 'low density DDR3' keyword together with '1Rx8' keyword.
3) 'low density DDR3' keyword only without '2Rx8' or '1Rx8' keyword.

This means that even some of the salesman on the ebay doesnt know whether the low density DDR3 is either '2Rx8' or '1Rx8'. To be safe, I will only purchase the DDR3 with the keyword '2Rx8' on ebay (and amazon) instead of relying on the keyword ''low density DDR3'

Some people at other forum told me that there might be a possibility that the P43 motherboard can detect the new type 8GB DDR3 module, because it is 2Rx8 module. However, I'm not sure whether this claim is true or not, plus I forgot to ask the salesman at the computer shop to try with 8GB stick as well when I was at the shop

Thank you for this info. I didn't know about the overheating problem in C2D-era desktop. I will install the aftermarket northbridge cooler with fan as my last resort. If the PC is still noisy, I will give her a second chance by converting her into a linux PC.

I have transfered the Q9650 from the HP dc5800 to the P43 motherboard. So far the new motherboard doesn't produce loud noise from the CPU fan. The CPU fan does throttle up sometimes, but the fan sound is still at a comfortable level.

Regarding the driver, I even use Drivermax on all my PCs to make sure that the driver version that I install are the latest. However, the dc5800 Small Form Factor still produce loud fan noise before and after I use the Drivermax thing.

 

First, the general rule is that: 2Rx8 < 1Rx8 < 1Rx16, in terms of memory density, so for a certain type and capacity of a memory module, say 2GB DDR3, 2Rx8 is low density, 1Rx8 is high density, 1Rx16 is very high density (2GB 1Rx16 DDR3 modules do exist).

However, memory density doesn't dictate whether it works on a system, it's the amount of memory on each rank that does. For example, 4-series motherboards can take 4GB 2Rx8 DDR3 modules at max, which means any DDR3 modules should work as long as there's 2GB or less in each rank. 2GB 1Rx8 DDR3 modules has 2GB RAM on a single rank, therefore it'll work on 4-series motherboards, despite being a high density module.

Using the same theory, 8GB DDR3 modules, even for low density arrangement (2Rx8), will have 4GB on one rank, therefore they will never work on 4-series motherboards.

Regarding fan noise on your HP, I believe the loud noise is just how that fan is, it's a heavy duty 92mm ball bearing fan IIRC. Ball bearing fans can be a little bit loud when worked up.

And please, for the love of god, don't use DriverMax!

 

Sorry for a very late reply and thank you very much for this info.

Hahahaha. All this time I've been using it. If you advise me not to use it, then I will stop