Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: trax1 on April 09, 2009, 10:24:24 AM

Title: DDR3 RAM
Post by: trax1 on April 09, 2009, 10:24:24 AM: Just a quick question on DDR3 RAM, so do you need a special motherboard that will support DDR3, or will any motherboard handle it?
Title: Re: DDR3 RAM
Post by: MrRiplEy[H] on April 09, 2009, 10:30:38 AM: Quote from: trax1 on April 09, 2009, 10:24:24 AM
Just a quick question on DDR3 RAM, so do you need a special motherboard that will support DDR3, or will any motherboard handle it?

You need a DDR3 capable motherboard. Check the specifications before purchase.
Title: Re: DDR3 RAM
Post by: trax1 on April 09, 2009, 10:33:29 AM: Quote from: MrRiplEy[H] on April 09, 2009, 10:30:38 AM
You need a DDR3 capable motherboard. Check the specifications before purchase.
Rgr, thanks that's all I was wondering. :aok
Title: Re: DDR3 RAM
Post by: Skuzzy on April 09, 2009, 10:34:36 AM: You need a motherboard and motherboard chipset that will support the RAM. It is not compatible with any other version of RAM. DDR3 requires 1.5V, while DDR2 requires 1.8V and the key position in DDR3 is different from DDR2.
Title: Re: DDR3 RAM
Post by: MrRiplEy[H] on April 09, 2009, 10:39:00 AM: Asrock makes boards that support both. But I wouldn't want to mess with those because their performance is compromised.
Title: Re: DDR3 RAM
Post by: trax1 on April 09, 2009, 11:36:26 AM: Yeah I just check with Gigabyte and my board doesn't support DDR3. :cry
Title: Re: DDR3 RAM
Post by: MrRiplEy[H] on April 09, 2009, 12:33:08 PM: Quote from: trax1 on April 09, 2009, 11:36:26 AM
Yeah I just check with Gigabyte and my board doesn't support DDR3. :cry

You should use DDR3 basically only if you move to i7.
Title: Re: DDR3 RAM
Post by: BaldEagl on April 09, 2009, 01:29:07 PM: Quote from: MrRiplEy[H] on April 09, 2009, 10:39:00 AM
Asrock makes boards that support both. But I wouldn't want to mess with those because their performance is compromised.

I can't remember which but either Gigabyte or MSI also has at least one board that supports both.
Title: Re: DDR3 RAM
Post by: Krusty on April 09, 2009, 01:48:01 PM: I believe the ASRock board has different slots for the DDR2 and DDR3, and you can't interchange them.
Title: Re: DDR3 RAM
Post by: BaldEagl on April 09, 2009, 02:23:01 PM: Quote from: Krusty on April 09, 2009, 01:48:01 PM
I believe the ASRock board has different slots for the DDR2 and DDR3, and you can't interchange them.

I'm sure it does. So does the other one I saw.
Title: Re: DDR3 RAM
Post by: Bino on April 09, 2009, 08:54:07 PM: Quote from: MrRiplEy[H] on April 09, 2009, 12:33:08 PM
You should use DDR3 basically only if you move to i7.

Really? Why do you say that? There are plenty of 775 mobos that support DDR3. But triple channel does seem to be the exclusive province of the 1366 mobos.

FYI...
JEDEC specs

DDR2 DDR3

Rated Speed 400-800 Mbps 800-1600 Mbps
Vdd/Vddq 1.8V +/- 0.1V 1.5V +/- 0.075V
Internal Banks 4 8
Termination Limited All DQ signals
Topology Conventional T Fly-by
Driver Control OCD Calibration Self Calibration with ZQ
Thermal Sensor No Yes (Optional)
Title: Re: DDR3 RAM
Post by: MrRiplEy[H] on April 10, 2009, 04:51:01 AM: Quote from: Bino on April 09, 2009, 08:54:07 PM
Really? Why do you say that? There are plenty of 775 mobos that support DDR3. But triple channel does seem to be the exclusive province of the 1366 mobos.

FYI...
JEDEC specs

DDR2 DDR3

Rated Speed 400-800 Mbps 800-1600 Mbps
Vdd/Vddq 1.8V +/- 0.1V 1.5V +/- 0.075V
Internal Banks 4 8
Termination Limited All DQ signals
Topology Conventional T Fly-by
Driver Control OCD Calibration Self Calibration with ZQ
Thermal Sensor No Yes (Optional)

I'm saying that because older generation boards / CPU's will have really small gains from DDR3 that's not worth the pricetag.
Title: Re: DDR3 RAM
Post by: TheZohan on April 11, 2009, 05:14:27 AM: AM3 boards and X58 boards support DDR3 natively
Title: Re: DDR3 RAM
Post by: eagl on April 11, 2009, 11:02:55 AM: Quote from: MrRiplEy[H] on April 10, 2009, 04:51:01 AM
I'm saying that because older generation boards / CPU's will have really small gains from DDR3 that's not worth the pricetag.

QFT. DDR3 really only has big gains when it's matched with an i7 cpu. Synthetic benchmarks show big bandwidth gains with ddr3 even on older mobos, but the real-world performance gains are minimal.