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kithylin wrote:

Why not just go for 16GB for about $40?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/281419661431

Wow that's a 4GB DDR DIMM! Honestly don't think any consumer desktop board would be able to use that. Probably limited to Opteron Socket 940 server boards like the one here: http://www.supermicro.com/Aplus/motherboard/O … /8131/H8DA8.cfm

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kithylin wrote:

Not all boards will do it. I had 16 GB in a Asus A8n32-SLI motherboard once in the past while it still worked. I was also using […]
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Zenn wrote:

Wow that's a 4GB DDR DIMM! Honestly don't think any consumer desktop board would be able to use that. Probably limited to Opteron Socket 940 server boards like the one here: http://www.supermicro.com/Aplus/motherboard/O … /8131/H8DA8.cfm

Not all boards will do it. I had 16 GB in a Asus A8n32-SLI motherboard once in the past while it still worked. I was also using an Opteron dual core in it, I don't know if that mattered.

They do make Opteron dual cores in socket 939 format by the way, check out cpu-world for the matrix to find part numbers.

Also if you have a board that accepts (and works) with 2GB dimms for ecc-registered format, then chances are it (most likely) would also work with 4GB dimms.

However this is entirely all undocumented territory, and don't blame me if it doesn't work or if your system blows up, or catches fire, or burns down your house, or summons a demon from another realm.

Do you remember what ram kit you tried? I think one other guy has tried it with out success.

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Zenn wrote:

kithylin wrote:

Why not just go for 16GB for about $40?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/281419661431

Wow that's a 4GB DDR DIMM! Honestly don't think any consumer desktop board would be able to use that. Probably limited to Opteron Socket 940 server boards like the one here: http://www.supermicro.com/Aplus/motherboard/O … /8131/H8DA8.cfm

Interesting, so they do exist.
The 4GB module listed on the support page for my Tyan board is a Smart Modular part, but they also list that the chips are Samsung. Unfortunately, they don't list the Samsung chip part number, but I guess chances are good that those are the same chips.

It seems that a large number of the socket-939 chips use the same cores as the 940 chips. Therefore it seems they would support the same RAM, unless the BIOS or some other motherboard nonsense gets in the way. However, when browsing CPU charts on wikipedia, I saw that there are at least some 939 core steppings that weren't used on any 940, so those might be different.

So that ASUS A8N32-SLI is the only motherboard thats supporting ECC memory?

kithylin wrote:

Some day I want to get a A8n32-SLI Deluxe again and try again. They are (to the best of my knowledge) the only motherboard for socket 939 that will run two video cards in SLI @ 16x-16x together, and take almost any socket 939 chip ever produced, and ecc-reg ram (usually).

Robin4 wrote:

So that ASUS A8N32-SLI is the only motherboard thats supporting ECC memory?

Asus actually manufactures another 939 board, Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe (ATI Crossfire Xpress 3200/ULi M1575 chipset) as a competitor to A8N32-SLI's nForce 4 SLI x16 chipset. Good if you're not just focusing on nVidia cards... The specs say that board can also take ECC ram.

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So there are no AGP boards with ECC??

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The Asus A8V Deluxe should have an ECC option in the BIOS. Whether it supports registered 128Mx4 DIMMs is something different.
I don't know any nForce3 939 board that supports ECC.

kithylin wrote:

Robin4 wrote:

So there are no AGP boards with ECC??

$75 ($55 + $20 shipping) http://www.ebay.com/itm/121341949109 - Comes with 2 cpu's (This one for sure single-core chips @ 2.4 ghz, supports dual core chips, see below), no heatsinks, and no ram.

Just in case anybody gets interested in this particular board - I want to point out the bulged caps. The ones that haven't bulged yet, probably will later, and there's lots of caps on that board. At a lower price, it might be a good deal for somebody who is ready to replace them, but not at the asking price.

Around 1.5 yrs ago there were some dual 940 boards getting liquidated that were NOS at a cheap price, something like $50 shipped. They still had the stickers on the sockets and everything. If one is patient, I think liquidations like that probably come up fairly often with 940 boards.
The best part though is the corresponding CPUs and RAM. As has been previously mentioned, 940 CPUs and registered memory are both very cheap in the 2nd hand market. The depreciation of server gear is amazing. It gets ordered in bulk, then becomes obsolete, and gets liquidated. At some point it floods the market where comparatively few buyers are looking for that stuff, so prices are low. You can find great deals by going this route, instead of the better known consumer parts.

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Over the last year or so I have collected quite a few dual 940 Opteron boards, they were cheap and reliable. The cheap ones tend to be PCI and PCIX but they also made some decent AGP Pro and PCIE models.

The CPU's and RAM are dirt cheap.

just keep in mind sometimes old tech like this needs new caps. a few of the reviews on newegg talk about people recapping there a8n32 sli deluxes.

Someone is selling an Asus A8N-SLI Premium for 25€ locally, I already have a CPU. Might get it and a couple of 4GB modules to play with.

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A8N-SLI Premium actually does support ECC RAM and it's not the only desktop board that does.

A8N-E (cheapest board) runs with my reg DIMMs just fine. I tested the SPD modding we did at Overclock.net with this board.