[RESOLVED] - Upgrading memory for an MSI 990FXA-GD80

[AllanGH]

I am debating just picking up the G.SKILL F3-2133C10Q-32GZM Ripjaws Z Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) 240-Pin SDRAM DDR3 2133 (PC3 17000) Desktop Memory kit.

Does anyone know of a reason that the above memory would be a bad choice for the MSI 990FXA-GD80 motherboard?

Not gaming, and don't plan on over-clocking....just want to max-out the MoBo capacity for memory heavy Open Source projects.

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MSI 990FXA-GD80 Motherboard Details

Chipset Support: NB - AMD 990FX, SB - AMD SB950
Installed µP: AMD Phenom II X6
Memory Support: DDR3 2133, 240-pin, 1.5V
Max Memory Capacity: 32GB (4 * 8GB)
No TPM installed

One probable issue that I see is that the MB memory support voltage is specified @ 1.5V. The G.Skill memory modules I'm looking at are spec'd at 1.6V for overclocking. I don't know how critical this will be if I am not overclocking this machine.

 

[CountMike]

Don't expect it to run at full speed, 1333MHz tops with some luck. Might as well save money and get RAM for that speed. That's on account of those CPUs putting a serious crimp on memory speed when both memory channels are used.

 

[AllanGH]

OK. Much appreciated.

I'm not a hound about maxxing it out on speed....just capacity; which, when all is said and done, will cost me less time waiting on things when the machine starts hammering at the swap partition.

If I can get compiles to run without making a concurrent render take more forever than it usually does, I'll be happier.

 

[CountMike]

Well, yes, more RAM would help in scenarios when application needs more RAM, like heavy graphic or multimedia compiling. What you should do is to follow how much RAM is used and how large virtual memory gets. Ifit gets to close to 100% and VM is larger than RAM, more RAM should help.

 

[AllanGH]

Oh, that evaluation was made months ago....

When I'm compiling a large project while doing video renders, and playing music, the machine thrashes the hell out of /swap. Moving my swap partition off an HDD to a 120GB SSD, and maxxing-out memory, looked to be a worthwhile move.

I was just uncertain about the specific G.Skill memory I was looking at, and figured that I'd ask before buying it, if people here might have any idea why that would be a bad move on an AMD MB.

Eventually, I'll move my / and /home partitions off to separate NVME drives, and dump mechanical drives altogether, so this is just a precursor to the memory upgrade.

 

[gskill support]

That memory kit will work fine. Use the latest BIOS. With that CPU, you may be limited to around DDR3-1600, however with that memory kit you can lower timings to enhance performance.

 

[AllanGH]

With that CPU, you may be limited to around DDR3-1600, however with that memory kit you can lower timings to enhance performance.

Thanks.

I would be considering the F3-1866C9Q-32GZH kit, but the pipeline seems to have dried-up on those, and I'd like to get this thing torn-down, cleaned-out, and back in operation this Saturday morning. Since time is an issue, I did pull the trigger on the F3-2133C10Q-32GZM kit, and will update the BIOS before it gets here.

Unfortunately, the MSI manual and website are not very revealing when it comes to specific settings; but that will leave me room to experiment with the timings--just for kicks between gigs.

 

[AllanGH]

Memory arrived this morning, and was able to get things cleaned-up and taken care of, leaving my Saturday open for "family stuff". It is nice to get my temps back down to 32°C at idle.

Since the BIOS allowed for it, I have the new memory clocking at 1866, and it seems to be stable--so far, anyway--and I am content to leave it at that. I'll fiddle with timings later, but the increased memory overhead is noticeable in terms of program execution speed.

Maybe I'll set up an additional boot configuration option to allow me to RAMdisk the entire OS installation--for non-work-related use.

Many thanks to all who took the time to read and give me their perspectives on this.