Stability of eVGa board and memory concerns

[CRYTEX]

Hello all,
I'm new to the board, placed my order of 4/10 and impatiently awaiting the day when the famous ship email will show-up ...
In the mean time I have been reading the various boards, and saw several references to issues with the eVGA board wherein after a while, the only way to get the systems to stay stable is to disconnect half of the memory and lower the memory speed ?
can anyone enlighten me, please, on what exactly the issue is and whether it has been solved by now, I am starting to get worried.... Thanks.

[theDreamer]

Well first off welcome.
There have been reports here and else where of this problem. nVidia also did a report that it was not there boards, also meaning that they have found the problem yet are writing off onto others to fix it. I do not know if this is true or not, but hopefully things will be better from here on out.

Maingear will take care of you though if there are any problems, I am sure they are also doing checks for this problem.

Edit: Also, just some notes, you do not that a 32bit OS can not use all 4gigs of the ram? As on the website I know MG only uses 32bit (for both Vista & XP), but you might have asked for 64 bit I do not know.

Enjoy the wait. :D

[CRYTEX]

Thank you Dreamer for being the fist one to welcome me on the MG Forum, and for answering my question. :)
With respect to the limit of a 32 bit OS, I had read it could see about 2.75 Gb, is it correct ? Also, I though that Vista shipped with both 32 and 64, so that I could load the 64 bit version at a later date when enough reliable drivers will be available, is that an incorrect assumption ?
As for the board problem, I guess I'll keep monitoring the boards to see if others with a configuration close to mine are running into this problem...
Take care.

[theDreamer]

I am not 100% accurate on the 32 v. 64 bit OS difference. I know how Windows writes it OS it takes up about .75 away from readable ram so it limits you to ~3.2. Yet some also have stated that GPUs are calculated into this so it limits you more, I would have to do more research for that answer.

I do not know about the computer shipping with both OS's, but I am sure you can call MG on Monday and speak directly to them about that question.

[RottynDawg]

Welcome to the boards Crytex! What did you end up ordering?

[CRYTEX]

Thanks, RottynDawg
I ordered what is in my signature line, i.e. F131, maingear PS, 680i board, overclocked QX6700, 4 GB Corsair XMS2-8500, 2 WD raptors (150 GB-10K each) in Raid 0, 2 optical drives (1 lightscribe), nvidia 8800GTX graphics card, no sound card (I have Bose Companion 5 speakers which bypass the sound cards through a USB port), 32 Bit Vista, Saitek Eclipse keyboard, G5 mouse, 3 year warranty, and will use a Dell 3007WFP-HC monitor with it....and lcan't wait to get my dream machine (which I nicknamed "Yellow Submarine" and look forward to the release of Crysys to use it !!!

[RottynDawg]

I'm old AND blind it seems :) Thanks for posting the specs again...I love the name of the new computer!

[Ella Lythe]

Welcome to the family CRYTEK. As far as oem systems shipping with both 32 and 64 bit versions that is regretfully not true. Full copies and upgrades do come with both. And a 32 bit system will only allow about 2.25g of ram with your new video card. Stupid memory register.

[CRYTEX]

Thanks Ella.
Do you know if installing the 64 bit version at a later date would be easy? Is it sold as an "upgrade" from the 32 Bit version ?
Otherwise, what would be the major problems I'd likely run into with games and peripherals (and anytyhing else I might not think of) if I asked MG to install the 64 bit version directly ?

[XBarbarian]

welcome crytex!

btw..it's Sponge Bob Racing Yellow! =)

Anywho... going from 32 bit to 64 is a fresh install, not like just a switch thrown, so its a complete wipe kinda thing.

I was tempted top go with 4gb anyway, but stuck with 2, and Im fine with it.

as far as the original issue, ,it seems to be worked out now. I did have to RMA one set of ram to maingear after it failed. Maingear overnighted it to me, they are very easy to work with

I started to have what at first I thought was a re occurrance of the problem again last week, but the ram tested fine in memtest86. So i was going to format and do a clean install, but at the last moment, i purchased a $10 app called drivercleaner which does a thorough cleaning of old video drivers, before you install new drivers. After uninstalling the driver, then using that app, my problem seems almost gone, plus, the games look like they did when the F131 was brand new.

so time will tell with the memory / 680i issues.

[CRYTEX]

Thanks xBarbarian for the explanation. Thanks also for your detailed original post, which I enjoyed reading. The pictures of your Sponge Bob Racing Yellow look great BTW, and made me choose to go with a "Yellow Submarine" rather than a "Blues Clues" color and name choice for my future rig.
I'm just curious, why did you choose a 1Kw PSU with a single 8800gtx ?

[theDreamer]

Probably upgrade/future-proof.
That will last a long time, I bought a 430PSU four years ago, and I can still use it today if I wanted to do a mid-range computer. If you have no plans to upgrade for 3+ years you do not need it probably.

[whorton5]

Speaking of drivers...I just did the new nVidia drivers for the 8800GTX which were posted a few days ago.

Hope I didnt screw anything up. Seems to be working fine.

[CRYTEX]

Besides "working fine", any noticeable improvement from the previous version of the drivers ? :?:

[XBarbarian]

as dreamer mentioned, I went whit the 1k psu for future proofing, and a electrical knowledge that tells me to have more power than I need!

[theDreamer]

lol at XBarbarian....sounds so funny.
Why do you have more power?
~You can never have to much power... :twisted:

[Ella Lythe]

Sigh...I have no more room in my PC to put anything. Guess I'll just have to think about an uber hdd to up my power consumption higher. Then again;
2 - 8800 gtx
3 - HDD
1 - Dvd burner
1 - Dvd reader
1 - Fatality sc
4gig of 8500 ram + the ram cooler
a lighting kit and the water cooler and all the fans with that slow q6700 makes me think I got like 63 watts to spare :twisted:

[CRYTEX]

Ella, you'll be happy to know that your remaining 63 watts can power a MAC....... 8)

http://weblog.infoworld.com/enterprisemac/archives/2006/02/imac_keeps_its.html

[Ella Lythe]

God I hate macs

[theDreamer]

Awww, now do not say that, I am tempted to buy a Macbook for the sake of trying one. What did they ever do to you?

~Also, no I will never become one of those Mac Zealots who bow down to the Apple OS. I just want to buy one for the sake of learning the OS and having one. Now only if they would sell their OS in the public or for non-mac hardware I could do it easier.

Also, need to do Linux, anyone have much experience with it? Just got the new MaxPC and they have a guide to setup Linux easy, just wondering others thoughts.

[Ella Lythe]

want a mac? easy take your mouse and smash all the buttons but one. Stupid one button mouse. Stupid steve jobs. I hate white computers. Heck I hate the fact that Macites dont have the common sense to realize that any OS that needs an emulator to run windows sucks. Bah BAH

[CRYTEX]

Not all MACs stay white forever though......


http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/17875.jpg

[theDreamer]

You can pay to have a Mac painted, but it is very costly, such as the 2.0gHz Macbook from a company who paints them charges about 2k, and goes up from there.

Although, if you know good body shops I am sure you can get it painted for <500 dollars just be sure to either take out in insides or they cover up the laptop properly.

[RottynDawg]

Whoa...that sheds a new light on the term love sick.