DAY Four Main Components:
Motherboard: GA770TA-UD3 - F3 BIOS
CPU: AMD Phenom ii X6 1090T
RAM: Corsair Dominator CMD4GX3M2B1600C8 (2 Kits giving 8 Gig of RAM in total)
PSU: Corsair 620W Modular
Graphics Card: ATI Radeon 4850
Changes made to M.I.T. BIOS Settings:
Set Memory clock: Manual
Memory Clock x8.00
System Voltage Control: Manual
DRAM Voltage Control: 1.640V (Note: This shows in red as an overvoltage warning)
DRAM Configuration is left in AUTO and returns the following SPD figures: 11,11,11,29 according to Corsair these should be 8,8,8,24.
As with the previous tests I initially ran it in Unganged Mode for 4 hours with no errors.
Image Links:
http://img413.imageshack.us/i/img0269dz.jpg/http://img704.imageshack.us/i/img0270y.jpg/I then re-set the AMD SATA Channel to RAID Mode and re-ran the test for over 2 hours which again resulted in no errors.
I then tried to run the test with the Memory in Ganged Mode. This caused the system to fail and return an Overclock warning. The BIOS was re-set to Optimised Defaults which resulted in the RAM being pulled back to 1333 Mhz with timings of 9-9-9-24. I ran the system at these settings for over 2 hours with Memtest without a problem.
Image Links:
http://img295.imageshack.us/i/img0271p.jpg/http://img688.imageshack.us/i/img0283xo.jpg/THOUGHTS:With regard to the Northbridge heat issues experienced originally by IceColdBeer, I have to say that I didn't notice them. The Northbridge appeared to be running at about 40°C as he originally stated and I was able to keep my finger on the heatsink without a problem for several minutes. This was after running Memtest for over 8 hours in total. However, I should also state that the tests were conducted on a bench, not inside a PC Chassis and the ambient temerature was about 22°C. I know that IceColdBeer was facing much higher ambient temperatures. Also I did not have access to the same memory that IceCold Beer was trying to use and this could have a bearing on the lower temperatures that I noted but as the memory I was using was 1600 Mhz at 1.64V I would be surprised if this was the case.
Another difference is the CPU and again, I have not been able to test with the Athlon X2 that IceColdBeer had in his set-up. I don't believe this would have caused the Northbridge to run hot, in fact, I would have thought that the 965BE (C2) 140W CPU would have caused more of a problem.
These results seem to show that there is no problem with either the GA-770TA-UD3 or GA-790TXA-UD4 running 8 Gig of RAM at 1600 Mhz with the Phenom ii X4 965BE or the Phenom ii X6 1090T CPU's but you must make sure that the DCTs Mode is set to Unganged. This is not a problem with the motherboards but is due to the AM3 Memory Controller. If you want to run 8 Gig of RAM in Ganged Mode then by default you will be limited to 1333 Mhz. AMD deliberatly chose this path and the main reason is to give greater compatability with the Memory Manufacturers and to try and ensure platform stability.
If you have any questions, would like something made clearer or have any comments regarding these tests, please feel free to post them.
