We have used Crucial RAM, Intel chips with Gigabyte boards as the preferred setup for years. 99% it has not been necessary to upgrade the BIOS, as the systems worked "out of the box" without issues.
you can't argue with luck!
All I am saying is that recently this has not been the case, I don't think the cpu matters whether its a i3 3220 or an i5 3570, not sure that this is relevant to the issues we have faced. The common denominator is that the Gigabute boards have not been as reliable out of the box as previously. What is more we have never had to return a Gigabyte board before either; there's always a first time!
you forget the 3220 is newer(released September) than the 3570 (released in June) . It will need a BIOS update for full support. Your motherboard was made when the i5 was released and if the board has sat on a shelf for long it will not have a new BIOS in it unless the store upgrades them. again, this is common with all systems. You'd think by now cpu makers could have a basic mode like they do with video cards, but apparently not enough people have complained for them to bother with it.
The spec for the latest incident if relevant was i3 3220 , 1 x 4gb Crucial ddr3 10600; F9 bios update was to upgrade the cpu microcode; and as I said the ram passed memtest 100%.
Have you got this latest one working? You tried loading system defaults?
as for reliability, they are hit and miss like most. The higher ends boards get all of the support then it trickles down to the lower end boards after thorough debugging. Biggest issues are always memory compatibility. I've learned to buy the non-heatspreader chips. They use a low-density chip that is more compatible. The chips are much more forgiving on the timing than the high speed chips.
You may be experincing issues with the cpu as well. The new ivy bridges have a new tri-gate technology and people report stability issues as well as, heat, especially in overclocking. Sandy bridge is may be the better way to go in some cases. Not sure if the new i3s got a refresh or addressed any of the issues.
I just bought an E3-1220l V2 (ivy bridge) and it seems fine so far. It's nice that my home server is now idling at 22.5 watts! too bad they don't have an i3 version. They are probably going to use it in the Atom series.
ps, you forgot to post that Crucial stick number.
