GA-EP45-DS3R -- What's the maximum RAM I can use?

[email4eric]

I'm asking this because when I built this PC in 2008 using this motherboard, I am POSITIVE 8 gb of RAM was the maximum supported by the motherboard.  I filled it up at that time  with 4X2gb corsair XMS2 sticks and that's worked well with Vista 64 bit.  

Then I became ill and I didn't use the machine at all for 3 years.  

Now I'm back and trying to get the machine lean and mean for Photoshop CS6 and while I was updating the bios from F4 to F10, I see on the Gigabyte website that the board is rated for 16gb of RAM!  How did this happen or was I previously mistaken?  Was there a bios update that allowed for this increase in RAM?  Is there any chance the info is wrong and the board supports only 8gb total?

If indeed the board supports 16gb of RAM, are there any suggestions as to what RAM to use?  It would have to be 4x4gb ddr2 (I think).  

I'm not overclocking or gaming --just photoshop but with BIG files.  

This is a core2 quad Q9550 with Windows 7 64 bit.

Thanks up front for the help and information!

[absic]

Hi there,

as far as I know this board has always supported 16 Gig of RAM. There were several BIOS updates that addressed Memory compatibility with the last one released in September 2009 being a beta BIOS.

Each memory slot can hold DDR2 PC2-5300, DDR2 PC2-6400 or DDR2 PC2-8500 with a maximum of 4GB per slot but DDR2 modules are now becoming harder to find so the best advice I can offer is for you to see what you can get, then post back with the details before you actually buy.

[email4eric]

Thanks very much for the helpful information.  You're right -- I'm having difficulty even finding 4gb ddr2 mem sticks and when I do, they're quite pricey.  I looked on Gigabyte's site for compatability but did not see any 4gb sticks mentioned.  I'm not certain that I want to put $300 into upgrading memory and may punt on this unless I can find something more reasonably priced.

I didn't think I'd be considering having to upgrade the motherboard this soon!

Cheers