Unusual setup with early-gen Intel board? RAM configuration details?
Unusual setup with early-gen Intel board? RAM configuration details?
So recently I purchased an Asus P7F7-E WS supercomputer motherboard because I’m into collecting unusual hardware from the past. What really caught my attention was that it’s a first-generation board supporting both core and Xeon CPUs along with ECC RAM on a consumer platform. The main reason for buying it, however, was the truly peculiar RAM configuration. This board features six RAM slots—this might not sound unusual, but it’s not an X58 design. These are LGA 1156 CPUs, which means they only have four RAM channels per dimmer. My question is how does this work? If these CPUs weren’t built to handle that many channels, how did Asus make it function? I’m pretty knowledgeable about computer hardware and have my own ideas. My hypothesis is that the blue slots act as you’d expect—two channels per dimmer for a dual-channel setup. For the black slots, they seem to be arranged in pairs, almost acting like a single dual-rank channel. This might not be exactly how it was originally intended, but it’s my best guess on how they could manage more channels in fewer slots. I’d love your thoughts on this, as it feels like a fascinating piece of history!
It appears the motherboard includes certain modifications that allow only 6 SS slots for specific processors from the Lynnfield line: Wikipedia confirms this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynnfield_...processor). The user’s guide details how to fill the RAM slots: https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LG...mputer.zip. Pages 2–11 and 2–12 provide further clarification. Essentially, avoid using A3 and B3 slots with SS configurations; typically these slots hold single-sided chips. The safest approach is to use 2 GB DDR3 modules, mostly 4 GB DDR3 sticks with only eight chips that are 8-bit wide—this ensures they’re SS. Other options aren’t guaranteed to meet the requirement. ECC modules usually include a ninth chip or an extra chip per eight for ECC support. Some sticks use 4-bit chips, while others combine multiple chips on both sides, though Intel tends to restrict this. AMD processors generally support a broader range of configurations, which is why you sometimes see listings marketed as “for AMD.”
The techniques involved are quite clever, but they rely on specific conditions unique to Lynnfield. Understanding these factors can help clarify why they function there.