Motherboard design

I have a Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6 mobo and i wonder why motherboard
manufacturers of a lot of brands have the slots for the memory modules close
together where slots 1&2 and 3&4 are concerned.
I have memory modules which have heat sinks mounted and it is impossible to
get 2 modules fitted side by side, eg slots 1&2 as the width of the
heatsinks won't allow.
Have any other system builders out there come across this too??

That's because for Dual Channel operation you are supposed to use the same
color slots...which are not
close together...

pk

"timelord" wrote in message
...
I have a Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6 mobo and i wonder why motherboard
manufacturers of a lot of brands have the slots for the memory modules
close together where slots 1&2 and 3&4 are concerned.
I have memory modules which have heat sinks mounted and it is impossible
to get 2 modules fitted side by side, eg slots 1&2 as the width of the
heatsinks won't allow.
Have any other system builders out there come across this too??

"timelord" wrote in message
...
I have a Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6 mobo and i wonder why motherboard
manufacturers of a lot of brands have the slots for the memory modules
close together where slots 1&2 and 3&4 are concerned.
I have memory modules which have heat sinks mounted and it is impossible
to get 2 modules fitted side by side, eg slots 1&2 as the width of the
heatsinks won't allow.
Have any other system builders out there come across this too??

timelord,

don't mean to be critical but did you select suitable memory? My Crucial
memory with heat sinks on both sides fits just fine on my GA EP-DS3P
motherboard even in adjacent slots. Of course if running in dual channel
you should not be fitting memory in adjacent slots.

regards,

Beemer

OK, i understand what you mean about Dual Channel slots but what if you want
to add more memory to the additional slots remaining as in my case. On my
mobo as i suppose many others too, slots 1&3 or 2&4 are used in order to get
Dual Channel. I have filled the other 2 slots with identical memory and now
have 8gig in total, 4 x 2gig modules and it still works as Dual Channel.

"peter" wrote in message
...
That's because for Dual Channel operation you are supposed to use the same
color slots...which are not
close together...

pk

"timelord" wrote in message
...
I have a Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6 mobo and i wonder why motherboard
manufacturers of a lot of brands have the slots for the memory modules
close together where slots 1&2 and 3&4 are concerned.
I have memory modules which have heat sinks mounted and it is impossible
to get 2 modules fitted side by side, eg slots 1&2 as the width of the
heatsinks won't allow.
Have any other system builders out there come across this too??

timelord wrote:
I have a Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6 mobo and i wonder why motherboard
manufacturers of a lot of brands have the slots for the memory
modules close together where slots 1&2 and 3&4 are concerned.
I have memory modules which have heat sinks mounted and it is
impossible to get 2 modules fitted side by side, eg slots 1&2 as the
width of the heatsinks won't allow.
Have any other system builders out there come across this too??

You're blaming the wrong party here. All motherboards I've seen have
always had the memory sockets very close together. For two reasons:
first, there's limited room on a motherboard and second and most
important, the signal path between the memory modules and the memory
controller (usually the North Bridge chip) must be as short as possible
for good signal integrity.

A memory module manufacturer knows full well what the size requirements
are for the motherboard, so they shouldn't have put such large, or thick
heatsinks on the modules you have. I've used many memory modules with
heatsinks on them with different MBs and never had a problem, so your
beef is with the memory manufacturer, not the MB manufacturer.

I have memory modules which have heat sinks mounted and it is impossible
to get 2 modules fitted side by side

That is because you are not using the memory that is designed for the board.
That would be a tad ridiculous if a MB manufacture built a MB with four
slots but only two could be used.

I could ask the same question about the CPU fan, I want to put this big
whopping fan on my CPU but the mounting is not correct and the fan would
stick out of the case, and I would not be able to use any PCI slots.

So, did the case, and the motherboard manufacturers mess up?

--g

I have a system with all 4 slots filled with Patriot memory which have heat
spreader on them and they fit ..tight but fit.
fine on my older Gigabyte board...
What memory are you using that the spreaders are so large???
peter

"timelord" wrote in message
...
OK, i understand what you mean about Dual Channel slots but what if you
want to add more memory to the additional slots remaining as in my case.
On my mobo as i suppose many others too, slots 1&3 or 2&4 are used in
order to get Dual Channel. I have filled the other 2 slots with identical
memory and now have 8gig in total, 4 x 2gig modules and it still works as
Dual Channel.

"peter" wrote in message
...
That's because for Dual Channel operation you are supposed to use the
same color slots...which are not
close together...

pk

"timelord" wrote in message
...
I have a Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6 mobo and i wonder why motherboard
manufacturers of a lot of brands have the slots for the memory modules
close together where slots 1&2 and 3&4 are concerned.
I have memory modules which have heat sinks mounted and it is impossible
to get 2 modules fitted side by side, eg slots 1&2 as the width of the
heatsinks won't allow.
Have any other system builders out there come across this too??

Peter, i am using OCZ Reaper X PC3 10666 DDR3 1333mhz.
Here is a link to the place i bought it and it's the one at the bottom of
the list shown.

http://www.ebuyer.com/search?store=2&cat=3&subcat=2207

BTW, it is not the heat pipes that prevent them from fitting.

"peter" wrote in message
...
I have a system with all 4 slots filled with Patriot memory which have heat
spreader on them and they fit ..tight but fit.
fine on my older Gigabyte board...
What memory are you using that the spreaders are so large???
peter

"timelord" wrote in message
...
OK, i understand what you mean about Dual Channel slots but what if you
want to add more memory to the additional slots remaining as in my case.
On my mobo as i suppose many others too, slots 1&3 or 2&4 are used in
order to get Dual Channel. I have filled the other 2 slots with identical
memory and now have 8gig in total, 4 x 2gig modules and it still works as
Dual Channel.

"peter" wrote in message
...
That's because for Dual Channel operation you are supposed to use the
same color slots...which are not
close together...

pk

"timelord" wrote in message
...
I have a Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6 mobo and i wonder why motherboard
manufacturers of a lot of brands have the slots for the memory modules
close together where slots 1&2 and 3&4 are concerned.
I have memory modules which have heat sinks mounted and it is
impossible to get 2 modules fitted side by side, eg slots 1&2 as the
width of the heatsinks won't allow.
Have any other system builders out there come across this too??

timelord wrote:
Peter, i am using OCZ Reaper X PC3 10666 DDR3 1333mhz.
Here is a link to the place i bought it and it's the one at the bottom
of the list shown.

http://www.ebuyer.com/search?store=2&cat=3&subcat=2207

BTW, it is not the heat pipes that prevent them from fitting.


http://www.ocztechnology.com/product...nced_bandwidth

"Important Note: Due to the size and orientation of the heatsink, Reaper X
memory cannot be installed on motherboards that require the modules to be
inserted in sockets side by side."

But that note is not saying whether the flat area of the
module is too fat, or whether they're referring to the
fin array at the top. Some of their other modules, which
have only a single fin array, don't have that warning
on the OCZ site.

Paul

Hi Paul, well i guess that clears that up then. I never thought about
looking on the manufacturers website.

I have taken a risk in fitting the modules side by side by removing half a
heatsink from 2 modules so i can get them to fit. As the heatsink pipes from
adjacent modules make contact with each other i will see how things go.
I have a good case with plenty of cooling and circulation and have had not
had any problems even under hard gaming.

Thanks for the link Paul.

"Paul" wrote in message ...
timelord wrote:
Peter, i am using OCZ Reaper X PC3 10666 DDR3 1333mhz.
Here is a link to the place i bought it and it's the one at the bottom of
the list shown.

http://www.ebuyer.com/search?store=2&cat=3&subcat=2207

BTW, it is not the heat pipes that prevent them from fitting.


http://www.ocztechnology.com/product...nced_bandwidth

"Important Note: Due to the size and orientation of the heatsink, Reaper
X
memory cannot be installed on motherboards that require the modules to
be
inserted in sockets side by side."

But that note is not saying whether the flat area of the
module is too fat, or whether they're referring to the
fin array at the top. Some of their other modules, which
have only a single fin array, don't have that warning
on the OCZ site.

Paul