Blog Within a Blog: My New Computer 1.1

    After some more research today, I started leaning toward MSI’s red 875P Neo-FIS2R board. It is exhibiting the same erratic behavior with memory, but it appears (from the Anantech forums) that their customer support is a lot more responsive and timely in posting BIOS updates. MSI also had some nice tutorial pages on their website. It was there that I read this: “When using DDR400 memory modules, a maximum of 2 DIMMs are recommemded [sic]”. This really confuses me. I’m limited to two DIMMs? Then why are there four slots? And why do they say it can handle 4 GBs of RAM — off two chips?
    So now I’m looking at Intel’s own D875PBZ board. I’m assuming an Intel board would work better than most with an Intel chip. (But maybe that’s what they want me to think!) I haven’t seen any complaints about the board — but then again I haven’t seen much at all about it.
    I also read something on newsgroups to the effect that all these memory issues might stem from Intel’s original P4 recall a month back. Instead of fixing the problem, Intel reportedly just had motherboard manufacturers update their BIOS; and the success or lack thereof might explain why the 875P chipsets all seem to be exhibiting problems.