Seeking mainboard recommendations (RE: Only half of RAM ...)

[richard.pieri-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org (Richard Pieri)]

On Nov 21, 2010, at 10:09 PM, Rich Braun wrote:
> 
> The first batch of RAM was OCZ brand, the second was Corsair.  They're both
> labeled DDR3 1333 but the OCZ reports 666 MHz and the other reports 533 MHz as
> seen in the BIOS screens.

Those numbers are the maximums that the vendors have tested and approved the modules.  The main board may automatically underclock the OCZ RAM to match the Corsair.  If not then you should do so manually.

> (BIOS recognizes all 16 gigabytes of RAM, no
> problem, it's just not getting conveyed to the Linux kernel at boot time.)  

I still think that this indicates a 32-bit kernel without Physical Address Extensions (PAE) enabled.  What does MEMTEST+ report?

--Rich P.