RAM with Athlon64 3700+ FSB 2000

gospelmidi

Distinguished
Dec 24, 2009
16
0
18,520
ASUS A8AE-LE / Compaq ABAE-LE
(not listed at Crucial.com or Corsair.com)

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?dlc=en&lc=en&product=1822601&cc=us&docname=c00496280#N1301

"Dual-channel, 4 x 184-pin DDR DIMM sockets support unbuffered non-ECC 4 GB 400/300 MHZ DDR memory modules"
(But I think it will support ECC registered modules anyway.)

CODEGEN 400w for onboard video, no PCI cards, one HDD, and one DVD-RW.

I may O'c this out-of-warranty CPU to 2.5GHz and add an ATI HD 4xx0 PCI-e card... someday.

But right now I just need RAM. Does "dual channel architecture" mean that I must buy DDR modules in pairs or one dual-sided module?

Crucial.com says, "Although the memory can be installed one module at a time, the best performance comes from using matched pairs of modules."

If I buy cheap CL3 PC3200 DDR, I should be able to tweak the CPU beyond 200 while keeping the RAM at 200, yes?

Any other suggestions about buying RAM for an ASUS A8AE-LE / Compaq ABAE-LE?