A7N8X and Ram

[SedB]

I recently installed 1 stick of Kingston pc2700 DDR($65 at newegg.com). Now I was thinking of getting another stick to take advantage of the dual channel motherboard, but I've read from various sources that they do not work very well in dual slots. I'm wondering how much of an increase in performance there would be going from this single stick to say, two sticks of Kingston Hyper X 256mb pc2700 DDR cas 2(just because it's cheap $46 each).
Or if anyone has experience with just two sticks of this 512mb pc2700 I'd like to hear about it.

Would like to keep the cost down and just get the most effective memory I can get for the price.

Has anyone else heard rumors that double sided single sticks put in the 3rd slot enable dual channel? I've only read this a handful of times and people seem to argue over if this works.<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by sedb on 04/08/03 01:14 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[steve_eng]

I have had my new pc for about 1 & 1/2 weeks now. I have got 2 sticks of kingston 512mb 2700 DDR cas 2.5. I have had nothing but problems. I am pretty sure i have isolated the problem as being the memory. I to have an Asus A7N8X and have the memory installed on dual channel. My system is stable with the memory frequency at 80% and some of the timings have been changed. This may just be due to a bad batch of ram as when i take out one stick it makes no difference. I have decided to send back this ram and have ordered corsairs matching sets of ram 2x256mb of pc3200 as these have been tested together in the Asus A7N8X so i hope and should not have any problems. This ram is more expensive but corsair are very reliable so i have heard. Having said that i may encounter problems. The corsair ram is due to be delivered tomorrow so i will let you know the outcome. On my experience i would say that the kingston ram that you and i have does not work very well in dual slots. I have heard that Geil ram is also reliable and the matched pairs are a lot cheaper than corsairs version.

I hope this is of some help to you and i will inform you of the results when my new memory is installed!

 

[Red3]

Dual Channel is enabled when the system accesses two banks of RAM on different memory controllers. Since slot 3 is on one memory controller and slots 1&2 on the other, it is impossible for Dual Channel to work unless you occupy two of the three slots.
The motherboard accesses these two sticks of RAM as though they were one RAM stick, and so it is highly recommended that the RAM sticks are brand identical, even down to the manufacturer's batch number.
However, some people have had varying degrees of success with mismatched pairs.

Red-3 Standing by...

 

[Red3]

When at 100% does your RAM run at 333Mhz?
I am hearing rumours that there is a bug which needs to be fixed on the A7N8X where some PC2700 RAM must be clocked down to PC2100 (266MHz) to work without errors. I would like to find out if there is any truth to this. Perhaps there is a BIOS update in the works which will solve all our problems?

Red-3 Standing by...

 

[pIII_Man]

You should rma your ram if it doesn't run at wha is adavertised it is covered by kingstons lifetime gaurantee. But before that why don't you update your bios as previously stated.

 

[steve_eng]

How are you able to tell if the ram is running at 333Mhz? Is it shown when the computer is powered up as at 75% memory frequency is says memory frequency is at 133Mhz, i guess this is different. I have the most up to date version of the bios and have had no joy with this ram. Your point might well be true as my memory does not work at optimal settings. I will be changing my ram anyway as i am fed up with the problems. I will let you know how the new ram goes, it should arrive tomorrow!

 

[steve_eng]

Sorry, i must correct. I was being stupid! Yes my memory does run at 333Mhz when at 100% but when i try to run 3Dmark programs or games it may restart of exit the program, sometimes the computer does not boot to windows, this is why i am forking out the cash for corsairs twinx ram, hopefully this will be the end to my memory problems!

 

[Red3]

The problem is that it will run OK as single channel but not in Dual Channel. My processor is 133MHz FSB so at the moment I'm not exercising my right of warranty since it performs better in synch with aggressive timings at 133MHz in the Dual Channel config.

Red-3 Standing by...