Upgrade and Dual-Channel DDR question

.) Can I use my current DDR 400 in a Dual-Channel situation, or do I need special Dual-Channel ram

yes all Ram can be use in dual channel mode as long that it support by the chipset in case of 800 FSB mothersboards so a I865 or 875 boards they support DDR 400 DDR 333 DDR 266.All module must be at the same speed and same size.I suggest same brand also.


.) Any suggestions of good boards that support: AGP 8x, Dual-Channel DDR (400 or faster?), and hopefully SATA raid?

Abit or ASUS on a I875 or I865 i dont know the name of abit boards but on asus is P4C800 I875 and P4P800 for I865.All boards now support AGP8X some flaw were in older boards SIS and others but now everything work fine.SATA send 150 MB/SEC so it need a native connection to the southbridge that it given by I875/I865 deluxe boards feature a native raid inside the chipset not a intergrade chip.I dont know if the performe well but at lease that will be less trouble on the driver point.

4 If you have a sata HDD ATA 133 is not SATA and a good graphic card and a P4 higher that 2.0 GHZ just buy a canterwood boards that accept any P4 up to around 4GHZ ((they all do it)) any others perephical will be working fine.In case you got a older cpu 400FSB type or 533FSB i suggest you keep it until P4 3.4 and higher are release so you can upgrade CPU in 1 year at a mere 200 buck and triple your CPU performace and your dual channel DDR 400 that were slepping will be active in the same time that you put a 800 FSB type.In case you got someting older you will have to buy a new computer

[-peep-] french

heya ProgramMax;

1) you have to use memory in pairs to achieve dual channel mode, so you will need 2x512MB or 2x256MB modules, also there is no such thing as "special dual channel DDR" there are matched pairs that are certified by the manufacture to work well together, there is nothing else special about them.

2) there are several chipsets out that will serve your needs, the i865, i875, i7205, Nforce400 ultra, just to name a few, and all of these natively support 8xAGP, in most brands the deluxe board comes with your SATA and Firewire, GLAN, etc etc.

3)If it were me i would wait untill December, that way the new stuff will have been out for a few months and you will have more options, and if you can hold out i would wait untill the end of january when the prices come down to build your new system, but for now i would go ahead and buy a cheap replacement board for the one you have since its hosed. i suggest a A-open board as they are cheap and reliable.

XeeN

The board I have works...just is very disappointing. A lot of the speed increases I was hoping for aren't there.

If Dual-Channel DDR uses 2 sticks, what happens on boards with 3 slots? That much confuses me a bit.

Thanks!

No, they are both definatly SATA drives. Just the raid controller I have is underclocking one of them to 133 and underclocking the other to only 33. That makes a total of 166MHz on a RAID1 instead of the 300MHz I was expecting. Heck...even old ATA100 drives would go faster...so my crummy mobo actually gave me a net loss in RAID speed.