Memory for an A8V

[Confused]

I am going to build myself a PC for the first time, and plan on buying an Athlon 64 FX53 Socket 939 and an Asus A8V Deluxe WiFi-g. I am really confused with what RAM to purchase for this.

The motherboard requires Unbuffered, 184 pin, Dual-Channel DDR 400, and it has 4 slots with a max of 4 GB of RAM. The processor is listed as having an integrated DDR memory controller, but I'm not sure how that affects my RAM choices. On the AMD website it lists the Athlon 64 FX53 as requiring registered memory, but I think it might be referring to the socket 940, since it doesn't specify whether it's talking about 940 or 939.

I would like to purchase one or two, 1 GB sticks of RAM. First off, if RAM is listed as "1 GB (2x512)" does that mean it is two sticks of 512 MB and takes up two slots, or is it one double-sided stick? I've been told both those are true by different people. What if it is listed as "Dual Pack" or "Twin Pack" as well as "1GB (2x512)"? Does that mean two of the double-sided sticks come in the package, for a total of 2 GB? I often see pictures associated with the "1 GB (2x512)" RAM I'm looking at that shows two sticks in the package, and the ones listed as "Twin Pack" and "Dual Pack" are roughly the same price as the others. Is it normal for 2 sticks of RAM to come together?

I read on these forums about compatibility problems with RAM. Will all four RAM slots on the Asus motherboard need to be filled with RAM that has the same latency, PC-3200, etc? Can this only be achieved by buying multiple copies of the exact same brand and type?

Next, should I limit myself to PC-3200, since the motherboard specifies only DDR 400? I do not plan on trying to overclock this, since I wouldn't know what I'm doing and I want it to last a long time. Would PC-4000 or higher be good or bad? A lot of the 1 GB sticks of RAM I see are 450, 500, 533, or 550 MHz, so would it be a bad idea to get one of those?

Finally, any specific suggestions on what to get? I found some really cheap RAM at Komusa.com, 1 GB (2x512) PC-3200 400 MHz Dual Channel DDR Infineon Technology / Micron, for $177. (Once again it shows two sticks in the picture, but at that price it must be just one gig, right?) I've never used Komusa or Infineon Technology / Micron before, so don't know if they are any good.

 

[Guest]

Heres an article that should help you some
<A HREF="http://www.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20040602/memory_modules-09.html" target="_new">http://www.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20040602/memory_modules-09.html</A>
THat page is specific to the Asus K8V but I suggest you red thru the entire article.

Like you say Ram listed at 1gb(2X512) will contain 2 sticks that are matched and tested to work well together.
The athlonFX support Dual channel so its a good idea to get one of these 2X512 or even 2X1gig if your shooting for 2 gigs and might want to upgrade later(altough 2gig should eb plenty for a while). My advice is to get one of these TwinPack/dualpack so your sure both sticks will run smooth in dual channel.
As for compatibility and/or poulating the 4 dimms, refer to the article I sent you.

Next I suggest getting some PC3500, it will give you a little headroom for some minor OCing while probly running more stable at 3200 speed. Antyhing over that is overkill since you dont plan on overclockign that that memory is specificly made for OCing.

FInnaly I suggets you stick with majorbrand like Ocz, kingston,corsair,etc you can alaso refer to the article to pick the right one.


Asus P4P800DX, P4C 2.6ghz@3.25ghz, 2X512 OCZ PC4000 3-3-3-8, Leadtek FX5900 w/ FX5950U bios@500/1000, 2X30gig Raid0

 

[Confused]

Thanks for the response!

Yea, I read through that article. It's for the socket 754 motherboards, like the K8V, not the 939 boards like the A8V I'm getting. Does that make much of a difference?

So a 1GB (2x512) will contain two 512MB sticks? I'm probably going for 1 GB in each of the four slots eventually, so 512s would be a waste. Do you know of any good paired 2x1GB sets out there? I think in all my looking I've only ever come up with one, and it was $688.

Thanks for the tip on PC-3500. I wasn't sure if getting something faster than 3200 would hurt the performance by not matching up right.