A8NSLI Premium & Mushkin questions

[Pegi]

Recently got an AMD 64 4800+ dual core with the A8NSLI Premium motherboard and 2 GB memory. It came with all four slots (4x512) filled of Mushkin PC3200 DDR400 Blue Series CL2 low latency enhanced memory with heat spreader. I note on boot up that it's running at 333 and have since found out that when all banks are filled it defaults to that slower speed. I do have the opportunity to swap out these four sticks with two Mushkin PC3200 DDR400 CL2.5 low latency enhanced memory with heat spreader (2x1024), and these should run at 400. Questions:

1. I'm not familiar with Mushkin. Is there a discernible difference between the Blue Series CL2 and the CL2.5?

2. In that same vein...is there a discernible difference between 2GB running at 333 and 2GB running at 400? Should I go ahead and do the swap?

3. The memory banks are really close to the video cards (2 7800GTX in SLI mode). Has anyone successfully swapped out memory without having to remove the video cards?

 

[JJU357]

1) There will be a difference in 2 sticks vs 4 sticks. The 2 sticks should run @ DDR400 vs DDR333 and possibly @ 1T command rate instead of a 2T command rate, both of which will give you a better configuration.

2) I didn't have to remove the video cards on my unit to swap the memory, my XP-120 though is a different story. Didn't have to remove it, but it was a PITA.

 

[Pegi]

Thanks for the info. Not at all up on memory techs. I figured two 1GB sticks would be better but then got all hung up on wondering whether a Blue Label CL2--even at four sticks--might have been a "better" stick than a 2.5 non-Blue Label 1G stick. But running at 400 as opposed to my current 333 should be a discernible difference so will go ahead with the changeout.