MSI K8N Neo2 Platinium Questions

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Da_Lettuce_Pimp

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 6, 2001
Messages
319
Ok, Admititally I dont game that much any more and Im a little stale. But my computer has been flaking out like hardcore. So I decided that maybe I should upgrade. I just upgraded my video card about 6 months ago from a Geforce 2 GTS 32MB to a Radeon 9800 Pro This should tell you how little I game any more. But I do a lot of encoding. Any way looming around I was dismayed to fine that all the new boards dont have agp and are all pci express and really out of my price range beacuse I would need to buy a new vid card...

Heres what I got now:

ATi Radeon 9800 Pro
Athlon XP 2200+ @ 2 Ghz (266 FSB)
1 GB Crucial PC2700 (DDR333)
Soyo KT333 Dragon Ultra Platinium
4 250GB (1TB) (DATA) WD 7200RPM 8MB Cache PATA (Striped)
1 80 GIG (OS, Application Only) WD 7200RPM 8MB PATA
NEC 2500 @ 2510

Addin Cards:
Firewire, Extra Nic, Video Card (of course)


Deciding that the Athlon 64 was for me after a discussion with a few of my friends and trying one of theres out agains the equal intel.

So I wnt looking to see what was out there I discoverd along the line the MSI Neo 2 Platinium. I thought this was a great board cause it has AGP, 7.1 Audio, SATA, PATA, RAID, FIREWIRE, USB2.0. Everything I need So I was like sweet. But whats confusing me is the Dual Channel DDR thing. This board supports both which is good But I also know that on a 1000MHZ venice that my memory would be my bottle neck (right?) Im sure my memory will oc to 400 from 333 but you never know. I read some where I thought @ one point in time that the only difference between Dual DDR and Regular DDR was that the pairs were matched. (Maybe Im on drugs?)

What Im asking is a couple of things...What Might I expect with my memory, I know I can use it but how and what draw backs. If I need to buy new memory should I buy the Dual Channel Memory that runs PC4000 which would run the same speed as the bus or should I just get pc3200

Please help and dont flame too much.

Should I have bought something else maybe but I got the board brand new for 50.00 so I couldnt complain. Gotta love the clearance section @ frys electonics.
 
You have 2 x 512 meg 2700 mem right? If so, that will work with the 64 system. Since you dont game a lot, dont worry about it. The A64 mem controller will get everything possible out of the 2700, yes it will lower the perf out of ur new system, however Uping to a 64 from your xp 2200 will be a huge upgrade, so you will be very happy with the new system. Dual channel means that your running 2 mem sticks @ the same time. 2 512s, etc. Even if you dont have 2 sticks right now, you can run in single channel. There will be a little difference between running DDR 333 vs DDR 400, but I woudlnt worry about it right now. If after tyring the PC2700 mem your unhappy with it, you can alwasy buy a couple sticks of PC3200 mem they are cheap enough @ newegg. The NEO 2 is a good board. Prob one of the top AGP Nforce 3 board.

If you plan on overclocking your new A64, then you might want to get faster memory, but if your not overclocking, PC4000 mem isnt worth it for you.
 
yea currently i have two 512 sticks, So will these 2 512 sticks run in dual ddr mode or no...Was I right in my asumption that dual ddr is just matched pairs? Or is there really a difference. I looked online but nothing seems to be real cut and dry.
 
As long as they are the same and will run @ the same timings, you are fine. They sell now matched pairs which are verified to run in dual channel. Most single sticks when paired up will run in dual channel. Its usually just up to the mobo and mem controller if it likes the 2 sticks to run them in dual channel.
 
Only buy matched pairs.

You cannot buy two sticks of ram and expect them to work together.

Invest in some good memory that you know has some headroom otherwise it will guarantee to hold you back. If you don't overclock or plan to, then stick with your DDR333 non dual sticks.

I use Mushkin eXtreme Performance 1GB (2x512MB) XP3200 2-2-2-5 which is rated at 400Mhz and I'm running it at 3-4-4-8 @ over 500Mhz.

Venice 3000+ (312 x 9) =2808Mhz

http://www.mushkin.com/doc/products/memory_detail.asp?ID=15
 
my two sticks I have right now are the same chips the same manufacturer the same lot number and the same timing... I think i will be ok with these for right now...There crucial sticks with infenion chips...hopefully ill be ok
 
Da_Lettuce_Pimp said:
my two sticks I have right now are the same chips the same manufacturer the same lot number and the same timing... I think i will be ok with these for right now...There crucial sticks with infenion chips...hopefully ill be ok
Click to expand...

They should work fine but I'd be surprised if you get then to run as dual.
 
why.???

also I have two sticks of pc 3200 @ work that i can test with. They came out of a dual system which i discovered today...They are buffalo, with infenon chips @ 2.5
 
Da_Lettuce_Pimp said:
why.???

also I have two sticks of pc 3200 @ work that i can test with. They came out of a dual system which i discovered today...They are buffalo, with infenon chips @ 2.5
Click to expand...

When the mem modules are manufactured and sold as dual modules they have been tested and certified to run together. Not all identical modules will run as pairs with 100% stability. That's why they are sold a dual kit's (tested and certified).

If the system from work uses dual paired sticks then it should work O.K but if they are not certified dual then they probably won't or will be unstable.

It's a little like a cpu manufacturing process, some make it to 3.8GHz stable while others are flakey. The flakey ones get underclocked to 3.2GHz where they work reliably and still get sold. Memory is a little bit the same, not all sticks are perfectly matched.
 
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