Question about Abit NF7-S

skiddy

2[H]4U
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May 31, 2003
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Hi guys. I'm looking into getting an Abit NF7, but I noticed on the Newegg description it said you can use 3x DIMMS for DDR333/266 but only 2x DIMMS for DDR400. Is there any reason behind this or has anyone gotten it to work with 3x DDR400 sticks?

I'm asking this because on my current 8RDA+ I'm running 2x256mb and 1x512mb sticks in dual channel and its working great. So I just want to be able to switch out my RAM without buying anything else. Sorry if this has already been asked before but search is still unavailable. Thanks.
 
It appears that this is a CPU limitation not one from the motherboard manufacturers.


~Novensu
 
From the Abit website...

Memory
- Three 184-pin DIMM sockets
- Supports 3 DIMM DDR 200/266/333 (Max. 3GB)
- Supports 2 DIMM DDR 400 (Max. 2GB)

I think you can still use three sticks of DDR 400 on the board, but it will only run at 333.
 
That's an official (read: conservative), innacurate, and outdated specification. You can run 3 DIMMs at 200 FSB (DDR400, PC3200) and higher, you just lose some stability, based on what your entire setup is. I just installed a 512MB DIMM of OCZ PC3200EL along with my old 2x256 PC3200EL DC modules, and all three are running dual channel at (currently) 203 FSB (1:1 ratio with CPU). I lost some stability at 216 FSB, so I haven't been able to redo my OC yet. So, it's possible to run 3 dimms of DDR at a 1:1 (100%) ratio, synchornous with the CPU at DDR400.

So you can do it. No problem. Lots of people do, guys over at nForcersHQ have been updating a lot lately, similar questions.
 
Awesome Iceman, thanks for the info it was just what I was looking to hear. I'll probably be picking one of these guys up on payday.

Thanks for the replies everyone.
 
My 3 slots ...2x 256 1x 512... are runnning 230Mhz at 11,3,2,2 cpuint enb. Gues it is the "estimate" not limit.
 
I have 3 512MB PC3200 Samsung chips in my NF7-S running at 200FSB. (DDR400) No stability problems once so ever and my xp 2500+ is running at 2.2GHZ.
 
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