Asus a8n-sli deluxe memory efficiency

[nekronos]

Asus a8n-sli deluxe (nvidia nForce4 chipset)
amd athlon 64 3500+ (2.2Ghz)
Corsair XMS 1GB PC3200 dual channel ram
Windows XP SP3

Hello all,

I'm not sure if this should be motherboards or memory.. it relates to both but here goes:

I have recently purchased another 1 GB stick of corsair ram (albiet slower than the xms pair I have already) and it seems to have no performance boost or similar performance as I cannot get the ram to run at the proper speeds. Note that while trying to run the 2 pairs I have, CPU-Z showed them at 100mhz instead of 200mhz (this was from auto settings in the BIOS, tried setting to DDR333 and it wasn't stable) The second pair i purchased was the same dual channel 2x512mb (closest matched to what I had already i could find). I realize not having an exact match is unadvised but a cheaper alternative than casting aside the original pair I had. (makes me want to cry remembering i paid about $170 for that XMS pair back in 2005)

>>My question is can this motherboard run 4 GB of ram (all 4 slots loaded) efficiently at the stated performance of the ram? I have read several times that the nForce 4 chipset has difficulties or cannot run 4GB of ram with slots loaded at the advertised performance levels but at a reduced rate of DDR333 instead of DDR400. Any truth to that?


I'm considering between these 2 pairs of memory, they seem to be the fastest rated out of the 2 GB pairs:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231032

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231047

Bottom line is would I be safe in buying 2 pairs and running 4 GB at their stated performance with the memory controller loaded? Or would I be better off just sticking with one pair of 2 GB? I do not need 4 GB badly enough to run it at reduced speeds (in terms of my memory usage). If i cannot run both pairs at the stated rate I'd rather stick with one pair at 2 GB.

Thanks!

 

[swifty_morgan]

the problem might be with the timings.., ??? I run 4 1gig sticks of ocz platinum ( pc3200 ) in an old machine ( same board dif compon's ) with no problems. Matched ram. Perhaps xp is more finicky. I think the ram runs fine at "200" or did it actually say 400..... can't remember. even got it to over clock a little but doesn't really mean much in those machines..... but at the time stupid people slobbered over it. you could get 4sticks of corsair value select and get just as good results. ( pc3200 ). ( or 2 2gig sticks ) if they still make it. not sure anymore what the extra ram added if anything, but never had problems with what I ran.

 

[nekronos]

possibly, I wasn't quite sure as to what timings I could use while having both of those pairs running...seeing as how one was a good bit slower than the other (value versus the xms).

So on another note, if anyone has experience with this board and ram as to what timings I could use to properly run those 4 sticks at ddr400, that would also help.

The ram does run at 200 (in the bios) effectively at 400. I don't really care about overclocking, I just want it to run at the stated DDR400 and stable at that.

 

[swifty_morgan]

2.5/3/3/6........ 3/4/4/8....... ? check voltages when running 4 sticks

 

[nekronos]

well the xms is 2-2-2-5 (2.75 volts) and the other pair of corsair I bought is 2.5-3-3-8 (2.5 volts), both DDR400 1 GB dual channel.

I set the voltage to 2.8 when I tried running both at 200 mhz in the bios and it wasn't stable- ran for about 10min or so, tried a game and it crashed after 5min or so and would not even let me get into the BIOS after restarting multiple times, eventually giving me only a black screen.... I ran the timings at 2.5-3-3-7 I believe ( you can't set timings for separately for each pair)

I have my original xms pair running at ddr 400 @ 2-2-2-5 ; 2.75 volts currently. This runs stable and quite nicely, but the 1 GB is lacking with certain tasks.

these are the two pairs I own:

originally purchased when i built it: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145522

and this one purchased recently: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145440

I believe the voltage caps out at 2.9 or 3.0 on this mobo, should i go for 2.9 and try a slightly slower latency?

 

[swifty_morgan]

want to stop fighting with it ? get 4 1gig sticks of the same stuff. doesn't have to be something expensive with heat spreaders on them. the pc3200 line doesn't need to be over clocked because the over clock meant little. no need to stress it.

 

[nekronos]

lol well not so much fighting, I just wanted to see it run the way it should. It's a shame to let that good XMS pair go to waste

but I have just bought a new 2 GB pair. May try to run the two fast pairs together.