Attn Geeks: Help me buy some memmory

[Tsarevna]

Hope nobody is offended by the title, but "People wise in the ways of computers" didn't fit, so i summarized!

My memmory is old, it's basically from the time when DDR was a new technology.
(It's two sticks of DDR 266, a 128 and a 512.) ><
What I want to do is upgrade, by buying 2 sticks of 1gig of ram.
However, I am not sure which kind is the fastest that my motherboard can handle.

My motherboard is an Nforce 2, an NF7 v2.0. Made by Abit. I know it has the capacity to run the memmory in dual channel, so that's another thing I want to enable.

http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/...ries=1&model=8

The web site says it supports two DDR 400 modules, but, I want to make sure there's no catch or something I'm not realizing about it before I buy.
(There is a 3rd slot for memmory, but I think i'll just leave that slot empty.)

I think I can install the memmory myself, I already installed the CPU (I upgraded my old T-bird 1.3gHz to an Athlon XP 2500+ 1.83gHz), is memmory much more difficult to install?

Any recommendations or suggestions on what memmory to buy?

[AA0]

Heres a question... the CPU you bought supports 400 fsb? I know some CPU's in that range just go upto 333. I generally buy only decent ram, crucial.com often has good pricing, reliable and free shipping much of the time. As for installing? Its way easier than a CPU, just plug it in.

Good call not overloading yourself with 3 pieces of RAM. The 3rd slot is there on motherboards but tends to be by far the least stable.

Also, the board does not have an official word of it supporting 1 gig sticks. There are 512 sticks, but not 1 gig listed. It may be out of date and fully able to, I'd look into that more.

It'll all probably work, especially if you have an up to date bios, but you never know.

[Ulkesh]

btw, dual channel wont work unless there are even number of sticks installed. so if you did install all 3 you wouldnt have dual channel.

chances are if the mobo support pc400 then you can install 2 pc400's no matter what the cpu fsb is. if its running at 333mhz the memory will just be underclocked causing no performance decrease or harm to the memory. i buy over the clockspeed of motherboards all the time, usually because slightly higher speed memory will actually be a few bucks cheaper.

crucial is a good place to get them, you can even enter your mobo's model number to get a guarenteed match. otherwise i like kingston because of their no hassle lifetime warranty, price and overall reliability ive had with them.

[Dravatar]

For windows-based operating systems, I've had the best luck with Kingston memory. Also, as you are doing, I've had the best luck replacing *all* mobo memory at once, not piecemealing the sticks seperately.

As AA0 suggests, an up-to-date BIOS will help take advantage of the latest memory technology within the mobo's limits. You shoud be able to read a FAQ or release note on the latest flash update telling you what memory is now supported, then from there make your best choices.

[Seenu]

btw, dual channel wont work unless there are even number of sticks installed. so if you did install all 3 you wouldnt have dual channel.

chances are if the mobo support pc400 then you can install 2 pc400's no matter what the cpu fsb is. if its running at 333mhz the memory will just be underclocked causing no performance decrease or harm to the memory. i buy over the clockspeed of motherboards all the time, usually because slightly higher speed memory will actually be a few bucks cheaper.

crucial is a good place to get them, you can even enter your mobo's model number to get a guarenteed match. otherwise i like kingston because of their no hassle lifetime warranty, price and overall reliability ive had with them.

That is not true,

If you have a matching pair in the first pair of dual channel slots and a single stick in the third slot dual channel will work. I have it set that way and it says "Dual Chanel Enabled" , my mainboard manual lists that configuration as workable for dual channel. So 3 sticks can work in some cases.

[tramsan]

Well, yes and no. It will use dual channel for the matched pair in the dual channel sockets, but once it goes to the third stick it will use single channel techniques with all the costs that incurrs. This will lessen the whole benefit with dual over single channel a whole lot, since it's the actual channel switching process that dual channel bypasses.

In other words; Even though you *can* mix dual and single channel, you probably shouldn't.

[Tsarevna]

Ok, I'm pretty sure that Windows just doesn't realize i have a 3200+. I re-installed Windows XP Home in June, so maybe it just got confused.

Back when I installed the CPU, I wrote down the stickers and letters and info on top of the CPU itself, and it read "AXDA3200DKV4EZ642150H46554AQ*CA0532UPZQ". Now, I'm hoping that the "3200" in there means its a 3200+.

Is there a way I could get Windows to correctly recognize which CPU I have?

Also, will this memmory work with my NF7 motherboard? It's a great deal.
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...0097-40&ps=ho1

Those compatibility charts are frustrating, because the NF7-S v.2.0 is always listed, but mine is just a plain old NF7 v2.0, no "S" there. (Right on the motherboard itself it just says NF7 2.0.)

[Tsarevna]

Heres a question... the CPU you bought supports 400 fsb?

Also, the board does not have an official word of it supporting 1 gig sticks. There are 512 sticks, but not 1 gig listed. It may be out of date and fully able to, I'd look into that more.

/has a minor heart attack. Ughf why would motherboards even be made that can't support a Gig of ram? I really hope it does support that now.
I was supposed to get a "deluxe" version of the NF7, but my idiot ex-boyfriend bought the wrong one off the internet. He only figured it out once he tried to set up a RAID and realized, "oh, I bought the wrong one, this version doesn't support RAID! Gee, my bad". (He's supposed to be a computer wiz.)

Oh dear...is there a possibility that my computer is wrong about what CPU is installed? Because when I right click on my computer and the window pops up, it says "Athlon XP 2500+". Well, I bought and paid for an Athlon XP 3200+ from NewEgg.com. Did I get the wrong dang CPU and just not notice it? It shows on the packing slip its a 3200+. I bought this thing in March and now it doesn't look like they even carry them anymore at newegg.

Ughf!

How can I tell what FSB it is capable of? I think I bought a Barton Core which is supposed to be capable of 400 FSB. Can't really remember now.