what ram for this setup

what ram speed woudl you recomed for this setup

it wont be overclocked at all
but i need it to but high on the rock solid scale

i am however ( as many of you are also im sure) broke as a joke

so no over kill please


setup as follows

Gigabyte GA-7N400-L, nForce2 Ultra400 chipset for Socket A ATX motherboard RETAIL
Specifications:
Supported CPU:AMD AthlonXP / Athlon / Duron processor
Chipset:nForce 2 Ultra400 + MCP
FSB:400/333/266/200
RAMDR*4 (dual channel) DDR400/333/266 Max 3GB
IDEual channel Ultra ATA 133/100/66 Max 4 Devices
Slots:1 x AGP pro slot (8x/4x-AGP 3.0 compliant), supports 1.5v display card only. 5 x PCI slots (PCI 2.2 compliant
Ports:2xPS2, 2xCOM,1xLPT,1xLAN, 4xUSB and Audio Ports
Onboard Audio:AC97 (ALC650) 6 Channel onboard Codec
Onboard LAN: Realtek 8100C 10/100 Ethernet


AMD ATHLON XP 2500 "Barton" 333 FSB PROCESSOR CPU- OEM
Specifications:
CPU: 1.83 GHz
Type: XP 2500 Barton Core
Cache: 512K L2, 128K L1, Total 640KB
BUS: 333MHz
Socket A
OEM (Processor Only)

im looking for in th 1024mb range

allthogh im probably going to go with 2 X 256's

Do you want 1GB or 512MB?

that shoulnt effect the speed should it

sorry i just reread the subject

im looking for what brand what speed

if money is an issue, i'd go with some generic non-ecc pc2100 DDR ram, maybe 2 256 sticks or 2 512 sticks. Prolly two 512's for me tho

see this has always been a area that i know very little about
( belive me this isnt the only area)

wont the pc2100 ram be a bottle neck ?

Yes it would be a bottleneck when you want to run at 333. since that's the stock speed of the CPU. I'd recommend some Samsung or Winbond PC2700. PC2700 is the right spec for a 333Mhz FSB.

If its not to much a hit on your budget grab some Buffalo pc3200 from Newegg.com

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?DEPA=1&submit=Go&description=buffalo,pc3200

gruvin2 said:

If its not to much a hit on your budget grab some Buffalo pc3200 from Newegg.com

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?DEPA=1&submit=Go&description=buffalo,pc3200

Click to expand...

why

i think im going to go with the 2700 and get a non generic brand
i really want this thing to be rock solid

now heres the next question

with the dual channel ram

are all 4 slots included in the dual channel

i heard you can only do 1-3 as dual channel and if you fill all 4 then you cant

anyone know if thats true?

Here is a time to sell my favorite memory brand

KingMax PC3500 is rather unknown stuff right now. Their SUPER-RAM PC3500 uses 4.6ns memory chips and is entirely built in-house. It's rated at CL2.5 when running at 217MHz. KingMax PC3200 will not run at CL2, but will run with tRCD/tRP set at 3 up to 226MHz with 5ns chips. This new PC3500 might be able to run at CL2, it's unknown

The best part of KingMax memory is it's low price at NewEgg. 512MB goes for $89. 256MB goes for $47.50.

With Intel boards, you can fill up all 4 slots and have duel-channel in operation. With AMD boards (Gigabyte's 4 DIMM boards) I'm not too sure. I know with 3 DIMM boards, you can have 1/3 operating in Duel-Channel mode while having slot 2 also filled (all 3 filled/2 in DC mode).

Well theoretically, having 4 electrically single sided modules should look the same to the memory controller as 2 electrically double sided modules, so there's probably some situations where 4 slots will work, the problems would likely come with trying to use 4 double sided modules. Or maybe even 2x 4 "sided" modules. I used to know which was which by size until they messed with my head and made 1 bank 2 bank and 4 bank modules in the same sizes

im pretty sure you can do all 4 slots in dual channel

im not going to worry about it.