Really quick question, HELP!

Hello all,

I recently purchased a new motherboard with the VIA KT333 chipset (Epox 8k3a).

Simple question, will my old PC100 ram work on this MB with this chipset?

I plan on moving to DDR of course, it's just that I'm waiting for the AMD Tbred and I prefer to purchase the memory at the same time as the new CPU as their prices drop everyday.

But can I test the board using PC100 ram with a Tbird 1Ghz?
Or does KT333 only support DDR Rams and does not have any backward compatibility.

Please help!

The kt333 boards only use ddr memory.

If you look at your current memory and the memory slot on the board you will see the alignment notch is different so it won't even fit in the slot.

PC100 and PC133 RAM uses a 168pin stick with two notches. PC1600, 2100, 2400, 2700, 3000 DDR RAM uses a 184pin arrangement with one notch. Thus the sticks will not physically fit.

Also, the voltage is different AFAIK. I think DDR RAM needs lower voltages.

I don't think the chipset supports SDRAM, AFAIK only KT133(A), KT266(A), SiS 730, 735, 740, AMD 760(MP) support Socket A CPus and SDR RAM.

You will need DDR RAM to use the board at all.

Ditto. You can find cheap DDR RAM from www.newegg.com - it's like $25 for 128 MB, and you can get 256 MB for $47 - about the same price as SDRAM.

www.googlegear.com has it cheaper. $31 for 256mb pc2100 and 128mb for $20 also pc2100. The 128mb has free fedex shipping

Great! Thanks for all your help!