ASUS P4S533 only supports 4 banks of PC2700 !?!

Audioaficionado · Jun 6, 2002

I just found out that it means total banks of memory irregardless if it's on four single sticks or one stick. Most Samsung 512 or 256 DDR333 I've been looking at have 4 banks per stick. So you can only use one. Any more won't be supported. Now that I've heard that, the P4T533 is looking much better to me.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Placid · Jun 6, 2002

This motherboard supports a maximum of 3GB of memory when using PC2100 or slower memory. When using PC2700 or faster the motherboard only supports two modules at that speed for a maximum of 2GB. If 3 PC2700 parts are installed, they operate at 266 MHz.

http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.asp?Mfr+Productline=ASUS+Motherboards&model=P4S533&submit=Go

Meko2 · Jun 6, 2002

It doesn't say anything about that here:

http://usa.asus.com/mb/socket478/p4s533/overview.htm

In fact is says this:

3 DIMMs up to 3GB of PC2700/PC2100/PC1600 DDR memory support

Nothing about only 2GB of PC2700 or only 2 slots of it

Placid · Jun 6, 2002

3 x DDR DIMM Sockets
Max. 3GB unbuffered PC2700 / PC2100 /PC1600 DDR DRAM
(PC 2700 Max. to 4 banks only)

http://usa.asus.com/mb/socket478/p4s533/specification.htm

4 banks=2 sticks.

I guess asus didn't want you to see that right away.

Meko2 · Jun 6, 2002

Damn...

That sucks!

Audioaficionado · Jun 6, 2002

At the Samsung site I saw many of their sticks with 4X128 or 8x64. Isn't that 4 banks of 128 or is a bank just one side of a double sided stick?

If I could put two 512 sticks in I'd be OK with that as long as they perform as good as the 256 sticks.

Any better o/c 133FSB DDR mobos out there with the same setting flexability of the ASUS?

Bells and whistles such as on board USB2, RAID, audio, etc. mean nothing if you can't put a few gigs of the latest and soon to be released fastest memory sticks.

OTOH the problem with the P4T533 is the availability of any RDR1066 sticks.

If it ain't one thing, it's the other.

Placid · Jun 6, 2002

A bank is one side of the memory slot. 4x128, 8x64 is just the chip configuration.

Audioaficionado · Jun 6, 2002

So the P4S533 has three mem slots with two banks per slot but you can only use two slots if you want PC2700.

It must be the limitation of the SiS NB chip. Has Intel overcome this problem with their latest PC2700+ DDR/SDRAM NB chip set?

Placid · Jun 6, 2002

Nope and it's probably why no intel chipset offically supports 2700 ddr.

Asus is at least being honest, most motherboard company's would just let you wonder why you can't get three sticks of memory to run at 167mhz.

SkyHook · Jun 6, 2002

Same with Abit SD7-533

The Abit SD7-533 which has the SIS645 northbridge is the same way 2GB maximum with PC2700 and 3GB maximum with PC1600 & PC2100.

The nice thing is Abit clearly explains this at the very beginning of the manual even to the point of making some of the words connected to these particular statements BOLD print.

Just passing along the view from another board.

SkyHook

Wolf266 · Jun 6, 2002

Ah now it makes some sense!

Thanks guys

Audioaficionado · Jun 6, 2002

Intel also has officially turned away form RAMBUS RDRAM. However SiS and RB are going to work together and come up with a chipset that will take advantage of RDRAM's higher bandwith capacity. SiS DDR chipsets seem to be faster than Intel's. Let's hope they can duplicate this success with RDRAM.

Thanx Placid for setting me straight on the P4S533 4 banks max mem issue.

therudyq3 · Jun 8, 2002

which memory to buy that has 2 banks

I originally was gonna get this board and a 1.8a to OC it to 2.4...with samsung pc2700..but someone here just said that the samsung has 4 banks on one stick..that limits it to 512MB...
Is there another brand that only takes up 2 banks per 512 MB?
Please advise.and where/how to specify it to get it...lol

Placid · Jun 8, 2002

The term bank when used to talk about how a memory stick is configured and a bank on how the chipset or memory sockets are configured are two different things.

Maybe if you read thru this entire thread in the link below you will understand,well maybe not but asus means use two memory slots max for electrically double sided memory not physical.

http://www.houseofhelp.com/v2/showthread.php?threadid=6253&highlight=memory+banks

dRagOOn101 · Jul 1, 2002

This may not interest anyone anymore..

but the Mushkin PC3000 512MB sticks are only 2 banks per stick as opposed to Samsung's PC2700 512MB stick which is 4 banks per stick. Thus, you can throw 2 of these sticks in the P4S533 no problem.. and they perform great.

Mr. Cornell · Jul 2, 2002

The Corsair XMS series memory modules are also all "dual-bank".

HeXaDeCiMaL · Jul 2, 2002

dRagOOn101 said:
This may not interest anyone anymore..

but the Mushkin PC3000 512MB sticks are only 2 banks per stick as opposed to Samsung's PC2700 512MB stick which is 4 banks per stick. Thus, you can throw 2 of these sticks in the P4S533 no problem.. and they perform great.

You can use 2 x sticks of Samsung, I have done this...

Each mem slot is 2 banks, therefore you can only use 2 SLOTS with PC2700, or all 3 with PC2100/1600, thats all it means...

dRagOOn101 · Jul 3, 2002

actually, the 4 bank maximum limitation is for the entire motherboard and it's not setup 2 per slot. as someone stated before, this is an internal limitation based on what the board eletronically "sees."

Samsung 512MB pc2700 sticks have 4 banks so u can only have 1 stick of this memory in the p4s533... therefore even in this instance, you are physically using 1 stick yet using all 4 banks, rendering the remaining slots useless/unusable in this configuration.

You might have used 2 x samsung 256MB pc2700 sticks.... those sticks are 2 banks each..

My only point is that for anyone who is looking to put 1GB on this board, mushkin, and corsair as someone pointed out, are viable options.

Sting · Jul 4, 2002

dRagOOn101 said:
actually, the 4 bank maximum limitation is for the entire motherboard and it's not setup 2 per slot. as someone stated before, this is an internal limitation based on what the board eletronically "sees."

Samsung 512MB pc2700 sticks have 4 banks so u can only have 1 stick of this memory in the p4s533... therefore even in this instance, you are physically using 1 stick yet using all 4 banks, rendering the remaining slots useless/unusable in this configuration.

You might have used 2 x samsung 256MB pc2700 sticks.... those sticks are 2 banks each..

dragoon,

Can you explain the difference of the internal bank composition and external bank composition on the Samsungs dimms indicated in it's tech doc?

http://samsungelectronics.com/semiconductors/dram/ddr_product_guide_apr02_rev0.pdf
(page 5 & 6)

How does this related to the motherboard manufacturer's use of the term "bank" supported?

I decided to wait for the Sis648(sr7-8x) based boards or until 1gb of rimms becomes more cost effective.

Sting

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