Dual Channel Question for ASUS A7N8X Deluxe 2.0 Mobo

[Kawzman]

I am upgrading my ram for my 2003 build (see specs below) with cpu to follow. I came across a thread about dual channel for this mobo HERE. I was thinking of getting OCZ Platinum 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit HERE for the ram upgrade. For cpu, i've narrowed down to get and oc either the AMD Mobile Athlon XP-M 2600+ for $179 or Athlon XP 3000+ for $149.

I've got the dual channel concept down, though i'm still not completely clear whether seating one of my 512MB DDR Corsair XMS PC3200 sticks in the third slot will help or hinder the performance of my ram. Any thoughts?

Cheers,

Kawzman

 

[rabiddawgs]

if you put that 512 stick in you will lose your dual channel.

great board by the way. i had 2 of them. sold both on fleabay for more than what i paid for them new.

you should be able to run that 2600 at 3200 speeds easily. i had a 2500 running at 3200.

 

[Kawzman]

I upgrading my ram but after read forums from several websites and the owner's manual i'm left with unanswered questions about how to get the most out of my mobo on the ram side. I am currently running 2x512mb ddr corsair xms pc3200 @ 2-3-3-6/dual channel mode in sockets 2 & 3.

I want to purchase but I can't find any guidance as to whether or not OCZ Platinum 2GB (2 x 1GB) SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227210 is compatible with my asus a7n8x deluxe, rev 2.0, bios 1008. So is it a ya or na? I've seen a few reviews on newegg of successful usage on the a7n8x. I saw a post claiming they couldn't reach the advertized timings but no one saying they wouldn't work.

If the ram is good for the mobo, then comes the question as to whether this ocz is better than the CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145575&Tpk=TWINX2048-3200C2PT. The ocz has lower timings and are $10 cheaper at newegg. I’ve had no problems with the current corsairs but I have no problem leaving corsair behind. Anyone have any experiences?

On to configuration. The manual is a little confusing when it comes to using all three sockets. To quote: “To enhance system performance, utilize dual-channel feature when installing additional DIMMS. You may install the DIMMs in the following sequence: Sockets 1 and 3 or Sockets 2 and 3 or Sockets 1, 2 and 3. So, does adding a third stick of ram drop the mobo out of dual channel mode? It would seem that if sockets 1/3 and 2/3 are connected to run dual channel then dual channel isn’t possible with three sticks of ram in place. Is dual channel possible if have three identical sticks of ram, say OCZ Platinum 3GB (3 x 1GB) SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit? Say that dual channel isn’t possible with three sticks of ram, then is 2gb in dual channel better than 3bg in single channel? Has anyone seen any benefits to running dual channel in sockets 1/3 vice 2/3?

Thanks for the feedback in advance.

 

[rabiddawgs]

i am not sure if the ocz is compat. im sure it is but im not positive.
i ran the corsair you have listed and it worked fine at ddr400 speeds.

to help with some confusion on dual channel.
if you run it with the 2 sticks but 1gb. in the slots you have listed you will be ok and get dual channel.
if you want more ram installed and still keep dual channel you will need these combos.
2x256 and 1x512
2x512 and 1x1gb
2x1gb and 1x2gb

what you have to do is the dual channel slots amounts have to be added together ie 2x512 = 1gb and the other slot that is free needs to have that amount installed in it. so you would need a 1gb stick.

i dont think they make a 2gb stick in ddr so the best you can do is 2gb total and keep dual channel. which will be fine for an xp system and games.

i did notice that you already have a xp2500+. i wouldnt drop any money at all into a new cpu. save it for a future build.

actually what i would do is just upgrade the whole thing. for the price of the mem. cpu. you could sell what you have and get a pretty good system that will be alot better. then what you have.

motherboard- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128090 $97 shipped
cpu- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103194 $77 shipped
mem- (2gb kit) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227139 $26 shipped ar
(4gb kit) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227269 $65 shipped ar

not sure if you would need a psu or not. and i think the onboard video is about equal to what you have now. if not you get a decent one for about $50 or less.

so the socket a upgrade would run cpu and mem. $215-250
new stuff would be minus a psu/vid card $200-240

you could even get a different motherboard lower priced one.
the cpu can overclock to almost 5600-6000 speeds with the stock cooling.

if you dont want to upgrade to new stuff just go for the ram.
but since you were kinda planning on going with a cpu i would just do the whole system. you will notice ahuge diff.
this was just another option for you. i hate how people say to just buy all newer stuff but for the price comparison you would be better off this way.

plus you could sell you old stuff locally. make a whole system out of it. might get about $100-150 from craigslist for it all. then the upgrade will cost ya about 100-150 max.
just something to think about

edit***
if you look around you might some things cheaper. wait for a sale. got a fry's near you? they always have good sales.
the cpu you can get a free case just pay the 18 shipping on it.

 

[Kawzman]

I'm actually going to keep this pc up and running for the kids (homework and such). I'm probably just going to up the ram. I'm building a new one. Still researching and getting guidance but here's what i've put together so far...

Antec 1200 ATX Full Tower - $170
http://www.directron.com/twelvehundred.html

GIGABYTE GA-X48-DS4 - $225
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128336

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 Yorkfield 2.66GHz 12MB L2 Cache LGA 775 - $329
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115042

Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme - $55
http://www.directron.com/u120e.html

YATE LOON 120mm 4 Blue leds - $7
http://www.casemodwholesale.com/d12sm-124b.html

MSI R4850-T2D512 Radeon HD 4850 - $200
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127359

CORSAIR DOMINATOR 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 1066 - $109
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145197

2 x WD Raptor X 150GB - 2x$175=$350 (In RAID 0 for OS and Programs)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136011

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1TB - $200 (for storage)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148274

Ultra X3 1000W PSU - $230
http://www.directron.com/ult40064.html

Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty - $136
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102005

Logitech Z-5500 Speakers - $278
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836121120

SAMSUNG SH-203 CD/DVD Burner - $27
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151153

SABRENT Internal Card Reader - $14
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820300608

SAMSUNG Black Internal Floppy Drive - $8
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16821103203

Total cost: $2338

 

[rabiddawgs]

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...0&cs=19&c=us&l=en&dgc=CJ&cid=24471&lid=566643

save a few bucks on the speakers

wow thats alot of power. 1000watt. is that much really needed. wouldnt a 750 be more than enough. im not too sure on the ultra brand either. they have been up and down way too much for me to trust.

i am all about finding the deals. i went with a slightly lower cpu at the time of my build to save me about 80 bucks. put that towards something else i wanted to go higher on.

looks good though, but i cant comment on the intel stuff. always have had amd. last intel i owned was a pentium 200 mhz.

oh an woohoo a floppy...lol

check out slickdeals for some of the prices also.

 

[Time4aMassiveOC]

why not get 2 750GB's for 109$ each at frys or 119$ at newegg instead of a 200$ 1TB?

and if you run those raptors it will reduce the speed of your other driives down to 1.5GB/s from 3.0GB/s

instead of haveing 1TB + 150GB = 1.150TB @ 1.5GB/s for 200$ + 350$ = 550$

you would be way better off getting 5 x 750GB = 1.5TB + 1 hot swap drive. 3GB/s 32mb cache for 109$ x 5 = 545$ 119 x 5 = 595$ on newegg

that way you could run four of the drives in raid 1 + 0 with the 5th one as a hot swapable drive that is kept connected in the computer in case any of the drives fail it will hop right in.


so for the same price as what you had planned to pay you get way faster performance, a far higher level of protection for your data, and more space (it would be 1.5TB available space.)

and while we are building a dream computer get a seperate raid card or even two if you wanna go crazy. with its own processor on it. someone here can reccomend. it to you if you ask im sure.

and a gaming ethernet NIC with its own processor
http://www.killernic.com/

 

[Kawzman]

rabiddawgs, I thought 1000W seems like a bit much even after using the psu guide and eXtreme Power Supply Calculator Lite v2.5 to help me determine my needs. But I suppose with 2 hd 4850s in crossfire and whatever additions come with the future, I’ll be good-to-go. I narrowed it down to the Ultra X3 1000W and the Antec TruePower Quattro 1000W. Only $30 separates the two psu’s and I’ve heard good things about both. The Ultra X3 does come with a lifetime warranty. I have an Antec True430W with my current build and I’ve always been happy. Thoughts?

Thanks for the savings on those speakers. It's funny no how many comparison shopping sites I use, there's always one site that falls off the radar. I love newegg, but i go where the cost is less.

I'm switching from amd as they have just simply had the asses handed to them by intel over the last couple years. Intel simply has the upper hand on procs at the moment.

Yeah, floppy. No matter what, there's always something, sometime, somewhere, somehow that requires a floppy.

 

[Time4aMassiveOC]

rabiddawgs, I thought 1000W seems like a bit much even after using the psu guide and eXtreme Power Supply Calculator Lite v2.5 to help me determine my needs. But I suppose with 2 hd 4850s in crossfire and whatever additions come with the future, I’ll be good-to-go. I narrowed it down to the Ultra X3 1000W and the Antec TruePower Quattro 1000W. Only $30 separates the two psu’s and I’ve heard good things about both. The Ultra X3 does come with a lifetime warranty. I have an Antec True430W with my current build and I’ve always been happy. Thoughts?

selecting a psu is all about making sure your rails , especially 12v rails are adequate to supply the parts you are connecting them with

for instance if you had 3 12v rails at 18A each but one of the rails required 24, then you would have problems no matter how many watts it was rated for. check your videocard and motherboard requirements and ask around once you have decided on the videocard and motherboard and processor you are going to use.


aside from that making sure they are running an active pfc is very highly recommended.

here are three pretty decent choices.

pcpower and cooling is always a high quality option.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703005

a good one from corsair
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005

and this antec is a decent choice
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371016



all three are good, though if you are going to be running two videocards you might need more than the 550W antec. or even the 650W corsair maybe these days... but i doubt it depending on your cards..

 

[Kawzman]

I'm definitely going with the hd 4850. I'll likely end getting two for crossfire. Admitidly, i having trouble determining the psu i need. I haven't been able to determine the hd 4850 requirement's yet. I've checked msi and asus websites but they don't even have it listed as a current product. The mobo manual recommend 500w or greater...

"1/2) ATX_12V_2X/ATX (2x4 12V Power Connector and 2x12 Main Power Connector)
With the use of the power connector, the power supply can supply enough stable power to all the components on the motherboard. Before connecting the power connector, first make sure the power supply is turned off and all devices are properly installed. The power connector possesses a foolproof design. Connect the power supply cable to the power connector in the correct orientation. The 12V power connector mainly supplies power to the CPU. If the 12V power connector is not connected, the computer will not start.

• Use of a power supply providing a 2x4 12V power connector is recommended by the
CPU manufacturer when using an Intel Extreme Edition CPU (130W).
• To meet expansion requirements, it is recommended that a power supply that can withstand high power consumption be used (500W or greater). The main power connector is compatible with power supplies with 2x10 power connectors. To prevent system instability or system's failure to boot, be sure to connect a power supply providing a 2x12 power connector.
• The ATX_12V_2X power connector is compatible with power supplies with 2x2 12V power connector. When using a power supply providing a 2x4 12V and power connector, remove the protective covers from the 12V power connector and the main power connector on the motherboard. Do not insert the power supply cables into pins under the protective covers when using a power supply providing a 2x2 12V power connector."

 

[rabiddawgs]

according to ther bestbuy website for the visiontek 4850 it takes a 450w psu and two 75W 6-pin PCI Express connectors.

i would do a little more investigating on the psu. thats the one part you dont want to skimp on or buy cheap. i have the corsair 520w and love it.
here are a couple to check on that are around the same power
corsair 1000w modular http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139007

pcpower 860 watt not modular http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703013

antec 850 watt modular http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371009

have some reads over here http://www.jonnyguru.com/
i know there some more sites out there that do good reviews on psu's just cant think of them right now.

as far as switching from amd to intel. yes amd is getting hammered some. but i dont think it is as bad as it sounds. sure in all the benches they win but i dont run benches 24/7. there really isnt that much of a diff in real world to me. im very happy with my 5600+ amd cpu. runs great in all the games i play.
could have went intel and got another 2-5 fps in my games but i wont notice it at all. but thats a different conversation.

i actually lied and said i didnt have an intel since the 200 mhz. i forgot about my lappy. it has the core 2 duo in it. was basically my only choice at the time. ( insurance replacement)

good luck with the build and upgrade.
do you have a fry's by you. if so you might get some of that stuff one sale pretty cheap.

 

[Kawzman]

First off, i want to thank Time4aMassiveOC and rabiddawgs for your help. Visiontek finally got info for the hd 4850 on their site (http://www.visiontek.com/products/cards/retail/4850_512_PCIe.html) and the system requirements read as, "450 Watt or greater power supply with 75 Watt 6-pin PCI Express® power connector recommended (550 Watt and two 6-pin connectors for ATI CrossFireX™ technology in dual mode)." Without contacting them, does that mean that is only for the card(s) or your entire system. I'd think it would only be for the card(s) as everyone's system is different. ATI's certified psu list (http://game.amd.com/us-en/crossfirex_components.aspx?p=3) doesn't include the hd 4850 yet, but i'm sure it wouldn't be that different from the 3870 x2. I have to look back at hdd setup first as Time4aMassiveOC discussed above, but it appears that i'll prob need at least a 750w psu.

There are some frys in cali, but none near me now and the nearest is in las vegas once i transfer to fallon, nv next week. By the way rabiddawgs, i'm from originally canton, oh...go browns!

Now onto hdd. Time4aMassiveOC, i must admit i'm intimidated by raid as i've never done it before. But then, i was also intimidated about building a computer until i did it in 2003. So, why would the raptors reduce the speed of your other drives down to 1.5GB/s from 3.0GB/s? I get that using 7200rpm, 3.0Gb/s interface would be faster than 10000rpm, 1.5Gb/s interface. I'm surely not going to spend $600 for two 300gb raptors that have 3.0Gb/s interface.

I have some configuration questions. Without raid, it's been my understanding that having a hdd to run os/programs and a separate hdd for pagefile/storage is better than running everything on 1 hdd (read this a long time ago, http://partition.radified.com/). So would it be better to run smaller hdds in raid for os/programs and have a separate hdd or 2 solely for storage? Or should everything be written to the hdds in raid? I know the latter would be fastest.

Time4aMassiveOC, you mentioned that that i could run four drives in raid 1 + 0 with the 5th one as a hot swapable drive that is kept connected in the computer in case any of the drives fail it will hop right in. Is that 5th hdd not to be used other than as a standby to fill the spot of a dead hdd in a raid 1+0? Is the hopping into the place of a dead drive in the raid automated or manual? If the hdd was partitioned and used for storage, what would happen to the data once it filled in for the dead hdd? I'm assuming it's lost.

 

[Time4aMassiveOC]

well dammit, it didnt post my long reply. im not typin all that out again lol.

if you put a 1.5gb/s hd into a cpu then all the rest run at that speed too.

no, the hot swap drive just would be blank and waiting to hop in you couldnt use it for storage.

if you wanted to you could use it for storage and when a drive fails just buy a new harddrive, copy over the stored info, and use the storage drive to replace the failed drive. then you could run spinrite on the failed disk and probly get it working at 100% again for an additional storage drive.

the antec psu he posted only has 18A 12v rails, i dont know that its a solid choice, but the other two while 250$ are solid.

im lookin at the same cpu and videocards as well as im going to be putting my operating system into raid 1+0 with 3.0gb/s drives. and lots of storage drives. so im looking for a psu as well. ill let you know what i find.

heres my thread on my motherboard search.
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=566879



and on the connectors its just saying that you need two 6pin's one per card.

 

[Kawzman]

Time4aMassiveOC, i was reading the thread on your mobo search. was wondering which mobo you ended up going with; the asus P5E deluxe or GIGABYTE GA-X48-DS4? i'm zeroing in on the GIGABYTE GA-X48-DS4. been alot of ggod things said on the egg about it. still not much said about either in the forums here though.

i've settled on the hd 4850, will get 2 for crossfire. it seems the the system requirements i mentioned in my previous post are 450 Watt or greater power supply with 75 Watt 6-pin PCI Express® power connector recommended (550 Watt and two 6-pin connectors for ATI CrossFireX. does that mean that recommended psu is only for the card(s) or your entire system? I'd think it would only be for the card(s) as everyone's system is different. ATI's certified psu list (http://game.amd.com/us-en/crossfirex_components.aspx?p=3#ATI Radeon™ HD 4850) now includes the hd 4850. i'm going to get the antec tpq 850w (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371009). it's on sale for $150. 850w is still a little overkill, but with future up grades who knows. besides, a quality 850w psu for that price is a good deal.

now going back aways to your post about the hdd's. i'm thinking about going with a 4 hdd matrix raid 0/5, as it offers the best data protection, size, and speed. since i backup with norton ghost, if a hdd fails the raid 0 portion will be backed up regularly, so np. still haven't decided whether to go with onboard raid or get a controller. i haven't picked the hdd's yet either as the fam and i just got back from our trip to disneyland.