Help!!! Should I buy Single or Double sided 400Mhz Memory for MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum?

[FearTec]

Help!!! Should I buy Single or Double sided 400Mhz Memory for MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum?

Hello

Should I buy single or double sided PC3200 400Mhz Memory for MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum (Dual Channel 939 board)????

The MSI manual reports that If I put in 2X Double Sided memory modules in the board I can get Dual Channel at 400Mhz, but if I (later) put in 2 more Double sided 400Mhz sticks of Double sided ram the memory speed will drop back to 333Mhz.

The manual also says If I put in 4x 400Mhz single sided memory modules the memory will stay at Dual Channel at 400Mhz???

Q1) Can I get fast (2-2-2-5) Corsair or OCZ single sided memory in 512MB sticks (I think it is double sided by default)?

Q2) Why is single sided memory no problems with the MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum?

Q3) Do you have single or double sided memory modules?

I can honestly say that 1GB, 2x 512MB souble sided Corsair 2-2-2-5) will be all I need for now but if I still have the mainboard in 3 years and want to goto 2Gb I will be slowed down to 333mhz if I buy Double sided ram now.

help.....

 

[flapperhead]

is that the nf3 chipset??

 

[edwardaune]

On dual channel boards, you usually have two slots that are designated "dual channel" and yes when you have two identical stick in those slots then your have dual channel capabilities. But, if you bought two more identical sticks and put them in the ramaining slots then you loose you dual channel capability. What I recommend is buying what ever amount of ram you want, lets say 1 gig, and either buy a dual channel kit with 2 * 512mb sticks or buy two seperate 512 sticks. If you decide later on down the line th you want to put more memory in then buy 2 one gig sticks and put them in the dual channel slots, always leave the "normal slots" alone or you'll go back to the to default. Its an either or situation.

 

[bbuster]

I had the same problem with my MSI. If you have double sided memory modules then you have to use odd slots for two of them such as 1 and 3 or 2 and 4. It took me a while to figure that out but I had two gigs of OCZ 400mhz and the bandwidth in Sandra was 2700MB/s or so with it in slots one and two (which I thought was necessary for dual channel, but whatever). I had to clear the cmos and put them in slots one and three and now it works like a champ with bandwidth of around 4800MB/s. Hope that helps.

 

[Shade00]

The manual also says If I put in 4x 400Mhz single sided memory modules the memory will stay at Dual Channel at 400Mhz???

Q1) Can I get fast (2-2-2-5) Corsair or OCZ single sided memory in 512MB sticks (I think it is double sided by default)?

Q2) Why is single sided memory no problems with the MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum?

Q3) Do you have single or double sided memory modules?

If you still have the board in 3 years, I'm sure that you'll be able to find 1gb sticks then for a good price. Currently, the lowest latencies you can get on 1gb sticks are 2-3-3-6 (or maybe 2.5-3-3; don't remember).

1) An OCZ person will likely be able to answer this better than me; however, I don't think any current high-performance modules do come single-sided.

2) Double-sided memory sticks can be a problem for all Athlon 64s. The boards are very picky about what slots you use when you are using DS sticks (as you've already figured out). There is an excellent A64 memory compatibility guide over at Tom's Hardware that you should check out.

3) I use the only RAM sticks from the Tom's report that worked flawlessly on ALL of the A64 platforms. Granted, I'm using a SC channel setup, but if I choose to upgrade to 939 I'll carry these sticks over because they can do 250 1:1/3-3-3-8. I'm not sure about lowering the timings, but I suspect that they can do 2.5-2-2-6 at 200mhz. I haven't tested that yet.

 

[hawtrawkr]

On dual channel boards, you usually have two slots that are designated "dual channel" and yes when you have two identical stick in those slots then your have dual channel capabilities. But, if you bought two more identical sticks and put them in the ramaining slots then you loose you dual channel capability. What I recommend is buying what ever amount of ram you want, lets say 1 gig, and either buy a dual channel kit with 2 * 512mb sticks or buy two seperate 512 sticks. If you decide later on down the line th you want to put more memory in then buy 2 one gig sticks and put them in the dual channel slots, always leave the "normal slots" alone or you'll go back to the to default. Its an either or situation.

i think feartec was talking more about the modules and how the ics are put on them either all on one side (single sided) or on both sides (double sided)

q1. not sure
q2. i think single sided is less strain on the memory controller when you have say 512mbx2 dual channel kit of double sided ram your memory controller actually sees it as 4x256mb which puts more of a strain on the controller itself
q3. i have double sided modules

 

[adelphia83]

Should I buy single or double sided PC3200 400Mhz Memory for MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum (Dual Channel 939 board)????

The problem that plagues Socket 754 boards in the use of double sided memory is not near as problematic with Socket 939. You should be fine using 2 x 512mb modules, as long as they are installed in independent channels.

You can then later upgrade with single sided modules to stay within AMD's memory controller specifications.

Q1) Can I get fast (2-2-2-5) Corsair or OCZ single sided memory in 512MB sticks (I think it is double sided by default)?

There have been very few single sided 512mb modules seen in the wild. Among what I've seen do not offer 2-2-2-5 timings. Corsair at one point had some Micron -5B C (? May have been -5B G) in single sided 512mb PC3200 variety.

Q2) Why is single sided memory no problems with the MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum?

Double sided modules effectively double the number of IC's present. Signal quality generally degrades with the more IC's present / banks populated. Obviously, more IC's to travel through equates to a long path to and from the memory controller.

Q3) Do you have single or double sided memory modules?

I use two double sided 512mb sticks (Samsung TCCD). This problem is even more prevalent w/ Socket 754. AMD's specs for S754 state that DDR400 is not possible with 4 banks populated (two double sided DIMMs). Many have found this to be untrue to an extent, as four banks works fine w/ DDR400, but the headroom is limited (I cannot go past 250mhz 1T using 1GB, but can do much higher with only one 512mb module installed)

I haven't done any testing on S939, but I'm certain that because of the independent memory channels, that this won't be nearly as much of a problem S754 owners are facing with the use of 1GB+.

 

[darthdana]

Take it from me, single sided is the way to go, I got like 23 gigs of ram here cant add to anything now, as the crap dont play well with each other. Real pain the tail gunner

 

[Shade00]

Haha, send some of that to me darthdana.

Although the 3-3-3-8 timings on my Crucial aren't that impressive, the fact that these sticks can hit 250mhz is. I also like the fact that I'll be able to just toss another one in when I want to upgrade; three single-sided modules is about the only way to run three sticks on a 754 setup.

However, since you're on 939 and plan on having your setup for a while, I would say go with 2x512 of anything for now. By the time you're ready to go for 2gb there should be 1gb low-latency modules or more available single-sided 512mb modules.

 

[FearTec]

Thanks Guys, Good advice here. I was hoping to hang onto the system for a while.

You are right in saying when I want to upgrade from 1GB to 2GB just replace the 2 512s with 2x1GBs.

Thanks Guys.

 

[edwardaune]

Thats what we are here for.

 

[henesse]

Dual channel for k8n neo2 is slot 1 and 2 or 3 and 4. its not like the intel systems where you put them in slot 1 and 3 or 2 and 4.