With the A7V8X-X - (Asus) - "DDR400 max to 2 banks only DDR333 max to 4 banks only" - Basic question here...Is a "bank" one side of the moduale? And if so, how can you tell how many banks are on a stick wehn you order it? ON this board, there's 3 mem slots. Would it mean then only 1 stick of ddr400 and up to 2 sticks of ddr333? And how does the CPU speed affect which speed mem. to buy? Thanks...
before you buy memory decide on which CPU you're going to put in the motherboard and if you'll be overclocking at all. if the CPU's FSB is 333 then match the speed with the ram so you don't need to use memory dividers
"* DDR400 (PC3200) Support DDR400 (PC3200), the latest and fastest DDR memory standard, supports bandwidth up to 3.2GB/s to provide enhanced system performance. (Note: PC3200 Max. to 2 banks only; PC2700 Max. to 4 banks only)." http://www.meanmachine.com/Motherboards/SocketA/ASUS_A7V8XX_Motherboard_Specs.htm So...if this board takes ddr400 mem, and the bus speed for cpu maxes out at 333, then how would I be able to buy and run ddr400 mem. What would be the point of them advertising ddr400 mem, if I can't run a 400 bus cpu? - seems the ddr400 mem will revert to lower 333 speed...BTW, i'm not gonna overclock, and I want the fasteset cpu available for this board considering the next one I plan to build will be 64 bit system.
I would imagine that you can use ddr400 in all 4 slots... and your bus speed is probably faster than 333. I don't think it makes that much of a difference between 333mhz and 400mhz ram anyway. Correct me if I'm wrong.
"FSB 333 / 266 / 200MHz" Spec page ---->http://www.asus.com/prog/spec.asp?m=A7V8X-X&langs=01 The FSB tops at 333, so I'm assuming that 333 cpu's are the highest I can go...So why would it advertise ddr400 mem? If you have to match mem to cpu?
A bank is one side of a RAM module. If there's only one side with RAM chips on it, then it is single-sided. If both sides have it, then it is double sided. If you use two single-sided DIMMs, you'll be able to run the RAM at PC3200 speeds---same thing if you use one double-sided DIMM. Most of the time 256MB sticks and under tend to be single sided; 512MB and larger are most likely going to be single sided. RAM Ratings (PCxxxx) are like speed ratings on tires. A tire rated for 150mph will work fine at 40mph. Same way with RAM. You do not have to run the same speed FSB and RAM, but it's a good idea, unless you have RAM that you can run faster. You can change the FSB: Mem ratio from 1:1 that will likely be autodetected by the BIOS to 3:4 and gain a little extra boost. Now, if you were running the nForce or nForce 2 chipset, you'd want to leave this setting as 1:1. The design of these chipsets is optimized for a 1:1 FSB:Mem ratio, and anything outside of that, even if the RAM speed is capable of native speeds faster than the CPU's FSB, you'll loose some performance. This doesn't apply to the nForce 3/4 chipsets as the Athlon 64's CPU design has the memory controller on the CPU die instead of the chipset as been practiced with traditional chipset designs.
