I have an ECS N2U400-A (s462) mobo with a Sempron 2500+ CPU and a Samsung PC2100 DDR module. I'd like to buy some memory, but I'm not sure what would be the best solution. My mobo is supposed to handle 400MHZ FSB and it's dual channel too, but I've heard many hearsays regarding these alleged capabilities. Even the user's guide itself says that DDR 400 only works with an alike CPU FSB which seems strange enough since there's practically no Socket A CPU with that FSB (there is one exception to my knowledge - the top-of-the line in case of Socket A - a Sempron 3200+ with a Barton core, but mine along with most of the other s462 CPUs in use today is running at 333Mhz, or the older ones at 266). This, in itself, should cause no problem, however; whether you call it overclocking, or whatever else, the memory should run at 400MHz with ease. I read it somewhere though, that for someone a 400MHz memory stick only worked in the middle slot (there are three), and then I haven't mentioned the fact that dual channel was supposed to work too, the use of which I'm not even sure of. Of course I know how it's supposed to happen by the book, but they told me there isn't much of a difference from a non dual channel setup with the same amount of memory. So is it worth putting into my mobo 2X256MB(PC3200), maybe 2X512MB? Will dual channel work at all? Is the difference going to be perceptible, or like I've been told, whether I use 2X256 or 1X512MB, won't yield any difference. (The 2X512 probably will, but I'm not sure I wanna spend that much money.) It would be good if someone who used, uses, or have heard of this mobo, could answer; I know myself what theoretically should happen: 400Mhz should work, the more the better and dual channel should work too and double the speed of data transfer. PS: The person whose Memory module only worked in the middle slot actually used a brand from ECS' Qualified Vendor List (Samsung), I'm thinking of Kingston or PQI. Probably this is not a general bug with this mobo, but concerning dual channel, I'm really not sure what good it would do to me, or if it would even work. (It also depends on the CPU's FSB, as they say.)
Well yeah, it should work but the only way to see is to try it yourself. But IMO, Dual Channel is'nt worth it, it offers ever so slight increases in performance and if you don't have a good Motherboard to go with it, then it's just a waste!
Well, the Athlon XP 3000+ and 3200+ were available with 400MHz FSB's, but if you don't have those or other CPU that has the 400MHz FSB, then you'll run into a snag. The snag is present on the nForce 1 and 2 chipsets, where running your RAM asynchronous with your FSB causes a drop in performance...even if the RAM is running faster than the FSB. However, PC2700 is probably going to be the same or a little higher in price than PC3200. Since RAM can function fine at slower speeds, you'd be better off to get that anyway. Dual-channel can add around 5-10% in performance, but that's also subjective to what your running and what settings are used.
Thanks for the advices; the case seems to be as I've suspected, so I'll probabaly buy a 512MB DRR (PC3200) module and not mess around with dual channel.
