Asus A7N8X board Ram

[jag1]

I am building a couple semi upgradeable computers for my kids to replace their aging and outdated PIII 550 systems. I am looking at Asus A7N8X boards, because they support 8x AGP, up to 400FSB, 3000+ AMD CPU, and have onboard LAN for easy home networking usage. I have 750 Duran processors, heatsinks and fans from some computers I upgraded for someone else that I would like to use until I can afford to buy larger processors for them. My question is, what ram can I use with this processor on this board? Will the processors work with any of the PC3200/PC2700/PC2100/PC1600 ram the board supports? (I have to buy the ram, and would prefer to go ahead and buy the speed I'll need with the bigger processors.) Please help!

 

[MDE]

I'd get PC3200 to be safe, just get a quality brand like Crucial, Kingston, Corsair, Mushkin, Buffalo, etc.

 

[jag1]

I want to get the PC3200, but want to make sure it ill work with the Duron 750 until I upgrade the processor.

 

[JBT]

It "should" work fine at a lower speed.

 

[Zebo]

Buy mushkin 3200 cas 2. Not only do they support anandtech forums it's the best ram out there.

 

[jag1]

The last time I built a system from scratch, you had to match ram, board, and processor speeds. If you used PC133 instead of PC100, the system might or might not work. I guess now you can can mix and match to an extent, as long as you meet the board speed and processor minimums. I wasn't sure if I could use faster ram than the processor required or not. If PC3200 will work, that's what I'll order. Probably 256MB Mushkin CL2, since I've heard so much about it here and I've never tried it before. (I've always used Micron.) Thanks for the help guys.

 

[NateSLC]

Just a word of caution.... My Asus A7N8X Deluxe motherboard manual says:

Note! Do not use processors with core speeds of less than 1Ghz on this motherboard.

I don't know why, but that's what it says in the CPU section of the manual.

 

[jag1]

That's interesting, because they advertise it supporting 600~3000 on their website http://usa.asus.com/prog/spec.asp?langs=09&m=A7N8X . Anyone here ever tried running less than 1ghz on this board?

 

[filmmaker]

Originally posted by: jag1
That's interesting, because they advertise it supporting 600~3000 on their website http://usa.asus.com/prog/spec.asp?langs=09&m=A7N8X . Anyone here ever tried running less than 1ghz on this board?

I did for about 30 minutes just to see how it ran, but I would be ordering those faster processors quickly.

Crucial 3200 should do you just fine with this board.

 

[PCHPlayer]

I am running this board with Crucial 2x256 3200 and 1x512 2100 at 2100 speed. No issues. I'm almost prepared for the 400Mhz FSB upgrade. Hopefully the prices on the CPU will come down before they stop making them.

 

[jag1]

I downloaded the manual, and it does say not to use less than 1ghz, but their specs say it will run 600mhz Durons?!

 

[filmmaker]

Originally posted by: jag1
I downloaded the manual, and it does say not to use less than 1ghz, but their specs say it will run 600mhz Durons?!

Their specs may say it, but the manual says it isn't recommended. Doesn't mean it can't be done.

 

[Davegod]

Originally posted by: PCHPlayer
I am running this board with Crucial 2x256 3200 and 1x512 2100 at 2100 speed. No issues. I'm almost prepared for the 400Mhz FSB upgrade. Hopefully the prices on the CPU will come down before they stop making them.

So these boards have no trouble with crucial sticks of PC2100? I thought I read (when nforce2 was relatively new) of some boards having difficulties with crucial pc2100 & pc2700 - Asus being worst for it.

(I'm thinking of a A7N8X and have 768mb of crucial PC2100 that I wont be replacing in a hurry)

 

[jag1]

I sent an email to Asus technical support. I'll post the response here.

 

[PCHPlayer]

Originally posted by: Davegod

Originally posted by: PCHPlayer
I am running this board with Crucial 2x256 3200 and 1x512 2100 at 2100 speed. No issues. I'm almost prepared for the 400Mhz FSB upgrade. Hopefully the prices on the CPU will come down before they stop making them.

So these boards have no trouble with crucial sticks of PC2100? I thought I read (when nforce2 was relatively new) of some boards having difficulties with crucial pc2100 & pc2700 - Asus being worst for it.

(I'm thinking of a A7N8X and have 768mb of crucial PC2100 that I wont be replacing in a hurry)

I believe the problem was only with the 2700, but you could fix it by POSTing with some 2100 memory and tweaking some BIOS settings. Old memories, could be wrong.

 

[Maddscientist]

I thought I read (when nforce2 was relatively new) of some boards having difficulties with crucial pc2100 & pc2700

I used 3 256mb sticks of Crucial 2100 in this board until the below upgrade. Had some issues overclocking said ram via FSB and it would not take voltage increases but stock not a problem.


Hope that Helps

 

[Davegod]

cheers for info, the A7N8X was looking otherwise spot on for what I was looking for (no NB fan, QFan thing, etc etc) other than bit pricey and the crucial ram concerns.

Maddscientist, FWIW I have 3 256mb sticks of crucial 2100 in this KT266a, and the FSB wont even go up 1mhz or it flops all over the place. Bit annoying, especially since I cant even get at the multiplier