P4C800-E Deluxe Solid MB or not?

[Red_Hair_Swede]

Looking to finally move up from PIII 850.

Done quite a bit of research, and have about 99.99% decided to run with the
Asus P4C800-E Deluxe with Mushkin PC3500 Level II 4x256K.

Was poking around the Mushkin forums, and saw some postings that stated some
problems with the P4C800-E, some specifically stating problems with using 4
dimms, and stability problems.

Can anyone offer any opinions?

Thanks

 

[Maximus]

P4C800-E DLX is a very stable one. I have both P4P800 DLX and P4C800-ED;
but I like the P4C800 more.

The P4P800 may be a bit more picky about RAM, but both can run stably with
all
4 DIMMs. I test-ran both with 4 x 512MB pieces. No problem at all.


Max

 

[Tim]

Red,
You will get slightly better performance with 2 x ram sticks than 4, also
this leaves further upgrade path.
If you don't plan on overclocking then PC3200 will be ok - there are many
posts here on this topic, however if you might want to upgrade, buy now what
will also work in the future... if it can still be purchased...

Zalman heatsink if you want quiet.

- Tim

 

[Pluvious]

Red,
You will get slightly better performance with 2 x ram sticks than 4, also
this leaves further upgrade path.

I agree with this. I'm researching a Asus P4C800-E as well and have run into a
few places that said it was better to have 2 512MB sticks then 4 256MB's. I
think it's cheaper too. (Corsair sells them in twin packs)

Pluvious

 

[Red_Hair_Swede]

Can't quite seem to tell if my newsgroup application is working properly.
Sorry.

I was originally thinking about using 4 sticks because of a review I read at
Anandtech:

"Date: July 27th, 2003



Conclusion

If you plan to run DDR400 as your base memory speed with an 800FSB
processor, your best memory performance will clearly be with four matched
double-sided DIMMs. Our tests, confirmed by Intel White Papers, show these
configurations ranked from fastest to slowest performance on an Intel 875
Canterwood or 865 Springledale chipset motherboard.



You can run mixed matched pairs of DIMMs. That is, two of one type and size
and two of another type and size, but the performance can be significantly
lowered. In our tests of mixed pairs, performance decreased 22% to 25%
compared to four matched double-sided DIMMs.



If you do plan to use single-sided DIMMs, then make sure you run four
matched DIMMs. A pair of single-sided DIMMs ranked third in our performance
tests, and was almost as slow as mixed pairs."



I don't put all my faith blindly in such reviews, but the author did seem
pretty adamant about the 4 double-sided dimms?



Thanks

 

[Philip Callan]

Can't quite seem to tell if my newsgroup application is working properly.
Sorry.

I was originally thinking about using 4 sticks because of a review I read at

If you plan to run DDR400 as your base memory speed with an 800FSB
processor, your best memory performance will clearly be with four matched
double-sided DIMMs. Our tests, confirmed by Intel White Papers, show these
configurations ranked from fastest to slowest performance on an Intel 875
Canterwood or 865 Springledale chipset motherboard.

Yeah, your also comparing whitepaper spec to what a single manufacturers
implementation
of that chipset is. Point is I've seen a fair # of users who's RAM is fine,
but the boards are
picky about using 4 dimms, and in my experience, 2 works better.

 

[Freddie Clark]

read

Yeah, your also comparing whitepaper spec to what a single manufacturers
implementation
of that chipset is. Point is I've seen a fair # of users who's RAM is fine,
but the boards are
picky about using 4 dimms, and in my experience, 2 works better.

Thats fine, so if a person has no preferences on Memory or problems with
price you are telling them not to put in 2 GB of RAM (4X matched 512 Mb
DIMM's) but to only use 2 (ie 1 GB) .......
So why do they give you four slots if you can only use two??????

regards
Freddie

 

[Philip Callan]

Thats fine, so if a person has no preferences on Memory or problems with
price you are telling them not to put in 2 GB of RAM (4X matched 512 Mb
DIMM's) but to only use 2 (ie 1 GB) .......
So why do they give you four slots if you can only use two??????

You can use 4, just make sure you order the right make/models off the QVR,
and get
4 matched doublesided dimms.

And IIRC, the chipset supports a maximum of 2G while in Dual Channel DDR400
mode.
So if you went 2x1G you only need two slots.

You can put 4x1G, but it wont work dual channel i dont think.

I run 2x512 kingston, and zero problems so far.

 

[Z Man]

You can use 4, just make sure you order the right make/models off the QVR,
and get
4 matched doublesided dimms.

And IIRC, the chipset supports a maximum of 2G while in Dual Channel DDR400
mode.
So if you went 2x1G you only need two slots.

You can put 4x1G, but it wont work dual channel i dont think.

I run 2x512 kingston, and zero problems so far.

I'm running 4x1G PC2100. How do I tell if it is running in dual channel
mode?

 

[Philip Callan]

I'm running 4x1G PC2100. How do I tell if it is running in dual channel
mode?

It tells you on boot, unless youve got that ugly fullscreen (have to replace
that logo someday)

Otherwise, run a program called CPU-Z from here:
http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

One of the tabs is 'memory' it will tell you if its size, # of channels,
timings ratio (1:1 5:4 etc)

And IIRC the limitation on this board is 2G in dual channel at ddr400, It
may be possible to run 4 sticks of PC2100.

 

[Bob]

I run four 512mb sticks of PC3500 memory and the system is rock solid.
It runs as Dual Channel CPU-Z confirms this and gives
FSB 1:1
CAS# 2.5
RAS# to CAS# 4
RAS# precharge 4
Cycle 8

I find any attempts to overclock fail so I leave it as it is

Bob

 

[jack]

I'm running four 512MB sticks of Mushkin Level II 3500 with my 3.2 P4. I
have not been able to overclock at FSBRAM ratio 1:1 either. My system
is stable with memory timings 2:2:2:6:8.

If I slow down my memory with FSB 5:4, then I can run the CPU at FSB 220
and have a stable system with memory timings 2:2:2:5:8.

I'm currently running the CPU at 3.2 GHz and the FSBRAM ratio at 1:1
to minimize the chance of a memory bottleneck. BTW, I have to run my RAM
at 1.75 volts for stability at 1:1.

 

[Z Man]

I run four 512mb sticks of PC3500 memory and the system is rock solid.
It runs as Dual Channel CPU-Z confirms this and gives

FSB 1:1
CAS# 2.5
RAS# to CAS# 4
RAS# precharge 4
Cycle 8

I find any attempts to overclock fail so I leave it as it is

OK, here are my version 1.20a readings

FSBRAM 3:4
CAS# 2.5
RAS# to CAS# 3
RAS# precharge 3
Cycle 6


However, at the top of the memory tab, under General, it reads:

Size 2048
Channels # 2
Bank interleave (grayed out)
Performance mode disabled

That's some interesting data, but what does it all mean? Specifically, why
does is the Size 2048? Windows reports 3.49GB ram. What about the other
figures? Are higher numbers better or worser? What is 'performance mode'?
What is the meaning of life?