Mem upgrade and CPU question.

[crazz2323]

I have an AMD 64 FX-57, Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe motherboard, and 2 identical Corsair 3200 1gb sticks of ram in my PC. I am doing some upgrading and was wondering if its bad to add 2 sticks of identical Corsair 3200 512mb dual channel sticks in my other two slots? I heard some things about it may not be as efficient to use all 4 slots. Not too informed on this, specifically with this type of motherboard, could someone fill me in?

I also am shopping for a new CPU that works with my current socket 939 motherboard or a newer Asus A8N 32-SLI-Deluxe NVIDIA Socket 939 ATX Motherboard and saw these two. Is there any difference between these 3? If so which is best and why? The Tiger direct deal with a free OEM version of windows vista is nice.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2901402

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103608

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103861

 

[b1gapl]

Wow thats a good deal from tigerdirect. The last one...you can't use because, it socket AM2.

You already have 2gb of ram, getting more than that will, slow you down. But then if you get that deal from tiger, it comes with vista. From what I heard, vista can handle more than 2gb effectively, unlike XP. I could be wrong.

 

[crazz2323]

Really? more than 2 gig on an XP system will slow me down? I hope someone can verify about Vista handling more than 2 gigs well. Especially with my motherboard. Thanks for the reply.

 

[aeckler1981]

as far as I have heard Vista can handle more than just 2 gb of ram. I think if i remember right it can handle up to 8gb's but don't quote me on that.

 

[crazz2323]

Ok, I did some testing and with the two 1gig PC3200 and the two 512mb PC3200 ram sticks in, my BIOS reads this:

Memclock index value (Mhz) 333mhz
CAS# latency (TCL) 3
Min RAS# active time (Tras) 7T
RAS# to CAS# delay (Trcd) 3T
Row percharge Time (Trp) 3T
Row cycle time (Trc) 10T
Row refresh cyc time (Trfc) 11T
Read-to-Write time (Trwt) 4T
Write recovery time (Twr) 3T
1T/2T Memory Timing 2T

and with just the two 1 gig 3200 sticks in it reads this:

Memclock index value (Mhz) 400mhz
CAS# latency (TCL) 3
Min RAS# active time (Tras) 8T
RAS# to CAS# delay (Trcd) 3T
Row percharge Time (Trp) 3T
Row cycle time (Trc) 11T
Row refresh cyc time (Trfc) 13T
Read-to-Write time (Trwt) 5T
Write recovery time (Twr) 3T
1T/2T Memory Timing 2T

So i see what you mean by it dropping to 333mhz. Guess from these numbers it is best to stick with 2 gig using only 2 slots. So if Windows Vista handles the memory better then when using all 4 slots, it should be at 400mhz like it is with only 2 sticks?