Memory Compatibility Question

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Veregund

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Hey guys, when buying memory, what do I need to keep in mind to make sure it's compatible with my motherboard? I noticed that when shopping through some different types of memory, there were chipset requirements listed - is this important? Any info will be helpful.

If you want to know what motherboard I'm looking at for a reference:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128387

Also, if there are strict compatibility requirements for video cards, what are those? Thanks guys!
 
According to that board's specs, it can have:
No more than a 4GB stick in each slot
Speed must be no higher than 1333MHz DDR2.

That's all you need to take into consideration with the RAM.
If you're thinking of buying RAM for that board, a set of 2x2GB 1066MHz RAM should be fine for you unless you need more.

Also, if there are strict compatibility requirements for video cards, what are those? Thanks guys!
There are very strict requirements but only one, which is the type of slot. Nearly all cards nowadays use PCI-E x16 slots, but there is an older slot called AGP which occasional pops up around here sometimes. I don't think any AGP cards are manufactured nowadays. They are not interchangeable.

There are two versions of PCI-E x16, 1.0 and 2.0. They are interchangeable, the 2.0 is just faster. All current cards work with either version, though in future eventually cards will need more bandwidth than 1.0 can provide. The motherboard you linked to has two PCI-E x16 1.0 slots and does Crossfire (multiple ATi GPUs).
 
That Intel-only sounds like complete rubbish; I don't see how any RAM could only work for particular chipset (from a technical standpoint). I could be wrong, though - I've never heard of any such limitation before.

I also don't see how reduced functionality on AMD chipsets would count as a 'feature' :p

Edit: Ah, a quick google search reveals that by that they mean 'only tested on Intel chipsets'.
 
According to that board's specs, it can have:
Speed must be no higher than 1333MHz DDR2.

That's actually not true unless it just a super crappy mobo. If you bought DDR2 1600 memory because you were planning for a future upgrade it would work, it just would not run any faster than DDR2 1333. And it may run at 1600, but not be officially supported.
 
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