ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe RAM Upgrade

I have an ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe board which has 3 slots for RAM.
I've heard that i can use all 3 slots as dual memory and I'm thinking of upgrading from my current set up of 2x512mb to 2x1gb. If the board will accept it i'd consider buying a 3rd module to give me 3x1gb.
Would this work???
I also believe that the fastest memory the board will accept is pc3200. Can anyone confirm this or advise me otherwise??

thanks
David

 

It's not crystal clear but the manual says it will run dual channel with three matching DIMs.

Page 29 of the manual:
http://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socka/nforce2/a7n8x-e/e1876_a7n8x-e_deluxe.pdf

 

Pete
Excellent website at Crucial for checking memory upgrades.
It looks like 3 modules would be fine and according to the crucial website the pc3200 would run fine.
Looks like that's the way to go.
thanks a lot!!!
David

 

First thing i did when i realised the Crucial website was good was "add it to favourites "!!
My other question is - do all 3 modules of memory need to be the same brand? Or is it just better to get 3 the same regardless of whether they need to be or not??

 

Err...No! (not from my research).
Not only do they have to be same brand, they need to be matched to run as "DUAL ". You will find them listed as 2 x 1024MB or a "kit ".

I am not sure how you get 3 sticks/modules to run as "dual ".

The motherboard manuals I have looked at use 2 slots as "dual" the others as standard DDR.

It is past my bed time. I have opened the motherboard link...118 pages...I am sure it is excellent reading. Maybe ZZZZZZs first.

Matt

 

I agree Matt, that's been my experience too. That's why I said "it wasn't crystal clear ".
The table on page 29 says that it runs in dual channel with three matcing Dims.
I guess the bios will tell the tail when he gets three Dims in it.

 

From what I know of "Dual ", the sticks are matched as closely as possible so that the frequencies are in harmony which accelerates the processing. I don't know if you could get three matching sticks, but maybe three from the same batch may be close (they actually hand select the matched pairs).

I think you would want to run a few very large programs to utilise more than 2GB of RAM. Me, I would get two sticks of matched 1024MB. With the bonus efficiency, it may compensate for having a third unmatched stick.

Matt

 

I think considering the risk of it not working and possible hassle i'll just go for the 2 modules if i decide to upgrade.
2 in a kit of PC3200 will be what i go for.
thanks all

 

Found this:

here:
http://forum.osnn.net/showthread.php?t=3279

Matt

 

Actually, this is starting to intrigue me. Note the "twinbank" in the quote above. The link no longer works for the original reference.

Makes me wonder even more how three banks work as dual.

More

Matt

 

I did some asking around. One fellow said that 3 sticks of 1024MB would not run as dual channel only as single channel. He said the highest set which would run as dual channel would be 2 X 256MB + 1 X 1024MB (apparently two have to match the third).

This would be the same as running two sticks of 1024MB. If they were in a Kit and so were matched, this should give the best possibility of them running in sync and give the best efficiency.

Matt