nForce2 cannot run 4 ram sticks?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tripper
  • Start date Start date
T

Tripper

I read this but cannot remember the site. True? Saw a pic of
the Asus A7N8X Deluxe board and it has just 3 mem slots. Maybe
I'm wasting my money buying 2 paired sticks of 256mb and should
just get 1-512 stick now and another later when I can afford it
again. THX for your replies.
 
I read this but cannot remember the site. True? Saw a pic of
the Asus A7N8X Deluxe board and it has just 3 mem slots. Maybe
I'm wasting my money buying 2 paired sticks of 256mb and should
just get 1-512 stick now and another later when I can afford it
again. THX for your replies.
Click to expand...

Yes.
 
Tripper said:
I read this but cannot remember the site. True? Saw a pic of
the Asus A7N8X Deluxe board and it has just 3 mem slots.
Yep.

Maybe
I'm wasting my money buying 2 paired sticks of 256mb and should
just get 1-512 stick now and another later when I can afford it
again.
Click to expand...

Either way works. The increase in performance from Dual Channel isn't
massive, so if 1x512MB is cheaper than 2x256MB DIMMS then do that. If not,
then you can still add 512MB later on, and then have Dual Channel, and still
have a Gig.

Ben
 
It's just a limitation of that motherboard..other boards support 4 sticks
for 2 dual channels of memory.

One more reason why I've never understood the hype of Asus boards.
 
Show me ANY Nforce2 motherboard that has more than 3 memory slots...

I bet you can't do it...

E
 
I stand corrected... (and I'm correcting myself)...

The new Gigabyte boards now support the 4th DIMM slot.

The GA-7N400-L, GA-7N400 Pro, and GA-7NNXP are the only boards that I
(now) know of that are NForce2 based and have 4 memory slots.

E
 
Just built a system using GA-7N400 pro. It has 4 slots.
I ordered 4 Crucial 512mb sticks to put in it, only to find it won't work
with 4 unless two are double sided and 2 are single sided., So it's working
with 3 and I have a spare :-{
 
"Biggles" said:
Just built a system using GA-7N400 pro. It has 4 slots.
I ordered 4 Crucial 512mb sticks to put in it, only to find it won't work
with 4 unless two are double sided and 2 are single sided., So it's working
with 3 and I have a spare :-{
Click to expand...

To do a fourth slot would require cross wiring the chip selects,
in the same way that the third slot on an 845PE works. So, as you've
discovered, this "feature" doesn't increase the max memory the board
can hold. If there are only enough control signals to drive six
"sides" of memory, it doesn't matter how many slots are placed on
the board - that number of sides is all that can be controlled.

The other issue is the Nforce2 chipset has three address busses. (Note
- since no datasheet is available, this info comes from an early review
of the Nforce2.) This is why it is able to drive three DIMMs at DDR400
plus, unlike other chipsets that only have one copy of address bits
to work with. Since the GA-7N400 will be driving the two single sided
slots with one address bus, it would be interesting to see if ram
in those slots is happy at DDR400+.

With the crosswiring trick, you could build an Nforce2 board with
six single sided DIMMs on it. Visually impressive but no more valuable
than the existing three (double sided) slot boards.

Paul
 
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