RAM purchase

[nishant_nms]

I have a Gigabyte K8VM800M (Rev. 1) motherboard. It is based on VIA K8M800 chipset. The board has got 2 memory slots and it doesn't supports dual channel RAM. I am currently having 2 RAM sticks one 256 MB DDR400 and another one 128 MB DDR266. Now I am thinking of buying 1 GB RAM. But I am not able to decide that whether I should opt for 512*2 combination or 1 GB stick. I had decided that I would buy Kingston RAM. Plz help me to choose and I possible plz quote the price of the RAM.

[Ethan_Hunt]

Go for a single stick.It will cost you lesser than the combination of two sticks.Plus since you mentioned that it(Motherboard) dosen't support dual channel operation then there's virtually no use of a combi purchase.

[ashfame]

2 sticks of 512mb will cost less than a single one of 1 gb. (any brand)
u just got to know the right dealer.

[samrulez]

No use getting 2X512 sticks.....so get a single 1 GB sticks.....for the brand go for Transcend or Kngston...

[Third Eye]

Go for single 1 GB Stick,what is the maximum memory your mobo supports ?

[samrulez]

Originally Posted by tech_mastermind

Go for single 1 GB Stick,what is the maximum memory your mobo supports ?

His board can support 2 GB ram........1 GB in each slot 'n' there are 2 slots...

[nishant_nms]

Originally Posted by samrulez

His board can support 2 GB ram........1 GB in each slot 'n' there are 2 slots...

He is right. Plz quote the price.
And does anybody knows a dealer in patna.
And Kingston says it offers a lifetime warranty, How much year they mean

[samrulez]

Originally Posted by nishant_nms

He is right. Plz quote the price.
And does anybody knows a dealer in patna.
And Kingston says it offers a lifetime warranty, How much year they mean

Well..........1GB stick should cost u around 3.5k-4k..........
But don't know about the warranty thing......

[akshayt]

get transcend UCCC chips or transcend hynix d43 chips, or if you can get corsair chips which overclcok and are supported by oyur mobo then go for them, also check manual for support with mobo and ram.

[Third Eye]

Kingston is great brand of RAM.

[akshayt]

Kingston is nothing great.

1) OCZ - very pricy in India
2) Corsair - but Value select is not supported by certain asus mobos including asus a8n e and it may/probably not be a good overclocker either if you are going for ddr 400.

In India either Corsair or Transcend are decent bets, if not these then hynix d43 chips, don't go for any kingston as of now, they were good earlier but now in India they aren't.

[janitha]

Originally Posted by akshayt

Kingston is nothing great.

1) OCZ - very pricy in India
2) Corsair - but Value select is not supported by certain asus mobos including asus a8n e and it may/probably not be a good overclocker either if you are going for ddr 400.

In India either Corsair or Transcend are decent bets, if not these then hynix d43 chips, don't go for any kingston as of now, they were good earlier but now in India they aren't.

Wrong in case of A8-NE out of my experience today.

[Ch@0s]

Value select and A8N-E don't like each other. The best would be to get a 1GB samsung UCCC stick (either transcend or twinmos). That mobo will drop to DDR333 if you have two dual sided DIMMs (i.e. 2x512MB normal sticks).

[janitha]

Originally Posted by Ch@0s

Value select and A8N-E don't like each other. The best would be to get a 1GB samsung UCCC stick (either transcend or twinmos). That mobo will drop to DDR333 if you have two dual sided DIMMs (i.e. 2x512MB normal sticks).

I had heard that with early cores before venice 400 Mhz rams used to drop to 333 when all the 4 slots were populated and that there were such problems with double sided rams (with chips on both sides).

Anyway my corsair value select 1GBx2 are working fine at dual channel 400 MHz.

BTW my new ram sticks were manufactured in June 2006 and contains Samsung chips.

Today I searched for this issue in the web. In some forums it is said that there will be problems if the Bios is v.1005 or earlier. My Bios is Revision 1013 which is the latest.

[akshayt]

It isn't that the ram doesn't work. I had corsair vs 512mb X 2, things(not everything) especially games started to crash, nothing solved the problem, soon there was crashing in many things or hanging and I changed the modules and everything was ok then. Even the manual states that it doesn't support 2 modules of ddr 400, those were 512mb each. How long have you used it?

Also, corsair value select may not be a decent overclcoker with ddr 400.

[janitha]

Originally Posted by akshayt

It isn't that the ram doesn't work. I had corsair vs 512mb X 2, things(not everything) especially games started to crash, nothing solved the problem, soon there was crashing in many things or hanging and I changed the modules and everything was ok then. Even the manual states that it doesn't support 2 modules of ddr 400, those were 512mb each. How long have you used it?

Also, corsair value select may not be a decent overclcoker with ddr 400.

Definitely it is not at all good for O/Cing. But I am not into overclocking, other than occasioninally experimenting for fun only.

But now I referred the A8N-E manual and suprisingly Corsair Value Select is included in the "Qualified Vendors List" for memory and Transcend is absent in the list.

Yes as you said, the manual says it does'nt support 2 modules, but my 2 modules do work at 400 MHz and that also in dual channel. Perhaps the problems have been rectified in recent production consignements.

Of course I can return them and get another brand if and when some problem crops up.