RAM upgrade

t-rex

t-rex

t-rex

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Joined
23 Dec 2004
Posts
218
Can somebody please give me some advice?

I have had the same memory since I built my PC over three years ago, it's two 256MB DDR400 PC3200 GeIL sticks and I desperately want to upgrade. I have an Athlon XP running at 3200+ and an ABIT NF7 Series mothboard. The motherboard has only three slots for RAM but one of them is unusable (lol) because my DVD drive is in the way of it. I did an online test a while ago that said I could only use a maximum of 1.5gig but my motherboard manual said that the maximum was 2 or 3gig.

What is my best option?
 
You should have no problems running 2x1gb of PC3200 in the Abit NF7, providing you can access DIMM2 and DIMM3.

But is DIMM3 the one that's blocked off?
 
If I remember right the NF7's needed to use DIMM2 and DIMM3 for two 1gb sticks of PC3200.
 
I just noticed in the manual it says they suggest installing from DIMM3 to DIMM1. I don't know why I didn't pay attention to that in the first place but it's always seemed to work fine. If I were to get 2x1gb sticks and put them into DIMM1 and DIMM2 would anything bad happen? Looking at the layout of my drives, I think I can move the DVD one to access DIMM3.

Once I've put the new RAM in do I need to go to the BIOS to set up dual channel? I can't remember if I did this three years ago.
 
I think DIMM1 and 2 were fine when not using 1gb sticks of PC3200. But you will need to move the DVD drive to access DIMM3 for 1gb sticks of PC3200 (if indeed you are looking at 2x1gb of PC3200).

I think dual-channel is automatically activated by the board.
 
Thanks for your help, just one final question.. would leaving one of the 256MB sticks in DIMM1 have a postive or negative impact?
 
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