Techno2000

Greetings all..

I have a question about an Asus A8V-E Deluxe (BIOS Rev. 1012) motherboard. I currently have an AMD Athlon 64 3700+ (San Diego Core) and 2x512 MB of Hynix (HY5DU56822DT-D43) PC-3200 DDR (400 MHz) memory. This is listed in the QVL as follows:

512MB Hynix HYMD264646D8J-D43 3 Hynix DS HY5DU56822DT-D43 V V X

The two "V"s at the end represent the DIMM socket support. So, my RAM is listed as supporting A (one module inserted in any slot as Single-channel) and B (one pair of modules inserted into either the blue slots or the black slots as one pair of Dual-channel). Option C (4 modules inserted into both the blue and black slots as two pairs of Dual-channel) is not supported.

Currently, I have my RAM sitting in DIMM_A1 and DIMM_B1, which gives me one pair of Dual-channel and works with no problems.

My issue is that I want to upgrade to 2GB of RAM and don't want to lose the Dual-channel. Assuming I am reading the QVL correctly, it would appear that if I purchase two more identical sticks of RAM, then I will have 2 GB but will only have Single-channel. Is this correct? If this is the case, how much of a performance hit can I expect to take?

On the QVL, there are two Samsung sticks that do support 4x512 MB. If I bought just 2x512 MB of Samsung and combined it with my 2x512 MB of Hynix, would I have two pairs of Dual-channel or would it kick it down to Single-channel?

The only other option I could see is replacing my current memory and using 2x1 GB of some other brand. On the QVL, I don't see any 1 GB sticks functioning as Dual-channel. Can you have 1GB Dual-Channel?

Sorry for such a long post but I really want to understand what I'm looking at here. To summarize, my main goal is to have 2 GB of RAM running in Dual-channel at the rated 400 MHz spec. I'd really appreciate any advice that you all could provide.

Thank you!

Techno2000

twajetmech

Hello and welcome to the forum. Asus's qvl is notoriously out of touch and almost never updated. I myself have reapeated written to Asus about the same issue concerning my own mobo.....no reply. The good news is that there is probably a 95% chance that if you did find the same modules of memory and put them in that you would not loose dual channel ops. Though you may still take a performance hit (5%-20%) if the memory goes from 1T to 2T timings. Your best bet for compatability would be to contact Mushkin or Corsair and either use their memory advisors or talk to one of their techs for a memory reccomendation, both mfg's do a lot of their own validation and will offer good advice. This however would mean you will have to ditch your current memory for which ever memory they reccomend, since mixing memory mfg's is usually not a good idea. Good luck and please post back and let us know how it went.

Techno2000

Thanks for the response twajetmech! It is good to know that the QVL is not always right. (Well, not good that it is incorrect but if it is wrong then it does give me a better shot of compatibility which is a good thing). I guess I'm going to head down to my local computer store and see if I can still get an exact match for the RAM. If I can then I will give it a shot and hope for Dual-channel. If I can't match it then I will definitely research Corsair and Mushkin to see about getting all new sticks. If it comes to that though, I may have to hold off on upgrading for a bit (limited funds for this little project of mine). I'll let you know in the next day or two how I make out. Cheers!

signal64

Remember that the memory controller is built into the AMD64 so it can depend on the generation of processor used.

On my A8V Deluxe, you don't loose dual channel with 4 sticks of RAM.
I'm betting the same for the A8V-E.

However, you might loose the 400FSB to your memory.
It'll default to 333Mhz with 4 sticks of double sided RAM.
You may have to manually adjust the speed. Use memtest86 after you do just to make sure things are running ok.

My 1st gen 3500+ tends to not like running at 400FSB with 4 sticks, but my 3800+ X2 has no problem with it. This is with the same A8V Deluxe board with the same memory.

Good Luck.

Techno2000

I have success!

I went to my local computer store and asked for 2x512 MB of Hynix PC-3200 DDR RAM. The part number was slightly different than the original memory and the new ones are Single Sided where as the originals are Dual Sided. I decided to risk it anyways and bought them.

Just got home and plugged them in. Booted up first try and the BIOS happily reported that it has 2GB of 400 MHz Dual-channel memory. (I'm not sure on the 1T/2T timings since I don't know where to check this on my board). The real test for me is the speed of the system. The measurements that I did before the upgrade and the tests I did after are consistent. It does not appear that I took any performance hits.

You were right twajetmech. The QVL was not accurate. Makes me a happy camper! Thanks for all the help everybody!

Techno2000

cfcDevil

Can you share with us how you allocate all four RAM sticks? Is it

Double-sided RAM = A1 & B1
Single-sided RAM = A2 & B2

Thanks in advance.

Techno2000

Yes, you are exactly right. I left the two original DS sticks in the DIMM_A1 and DIMM_B1 slots. I added the two new SS sticks to the DIMM_A2 and DIMM_B2 slots.

As a side note, I did find the 1T/2T timings that were mentioned in a previous post. My motherboard is reporting 2T timings in the settings. To tell you the truth, I don't know what it was at before I put the new RAM in. Given that my tests show the same speeds, I'm guessing it was always 2T. (My RAM is not the highest quality. I don't game so RAM speed was not my first concern when building this system). When I have a bit more free time, I will remove the new sticks and check the timings again. Either way, I'm satisfied with the results.

Hope that helps!

Techno2000