Athlon64 memory compatiblity

While reading an AMD forum yesterday I saw a post for Athlon64
compatible memory and another for Athlon64 incompatible memory. This is
making me nervous about building a system with an Athlon64. How
sensutive Athlon64 cpu's and mobo's to memory selection. It seems that
many high end memory sticks did not work at all. I have looked at
several mobo manufacturer websites looking for lists of compatible
memory and these lists are very short.

"JS" wrote in message
...
While reading an AMD forum yesterday I saw a post for Athlon64
compatible memory and another for Athlon64 incompatible memory. This is
making me nervous about building a system with an Athlon64. How
sensutive Athlon64 cpu's and mobo's to memory selection. It seems that
many high end memory sticks did not work at all. I have looked at
several mobo manufacturer websites looking for lists of compatible
memory and these lists are very short.

Take this FWIW, as I don't claim to be an A64 expert.
Manufacturers' compatibility lists are inevitably short because testing is
expensive (get the memory, install, test, do it all again with another
brand), not necessarily because there were a lot of failures.
Memory "pickiness" was a pervasive issue when the motherboards first
appeared, but seems to have become less so with BIOS and motherboard
revisions, IOW as products have matured. That said, look for current reports
of memory problems with the mobo brand/model you are considering.

On Wed, 08 Sep 2004 08:26:30 +0000, JS wrote:

While reading an AMD forum yesterday I saw a post for Athlon64
compatible memory and another for Athlon64 incompatible memory. This is
making me nervous about building a system with an Athlon64. How
sensutive Athlon64 cpu's and mobo's to memory selection. It seems that
many high end memory sticks did not work at all. I have looked at
several mobo manufacturer websites looking for lists of compatible
memory and these lists are very short.

Foget those list. They will never be complete. One MB site i went to
doesn't have any memory listed as compatible. The real kicker is that
incompatibilty is caused by the MB maker, not the ram. So if the ram you
get doesn't work, then don't automatically blame the ram manufacturer.

--
Abit KT7-Raid (KT133) Tbred B core CPU @2400MHz (24x100FSB)
http://mysite.verizon.net/res0exft/cpu.htm

Just buy any name brand memory,Crucial, Kingston,Corsair and you'll be fine.
BTW,I'm using BuffaloTech PC3700 with an A64 and Chaintech Nforce 3
motherboard.

How
sensutive Athlon64 cpu's and mobo's to memory selection. It seems that
many high end memory sticks did not work at all. I have looked at
several mobo manufacturer websites looking for lists of compatible
memory and these lists are very short.

I'm using Corsair XMS memory with my FX-51 on an MSI Master2-FAR board. Of
course this board requires you to use ECC Registered/Buffered RAM which is
more expensive and you prolly won't need that for what you are doing.
But my point is I think Corsair is another good brand I've never had
problems with.

"Wes Newell" wrote in message
newsan.2004.09.08.16.39.14.340488@TAKEOUTverizon .net...
On Wed, 08 Sep 2004 08:26:30 +0000, JS wrote:

[snip]
The real kicker is that
incompatibilty is caused by the MB maker, not the ram.

Is that right? I thought since the A64's incorporate the memory controller
(rather than it being handled by the Northbridge), memory compatibility was
pretty much down to the processor and the memory now. Maybe I am mistaken?

Chip

On Wed, 08 Sep 2004 08:26:30 GMT, JS wrote:

While reading an AMD forum yesterday I saw a post for Athlon64
compatible memory and another for Athlon64 incompatible memory. This is
making me nervous about building a system with an Athlon64. How
sensutive Athlon64 cpu's and mobo's to memory selection. It seems that
many high end memory sticks did not work at all. I have looked at
several mobo manufacturer websites looking for lists of compatible
memory and these lists are very short.


Any memory issues should have been fixed in motherboard bios updates
by now.

assuming you're using decent ram in the first place.

On Thu, 09 Sep 2004 09:25:54 +0100, Chip wrote:


"Wes Newell" wrote in message
newsan.2004.09.08.16.39.14.340488@TAKEOUTverizon .net...
On Wed, 08 Sep 2004 08:26:30 +0000, JS wrote:

[snip]
The real kicker is that
incompatibilty is caused by the MB maker, not the ram.

Is that right? I thought since the A64's incorporate the memory controller
(rather than it being handled by the Northbridge), memory compatibility was
pretty much down to the processor and the memory now. Maybe I am mistaken?

The controller is in the cpu. The settings for it are controlled by the
bios still. So if they read CL3 from the ram and set it to CL2
in error..............

--
Abit KT7-Raid (KT133) Tbred B core CPU @2400MHz (24x100FSB)
http://mysite.verizon.net/res0exft/cpu.htm

"Wes Newell" wrote in message
newsan.2004.09.09.09.10.53.564346@TAKEOUTverizon .net...
On Thu, 09 Sep 2004 09:25:54 +0100, Chip wrote:


"Wes Newell" wrote in message
newsan.2004.09.08.16.39.14.340488@TAKEOUTverizon .net...
On Wed, 08 Sep 2004 08:26:30 +0000, JS wrote:

[snip]
The real kicker is that
incompatibilty is caused by the MB maker, not the ram.

Is that right? I thought since the A64's incorporate the memory
controller
(rather than it being handled by the Northbridge), memory compatibility
was
pretty much down to the processor and the memory now. Maybe I am
mistaken?

The controller is in the cpu. The settings for it are controlled by the
bios still. So if they read CL3 from the ram and set it to CL2
in error..............

Fair point.