P4C800-E Deluxe and 2 Gigs of PC3500

RamGuy, I just built a new box... P4C800-E with 1 gig of Corsair CMX512 PC3500 (5 512s)... went in with no problems whatsoever... the machine screams, but i'd really like to go with another gig of RAM... is there anything i need to worry about? is this feasible? according to the Asus website... Corsair CMX512 PC3500 is on their Qualified Vendor List, but it only states that 2 sticks are supported... are there any problems with going to 4 sticks? any settings i need to change? thanks in advance

I would check further with Asus to see if that 2nd gig of RAM is gonna work. I thought that they supported 4gb total but I don't remember. You may have to loosen your timings some depending on how "tight" you are running them because as you add RAM, you add latency. Just out of curiosity, why the 2nd gig of RAM? Unless you have needs for it, your system is theoretically faster with 2 DIMMs populated. Mike.

thanks for the input... as for why.. 2 reasons #1 i'm a graphics professional(? heh) dealing with very large graphic print files and as well as web/ 3D/ character design & anmation yada yada yada... so the more RAM the better... i'm typically using lots of programs at once... and system memory runs out quickly when handling large files in photoshop while searching image archives in acdsee and adjusting vector artwork in illustrator while surfing the web looking for ideas as well as running dreamweaver and 3D Studio Max.. hehe multi-tasking is fun! haha #2 this is my first box, well first box i have built... so its kind of a status thing too.. hehe 1 gig of RAM seems to be standard, so i have to have 2 Gigs... about asus.. yeah 4 Gigs is the total memory allowed, but according to their Qualified Vendor List... only 2 sticks of 512 are the maximum supported... i read somewhere that meant they had only tested 2 sticks on the board... there are a few other RAM suppliers that have 4 sticks of 512 RAM supported on that vendor list, but i went with corsair and wanted to see what the RAMGUY had to say about it... here's my spec's if you were curious... its an all out gaming and graphics sort of workstation... P4 3.0 Ghz 800Mhz FSB Asus P4C800-E Deluxe Zalman CNPS7000-CU fan 2 x Corsair CMX512 PC3500 Sony DRU-510A DVD/ CD Burner 2 x Western Digital 37gig SATA Raptors (RAID 0) 2 x Western Digital 200gig Caviar (RAID 0) eVGA Geforce FX 5900 256MB Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Antec True Power 480W Lian Li PC 6070 Silent Case Dell 2000FP 20" LCD Monitor Creative Megaworks THX 5.1 Speakers

That looks like a really nice rig there. As for the 2 gigs, yeah, 3D will eat it up. I'd do 2 things: 1. Look around at some forums and see in general who is running 4 sticks and get some feedback. I think that some of the earlier Canterwood boards were tested with 4 sticks, try Anandtech and [url]www.abxzone.com[/url] I think you will be fine with 4 DIMMs populated but I'm not paying for your RAM so check to be sure. 2. Look into putting your WINXP paging file on a seperate HD from the Apps and OS. It speeds up paging I/O and reduces traffic on the system HD. You can do it with any type of HD you choose but I'd suggest atleast an ATA100, 133, or even a SATA drive if you feel frisky. You could get a Seagate SATA drive, put your paging file on a partition and use the rest for additional storage or just use one of those open IDE connectors you have. Check out [url]www.videoguys.com[/url] , the WINXP tweaks by Dave Laborde for more tech type info. I have used his tweaks on WIN98, WIN2K, and now XP. QUOTE]#2 this is my first box, well first box i have built... so its kind of a status thing too.. hehe 1 gig of RAM seems to be standard, so i have to have 2 Gigs...[/QUOTE] My wife does DV editing so I kinda know how you feel. She says size matters too so go for it, I'm sure she is not wrong! Good luck, Mike.[

I am running 2 gig of Twinx 3200LL in my P4C800 with no problems, the timings I am using are 2-3-3-6

thanks mike hehe so how i have it setup now...i have the two SATA 10krpm Raptors striped RAID 0, to be a 72 gig space then that was partitioned into 20gig and 52 gig... the 20 for XP and the 52 for apps... then i have the two 200gig caviars striped together and partitioned into 4 100gig drives... where would you suggest placing that paging file? i'll definitely take a look at those links you sent... once again thanks for your input terence

[QUOTE]where would you suggest placing that paging file?[/QUOTE] The fundamental idea is to get the paging file off of the physical drive that has the OS and the Apps, but most importantly away from the OS. In your current system, you could put it anywhere you could neatly put it on the WD 400gb array. You only need about a 5gb partition if you intend to have 2gb of RAM. Ideally however, you should get a small fast HD and put the paging file on that drive somewhere on an unused connector. It could be an ATA100 or 133 on that otherwise useless PATA RAID controller connector on the Promise, one of your unused ATA100 IDE connectors, or even another SATA drive on a SATA port that you are not yet using. It just depends on how much you have to spend and, the faster the drive you use, the better. After you do this, of course you have to go into the My computer, right click to properties, Advanced, then click performance settings, Advanced, then click Virtual Memory change. Once there you will want to do 2 things: 1. Place a paging file on the drive you designated and remove the paging file from the OS drive. 2. Set the minimum and maximum for the paging file as the same value, 2 X your RAM total. Among other things, setting this min/max value the same will save a bit of time each page cycle and save CPU cycles as Windows is no longer refiguring the paging file size each cycle. For what you are doing, even with the 2gigs of RAM, the page file drive will be a good investment. I even use the extra 25gb or so of space on mine for emergency overflow storage during heavy editing or when we have lots of projects on the puter at the same time. Good luck, Mike.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by dwnlojedi [/i] [B]RamGuy, I just built a new box... P4C800-E with 1 gig of Corsair CMX512 PC3500 (5 512s)... went in with no problems whatsoever... the machine screams, but i'd really like to go with another gig of RAM... is there anything i need to worry about? is this feasible? according to the Asus website... Corsair CMX512 PC3500 is on their Qualified Vendor List, but it only states that 2 sticks are supported... are there any problems with going to 4 sticks? any settings i need to change? thanks in advance [/B][/QUOTE] nice to see your machine is running nice and smooth :) I have the same mobo and twinx1024-3200LL with problems, one stick is bad, so I'm gonna RMA them. Question to you is : Can you ENABLE PAT (not auto but enable) and set performance to turbo with your PC3500 sticks? Looking at the forums here and on other sites, it all says the same for dual ddr, most issues are with twinx sets, regular PCXX00 sticks run smooth, agressive timings and performance settings enabled. Can you confirm this? Do you also think the new PC3700 sticks are as stable as their little broter PC3500 ? thanks in advance!