help! upgrading ddr ram for K7S5A

[wokka]

hi there, im new to the board but have come across it due to the help everyone gives out
usually i dont usually have a problem working things out but if anyone could give me a bit more insight on this particular matter id be grateful
i have a K7S5A socket A athlon 2000+ motherboard/processor and currently have one 256mb ddr ram installed
the motherboard manual says it supports ddr up to 266mhz, ive also read varios places on here that it only accepts PC133 and unbuffered, non-ECC

now this is where i need help, i bought a 512 ddr ram off ebay because of it being a good price but now im not sure if its compatible or it is faulty, i will contact the bloke who sold it me either way but i dont really want to look a fool by buying something thats incompatible, usually i have sdram but since my comp was upgraded so did the ram
anyway the ram i bought is a samsung pc1600r-20220-z, 512mb ddr pc1600 200mhz CL2.0 ECC

now as ive only just realised that my motherboard does not accept non EEC but can anyone tell me is this case shut or is there way around it and can somebody give me some info on what EEC is, and is there no way to get this ram working on my comp? and also what the CL2.0 means? actually, can someone tell me it all so i dont be stupid ever again!!!

cheers for the help!!

[MDS]

Please don't double post


http://www.techimo.com/forum/t115358.html

[John Prophet]

your board surely accepts non ecc....ecc is "error correction circuitry" (or something like that)..it is usually used in servers etc...not usually used in regular pc's...its usually more expensive also

the K7s5a is a little odd in that it can take either pc133 sdram..or pc266 DDR....of course the DDR is faster.

I think it has 2 slots for each type of ram on that board...but of course you can only use one type of ram..EITHER pc133 or DDR


if you already have one 256 Pc2100 DDR..then you can get another stick of DDR and your good to go.....you can either get pc2100 (same as saying DDR266) or you could get pc2700 (DDR333) or pc3200 (DDR400)...I think they would mix with your current ram..they would just run at pc2100 speeds

[John Prophet]

ahh, I see in your other post that you bought pc1600...that only runs at 200mhz....so it is usually only used in "duron" systems..cuz Durons run at 200mhz bus speed.

[wokka]

sorry for the double post but i wasnt to sure what forum i should post in :-s

so the 2700 and 3200 could work too, thats interesting, would they be better than a 2100?

[sweeper2]

Okay, first off, the board only supports up to DDR266 or PC2100 512mg for each slot(DDR SLOTS)Or PC200 512 mg each slot (DDR SLOTS)

I don't think the board will support the 512 of ECC ram, you can try to put it in and see if it boots up, if it doesn't support it, you will probably get a beep code upon startup. Then just take it back out..

You most likely have to get NON-ECC ram to be compatable.