Which motherboard I have - Tech Support Forums

AlexTeslin · October 3rd, 2008, 09:29 AM

Hi there,

I have few questions about updating my motherboard in terms of memory and BIOS. I have limited knowledge about montherboards in general so I have browsed for few hours about them.

First thing I did to find what motherboard i have and when i opened my case I found only this: 865PE Neo2-PLSK....
dots are some numbers presumably s/n. The PC was bought in 2003 and my question is do I need to update my BIOS and if yes how and where (in msicomputer.com)?

My second question is about upgrading my RAM memory. At the moment I have 2 of DDR 400(3) 256 m*8 in slots 1, 3. Does this mean I can only upgrade to DDR1 and NOT DDR2?. Also, I would like to upgrade to 2GB with 2 1GBs sticks. When I was browsing websites I found that i need to make sure that I connect them with dual channel. How can I determine if they are in dual or single channel now and if they are in single, how can i set to dual?

Apologies for my lengthly message, but after reading lots of material from various websites I got even more confused.

Any help will be much appreciated

sweeper2 · October 3rd, 2008, 09:53 AM

t-break - MSI 865PE Neo2 (865) Motherboard

I believe it's an MSI motherboard

sweeper2 · October 3rd, 2008, 09:54 AM

usually the ram slots are color coded... probably green and purple... i think.... if you get 2 sticks of 1 gb ddr400 .. just put each stick in the same color for dual channel.

sweeper2 · October 3rd, 2008, 09:56 AM

does it look like this...

sweeper2 · October 3rd, 2008, 09:57 AM

865PE Neo2 - Google Image Search
look through these images... see if one looks like your motherboard... then you can go from there...

sweeper2 · October 3rd, 2008, 09:59 AM

you can upgrade your bios.. if your having problems.. if not.. i wouldn't worry about it... you can go to the MSI site and look under "downloads" to see what you need to download and how to do it...

AlexTeslin · October 3rd, 2008, 10:31 AM

Thank you for all you replies.

Yes, its MSI motherboard and it looks excatly like in the picture. it has got 2 colours green and purple. Currently 2 RAM stick are in each colour, one 256mb in green and the other in purple. (Does this mean that they are not dual channeled). And if Yes, by putting 2 1GBs of RAM in each colour will set to dual channel?

In terms of BIOS I have no problems so far, so I would leave it as you suggested.

Thanks again

AlexTeslin · October 3rd, 2008, 10:33 AM

Sorry, I meant by putting those RAM stick in one colour slots.

AlexTeslin · October 3rd, 2008, 10:51 AM

I just found on a website to buy a memory sticks and found this:
Corsair 1GB ValueSelect 184-Pin DDR 333Mhz (PC2700) PC Memory
and
Corsair 1GB ValueSelect 184-Pin DDR 400Mhz (PC3200) PC Memory

How would I know which one i need? (PC2700 or PC3200)? PC3200 is with 400Mhz, so i suppose this is the right one? As my current memory is DDR 400(3). Presumably is 400Mhz?

Many thanks again

sweeper2 · October 3rd, 2008, 12:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlexTeslin

I just found on a website to buy a memory sticks and found this:
Corsair 1GB ValueSelect 184-Pin DDR 333Mhz (PC2700) PC Memory
and
Corsair 1GB ValueSelect 184-Pin DDR 400Mhz (PC3200) PC Memory

How would I know which one i need? (PC2700 or PC3200)? PC3200 is with 400Mhz, so i suppose this is the right one? As my current memory is DDR 400(3). Presumably is 400Mhz?

Many thanks again

i would use the ddr400, its a higher speed of ram then the ddr333 ... you could use either one.. but you will get faster performance from the ddr400

and i believe if you want to run dual channel... put each stick in the SAME color slot 2 in purple or 2 in green... when you boot up your pc... if you watch the screen... during the "dos" bootup... you should see it say "dual channel" somewhere...