Switching mobo and CPU, can I keep my RAM?  | | | 
September 21st, 2002, 07:37 PM
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#1 (permalink)
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Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Sweden
Posts: 39
|  Switching mobo and CPU, can I keep my RAM?
Hi all!
I currently have an Athlon XP 1700+ on an Abit KG7-board but I'm gonna switch to a P4 set-up. (I've got my reasons, I'm not trying to start a AMD vs Intel war here, sorry if you got your hopes up =)
The thing is I have 1GB of RAM and wonder if I can use that on the new set-up?
I got 4 bits of "256MB DDR PC2100 266Mhz Samsung original ECC Reg." While looking for a new motherboard I saw several that said things like "3xDDR 266Mhz PC 2100 compiliant" and such. The thing is that one mobo specific said that it could only use unbuffered memory (same as "un-ecc-reg."?) and this got me worried.
Do I have to get a specific mobo that can handle ECC memory?
In my current BIOS I can turn the ECC function off, does it behave like unbuffered memory then and can be used as that?
Or am I completly lost...? 
And finaly, if you got a tip on a good motherboard for a P4 (2,4Ghz) set-up please share it =) I'm a designer and have "lots" of printers, scanners and stuff so USB, Firewire and such wins over RAID-functions.
Thanks people! | 
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September 21st, 2002, 07:43 PM
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#2 (permalink)
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Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: NCSU
Posts: 4,381
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Ure lost dude! 
Yeah, ECC Ram doesn't work on a non-ECC mobo and non-ECC RAM doesn't work on an ECC mobo. -edit- Forgot to say, most new boards I think are backwards compatible wioth non-ECC if they are ECC compliant. I wouldn't suggest mixing ECC and non-ECC tho. What kind of P4 are you looking at.
Do you have a prefrence on the mobo manufacturer? (ie Asus, Abit, MSI, Gigabyte, Soyo. etc?)
Last edited by Redwolf : September 21st, 2002 at 08:03 PM.
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September 21st, 2002, 07:50 PM
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#3 (permalink)
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Last edited by Redwolf : September 21st, 2002 at 08:09 PM.
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September 21st, 2002, 08:07 PM
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#4 (permalink)
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Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Mauldin, SC
Posts: 1,381
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Red:
Some mobos do support both types. Sometimes, unbuffered is OK
up to a point, then you have to go to ECC if you want to fill up all
of the memory slots.
My Gigabyte GA-8IEXP states "Supports 64-bit ECC type DRAM
integrity mode."
Someone might want to clarify this further, in case I'm off base with my "ECC/nonECC" vs. "buffered/unbuffered" vs. "registered/nonregistered." | |
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September 21st, 2002, 08:11 PM
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#5 (permalink)
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Hmmm... I know ECC/nonECC are not interchangable, but sometimes support both. TSS had a quastion about this a while back. I'll have to do soem research. | |
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September 21st, 2002, 08:17 PM
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#6 (permalink)
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September 21st, 2002, 08:42 PM
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#7 (permalink)
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Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Sweden
Posts: 39
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Thanks for the quick answers!
Ok red, I'll just make damn sure that the mobo I get does support ECC. The P4 I'm looking at is the 2400Mhz with 400Mhz or 533Mhz FSB (they are priced the same so I guess it depends on the mobo I get). As for preference I like brunettes. Oh, you said manufactures... No, no favorit there =)
And bill, your correct on that filling up the slots part since that's why I ended up with all this memory in the first place.
But to add some new ?-marks. I check some of the links above and surf around, get to Asus and find the following:
"Max. 3GB PC133/PC100 unbuffered ECC/non-ECC SDRAM DIMMS"
Unbuffered ECC? Now I AM lost! =) | |
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September 21st, 2002, 08:49 PM
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#8 (permalink)
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Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Sweden
Posts: 39
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Hey Redwolf I said I'm a designer damnit and you give me a link with a ton of greek!
Just joking! Kinda understood most of it. Ok, some of it...  | |
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September 21st, 2002, 09:24 PM
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#9 (permalink)
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Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Sweden
Posts: 39
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Feels like I'm talking to myself here, posting on my own postings, but anyway...
bill1971, that GA-81EXP is just what I'm looking for. Damn that looks sweet
But, as you may start to notice, give me a link and I'll just end up with a new question for you. This time:
The spec says "2 x ATA 133/100/66 Bus Master IDE for RAID 0 and RAID 1 ( only two HDDs could be used by RAID function )". What's the difference between 0 and 1? I always thought that RAID was a way to use a number of HDDs as one big.
Don't tell me I'm lost... again... | |
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September 21st, 2002, 10:53 PM
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#10 (permalink)
| | Ultimate Member
Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Holmen, Wisconsin US
Posts: 2,855
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RAID0 is when the drives are striped and run together in series (alternates reading/writing from each drive), which will give you more performance. The two drives will be recognized by the OS as one big drive.
RAID1 is when the drives are running in parallel, reading from the main drive and writing to both drives, with the second drive as a mirror image. This gives you more data security at the expense of space, as the total space available is equal to only the main drive. The second drive will be hidden until it's needed to correct problems with data on the main drive. RAID Basics
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