I've been running my K7S5A with 256MB (2 X 128) SDRAM for several months
now. I recently ran across a system with a K7VMA in it, and I think I'm
going to swap the SDRAM into it, and plop a 512MB stick of DDR into the 5A.
I might add more later; or I might upgrade my board on down the line, so
I'm thinking about PC3200.

I'm not going for the last utter tweak, but I am attracted to the idea of
moving up from SDRAM to DDR. I'm looking at Rosewill memory. There is a
PC3200 stick for a good price at CAS 3-4-4. On the other hand, there is
also PC2700 with CAS of 2.5-3-3.

I do know that the memory will only operate at PC2100 speed in this board.
No worries there.

I think I'd go with the PC3200 if I'm sure it will work in the K7S5A. As
far as board version: Belarc says it's a 1.X, and the crucial.com detector
declares it a 3.X. I guess I'll play it safe and assume it's the older
one; although I did buy it for a song from Newegg right before they started
selling the Pros, IIRC.

So my question is, does anyone know any reason I should go with the 2700
instead? And should I steer clear of the Rosewill? Note I'm not
overclocking or anything. I just want a good, stable system.

Any suggestions, comments, etc.? Thanks.

--
fD

DDR PC3200 runs fine in k7s5a, had a gig of ocz running in mine for a while.


doughy


"fLameDogg" <flamedogg (AT) operamail (DOT) com> wrote


---
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Thanks Doughnut.

"Doughnut" <doughnut (AT) doughnut (DOT) com> wrote in
news:40f3af0c$0$6448$cc9e4d1f (AT) news-text (DOT) dial.pipex.com:

I run a XP 2600+ in an older version K7S5A 1.0 as you. I flashed my BIOS
recently and the ceiling on this board is 2600. As for memory, I ran SDRAM
for a short time, then quickly moved to DDR. Big Difference!.

I am running www.mushkin.com memory 2x512 @2.5 CAS

I am not overclocked or anything now, since there is really no reason with
low CPU prices these days. I would recommend a brand name chip(s) to
alleviate and chances of corruption, but cheap memory does work. Its what
your comfortable with.

I am on my 72nd K7S5A ( I build computers) and have only had ONE failure
that was a true defect. This boards rocks.

Don't worry about memory speed as long as you are OVER the minimum (pc2100).

Get the most for the cheapest you can.

Hope this helps.
The Tech Support Guy

www.ComputerRelative.com






"fLameDogg" <flamedogg (AT) operamail (DOT) com> wrote

On Wed, 14 Jul 2004 11:46:36 -0700, Tech Support Guy wrote:

Cool. I hoped as much.

<snip>

72, wow. I've been really happy with the board. I do get that oops where
the CMOS or BIOS or whatever loses it every once in a while, but it's
rare, and I know the few changes I need in the BIOS by heart so it's quick
to deal with. I know I should flash it, but I'm lazy; lazy in my usual
way, which is to make things too complicated ("oh, I should get a BIOS
Savior first," but I never do, so I never flash <g>).

Sounds good. There was just one naysayer who kept popping up in the
groups archive saying that PC3200 wouldn't work in this board, but I
suppose that could be a PEBKAC or something.

It does. Thanks a lot.

<snip rest>

--
fD
"Your birth certificate is proof of guilt." -- George Carlin

"Tech Support Guy" <helpedyou (AT) ComputerRelative (DOT) com> writes:
Really? How big a difference? I thought the rule of thumb was that
most people would see under 10% improvement switching from SD to DD.
And only that if they got out the stopwatch and timed before and after.

Now, to contribute something to the group, something cute I just found.

Running some number crunching using www.alpertron.com.ar/ECM.HTM
which is a Java applet. I found that on the ECS board I can get
more than a 10% improvement in speed if I use the -server option
for the version 1.4 Hotspot server vm instead of the default client
vm. For little things that don't take long to run the server takes
longer to get started and do all the optimization work but for long
running intensive apps the server optimizations will win out. I
haven't figured out how to get that to work with version 1.3 yet
and someone who tried it says he can't figure it out either.

"fLameDogg" <flamedogg (AT) operamail (DOT) com> wrote

Most of what I heard in this ng over the last several years is that
there is very little performance difference when switching from PC-133
to DDR.
Of course?????
Don't want to rain on your parade, but I would advise buying better
memory ONLY if you would be able to use it on your next, faster
system, or I believe you are wasting your money.

"fLameDogg" <flamedogg (AT) operamail (DOT) com> wrote

Most of what I heard in this ng over the last several years is that
there is very little performance difference when switching from PC-133
to DDR.
Of course?????
Don't want to rain on your parade, but I would advise buying better
memory ONLY if you would be able to use it on your next, faster
system, or I believe you are wasting your money.

"fLameDogg" <flamedogg (AT) operamail (DOT) com> wrote

Most of what I heard in this ng over the last several years is that
there is very little performance difference when switching from PC-133
to DDR.
Of course?????
Don't want to rain on your parade, but I would advise buying better
memory ONLY if you would be able to use it on your next, faster
system, or I believe you are wasting your money.

"Buffalo" <eric(nospam)@nada.com.invalid> wrote in
news:wvoJc.81403$a24.43341@attbi_s03:

That's okay, you're not raining on my parade. It's double the memory (1
512 stick as opposed to two 128s), and its PC 3200, so odds are good I can
use it on down the line (I don't buy cutting edge; I stay about a year back
or more).

I just stuck in the Rosewill and both (GNU) Linux and Windows are happy
with it. I put the two SDRAM sticks in this here backup box along with a
third, and Windows 98 is doing fine. Now to check out Fedora Core 2--128
MB wasn't enough, it ran like a--er--dogg under X.

Thanks for your input. I wouldn't be surprised if there isn't a *big*
difference between SDRAM and DDR. What makes me happy is we seem to get
the best deal on the fairly current RAM--I mean, not that I checked too
heavily, but I think it would have cost me more to buy more SDRAM. Happily
the K7S5A takes either, and my older K7VMA gets the hand-me-down SDRAM.

--
fD