Athlon 64 memory setups / motherboard choices

[CP5670]

Is it possible to use memory modules of different sizes on any of the 939 A64 mobos/chipsets if the amount of memory in each channel is the same? I am using one 512MB and two 256MB sticks in dual channel mode on an asus nforce2 board and it works fine, but I don't know if this works on other platforms.

My dad recently got an engineering sample of a venice core A64 3200 as a gift from someone at his work whose husband is an AMD scientist and it would make a good upgrade since I am still using a barton XP 3200. I need to buy a new motherboard and HSF for this and will probably also need new memory for any overclocking since this is generic PC3200 stuff (unless the preproduction cpu happens to have an unlocked multiplier), but I am wondering if what I currently have will work at all.

Any recommendations on the motherboard, by the way? Anything reliable with decent overclocking capabilities and an AGP slot will do.

EDIT: This is actually a normal winchester, not a venice as I had thought earlier (see below); I got the AMD employee's email today clarifying that. Sorry for any confusion.

 

[joelslaw]

a what core??? venice? you have one........ SOOOOO unfair! I don't think you can even buy those yet. (I guess that's why you said its preproduction ) I thought only 4200+ and up were going to have Venice.

N E way, I'd personaly be mor concerned about finding a mobo to support the chip. Have your dad ask his friend what boards amd is testing it on. IMHO ram is the lesser of the 2 issues.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

I agree with joelslaw. Finding a mobo with bios that will recognize that chip may be a problem.

On the memory, from what I have read you must have identical ram to run dual channel. You can most likely use the memory in that config. but it won't be in dual channel mode, and this is one of the major beneifits of skt 939 and nforce4 boards

 

[CP5670]

He left his email address so I'll ask him about that issue. I thought the venice is only a minor revision of the winchester with SSE3 support though?

thanks for the responses.

 

[joelslaw]

one other thing you may want to look at before you buy ram is Zebo's sticky in the CPU/OC section (It's called "Official 939 Memory Matrix", should be right up top). Not that it has alot of bearing on the question above, but it does have the potential to save you some $. I just read it today, and it is quite enlightening. In fact I think I may start refering anyone who asks a ram question to it. At the very least, it's good food for thought!

 

[hundesau]

erm...sure, having a new core is fantastic, but dont say that the xp3000 is an old and bad cpu a64 wont be that much faster, okay they are faster in video works and rendering sutff but not that much in games, at least not that much taht someone having a xp3000 really needs to upgrade unless there is a opportunity like this one u had.

having said this i say: congrats u got one of those, i thought they wont come before 3rd quarter this year.

hmm, when iuam thinking about it i need further proof. Can u make a photo and post it? lol, i really cant believe this.

 

[hundesau]

and let me add this: u can get really rich when u sell it to a hardware site or at ebay, i can tell they gonna pay every price for testing it and showin to the public before annyone else.

and if its really a venice, than u should ask the guy who gave it to ya for a new bios version. i guess if the fella can get a venice 4 months before release he can get u a bios too. or another way to get it working.



the guy replying first was rite: this is unfair!!

 

[CP5670]

I finally got a response from him - it seems he was in Germany for some sort of exhibition - and got this cleared up. This is actually a winchester after all. I think there was some confusion when he was talking to my dad (who isn't familiar with this stuff) about various things; it seems he mentioned the venice revision a couple times and also said that he was giving us an engineering sample of something that wasn't on the market yet (not sure what he was talking about there). It has a slightly different label than the 3200 winchester pictures I've seen on the internet (ADA3200DIP4BE instead of ADA3200DIK4BI), so I just assumed it was a venice. Anyway, it's probably a good thing that it is an ordinary winchester, so I can use it on normal motherboards.

I dug up some information on the memory issue and it looks like the 939 boards will not boot at all with three sticks, so I guess I need new memory. Does the memory have to be bought in those dual channel two-packs or can I just get a second corsair value module identical to the one I have?

erm...sure, having a new core is fantastic, but dont say that the xp3000 is an old and bad cpu a64 wont be that much faster, okay they are faster in video works and rendering sutff but not that much in games, at least not that much taht someone having a xp3000 really needs to upgrade unless there is a opportunity like this one u had.

yeah, I was not considering an upgrade otherwise, but since I'm getting the processor for free I might as well. The CPU is the bottleneck of my current system anyway. I think I can get a pretty good price on ebay for my existing processor and motherboard, enough to cover the costs of the additional stuff I'll need.

I looked around a bit for a suitable motherboard today but can't really decide between these:

http://www.newegg.com/app/View...tion=13-131-510&depa=0
I have had a good experience with ASUS boards (in fact I have only used their stuff in the past), but some people say that the VIA chipset in this isn't as good as the nforce3 for overclocking.

http://www.newegg.com/app/View...tion=13-128-263&depa=0
This looks appealing on paper and is the cheapest of these but I've heard of a lot of problems with the more expensive XP version. What's the difference between the two anyway?

http://www.newegg.com/app/View...tion=13-130-468&depa=0
This one recently got AT's gold place award, but it costs more than most others and some people say that it has issues with space around the socket when using big heatsinks.

Any suggestions on these or other choices? I don't want an nforce4 board by the way since I already have an AGP 6800GT and they are too expensive and/or hard to find anyway.

 

[CP5670]

bump