Memory Upgrade Help - Asus P4P800

[kjackson09]

I currently have an Asus P4P800 with 512 MB of ram. I recently upgraded the video card from a nVidia 5200 to an ATI AIW 9800Pro but have noticed that there is still some performance issues which I figure must be mostly atrributed the the ram. When it comes to ram I am lost.

My understanding is that this motherboard uses 184-pin ram. Currently there is 2x256MB PC2700 ram installed.

What are my options?

1. Can I add a single 512MB stick to the next empty slot to give me a total of 1GB?

2. Should I scrap the current ram and get 2x512MB of better single channel ram? What is bette ram?

3. Should I scrap the current ram and buy 2x512MB of dual channel ram? Can this board handle dual channel ram?

I am trying to keep the upgrade as cheap as possible. The computer is used to surf the internet, as a media center and play a lot of World of Warcraft.

Recommendations would be greatly appreciated? I am lost.

 

[JEDIYoda]

I also have that same board.
As you know they have approved memory as well as a list of memory that is not approved or is prone to cause errors!

Go to the ASUS site and you should find-(if you look around a bit) a d/l of a file that will tell you what memory is approved!

Aslo some sites that sell memory also have a list of approved memory for your specific mobo!!

 

[kjackson09]

Thanks for the info.

Any comments on the other questions. Like possible memory configurations etc?

 

[JEDIYoda]

Heres what your looking for....

http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/socket478/p4p800/overview.htm

click on the button at the bottom that says-- DDR400QVL Download......

 

[stevty2889]

I would go with 2x512mb sticks of PC3200. Dual channel helps a lot with pentium 4s, they are very bandwidth hungry. There isn't really any such thing as dual channel ram, it's the memory controller that determines dual channel. Getting 2 of the same sticks will work in dual channel, dual channel kits are just 2 of the same sticks packaged together. I used kingmax with my P4P800 and it worked well, also used some corair with it. WoW is one of the games that can actualy benifit from 2GB of ram, so depending on how much you want to spend, you could get 2x1gb sticks, or 4x512mb sticks.