Shuttle AN5OR w/ Athlon 64 3200+

[Kenazo]

Ok, so I fire it up and I have 3 512meg pc3200 chips in, but for some reason when set to "auto" the memory clock runs @ 166.

edit: I updated the Bios, and now at the post screen my ram says it's running @ pc1600. If i manually set it to PC3200, it won't even boot. But.... If I take out one stick, and just run 2 512's it automatically runs at pc3200 speeds. Weird. Any idea what's going on?


I was running PCmark 2002 just to see how it compared to my old computer (2500+ running @ 3200+) and my old system actually scored about 5% higher. Could this be b/c of my ram running at slower speeds?

 

[Kenazo]

edit

 

[mechBgon]

The Athlon 64's memory controller only runs PC3200 with one or two modules. If you add a third one, it downshifts to PC1600 by design. If you need over 1GB of RAM, you might want to sell your 512's and pick up Corsair's new 2GB TwinX pack.

The reduction in your score is probably due to the RAM running at half-speed, yeah.

 

[Kenazo]

crap. I guess I should have done a little more research on that.

 

[mechBgon]

I'll be in the same boat with you if I get an A64 for my work rig Fortunately, I can probably sell my Corsair PC3200 for more than I paid for it at the moment.

 

[Kenazo]

This computer is going to be used for running autocad 2004 and Inventor for a smallish manufacturing company. Do you think I'd be better off downsizing to 1 gbyte and running @ 3200, or leaving it at 1.5gbytes and running @ 1600?

 

[mechBgon]

That seems like an "it-depends" question. If their apps can be cached and re-launched from RAM as a result of the extra 512MB, then it'll make the apps re-launch faster than from the hard drive(s). Even PC1600 is faster than a very fast hard drive. But the performance when doing intensive computations is going to suffer from the low bandwidth.

If it were me, and I felt that I needed at least 1.5GB of RAM, then I would take one of two routes: either switch to the 2GB kit from Corsair, which is around $530, or switch to an Opteron so you can use more than two modules (but Opteron requires Registered modules, so that may not be any better).

I don't know enough about AutoCAD or Inventor to give an educated opinion. Duvie uses AutoCAD if I recall correctly... when I get home I'll point this thread out to him and see what his advice is, or you might send him a PM asking for input.

 

[Duvie]

I run Autocad 2002, Land Develoment Desktop, and brand new Architectural Desktop 2004 w/ Viz Renderer.....1gb of ram will be sufficient...

One thing I can tell you is that Autocadd like bandwidth so go with the faster speed ddr and timings and drop the 512mb...I doubt you will ever page file with 1gb of ram.....I run complex 3d rendering and now some animation fly throughs and I never page file.....

 

[Kenazo]

Thanks alot, duvie. So I should stick w/ 1 gbyte rather than try and upgrade to two gig's? Guess i have a 512 to try and unload w/o loosing now.