I’m trying to help out my gf’s brother who is building a computer for the first time. I had the luxury of one of my consulting friends to help me, but he’s now on the otherside of the country. Anyway, in the manual for the motherboard, the memory needed is listed as: ddr 400/333/266, 184 pin, 2.5v. I tried searching for this on google, but all I get are ads for motherboards. What numbers am I looking for in terms of memory? I tried ddr 400, only, and some of the ads don’t mention number of pins or voltage, but they do mention PC3200. Is that the same as ddr 400? Thanks for the help.
I was like you and found lots of helpful information at Crucial. They’ll even tell you what you need for your computer
In case you don’t find your mobo model at the crucial website: yes DDR 400 is PC3200.
But check your CPU. If it doesn’t support the 200 Mhz Bus speed you’re wasting your money unless you plan to upgrade - although most models today do run at the higher bus speed, just make sure.
It’s not that big of a deal, a 512MB stick of PC2100 is $49, while PC3200 is $55.
All that you need to look for is memory with the PC3200 spec, it’s very common.
Ok, so I have determined that my gf’s brother’s cpu is a ECS K8T890-A. I also figured out that the DDR# is the rate at which the computer (or mobo) accesses the ram. So, the higher, the better, right? But, then, I have to make sure that the mobo can handle that higher speed, otherwise I’m just wasting money, right? As I said before, the book says I can handle PC 3200 DDR 400.
However, on the crucial website, it says that there is performance memory at PC 4000 DDR 500. I assume that any memory of this type will work, right (i.e. I don’t have to buy Crucial’s memory)? This memory is $342 :eek: ! (2 1GB sticks) Is it really that much better? Or, should I go with the cheaper 1gb sticks at PC3200?
Unless your CPU runs at that bus speed, or you intend to overclock the bus, or you plan on upgrading your CPU soon, then no, it won’t help you any. Also this: ECS K8T890-A is your mobo, not your CPU.